Within ten years of arrival, the Portuguese had built a castle in Elmina
and by 1500 they were already exporting at least 567 kilograms (over
half tonne) of gold through Elmina annually. This increased to
between 900 and 1400 kilograms, roughly equivalent to 10% of total world
supply, by 1600.
The French, the English, the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danes and the Brandenburghers
of the Prussians soon followed the Portuguese. All of these European
nations built forts, lodges and castles along the Gold Coast littoral
to establish their presence and to participate in the lucrative gold
trade. One such fort, with an interesting history not least
because it had a Gold Coast governor in the 17th century, was the Swedish
headquarters in Osu. Now known as Christainborg Castle, it was
taken over by the Danes in 1657 when they drove out the Swedes; it was
then enlarged and re-named Christianborg. Thirty-six years later,
in 1693, the Akwamu trader and confidant of the Akwamuhene, Asameni,
seized it in the name of Akwamuhene from the Danes, and remained there
as governor and trader until the Danes were constrained to pay a fee
of about 50 gold marks (£1.600) for its return.
The 17th century saw a shift of emphasis from the gold trade to the
slave trade, as a result of the high demand for labour for the plantations
of the New World. The large-scale importation of firearms from the mid 17th
century and the resultant increase in the incidence of wars in the Gold
Coast hinterland produced millions of captives for transportation to
the West Indies and the Americas. The consequences were far reaching
gold production virtually ceased leading to a reverse demand from the
New World; famine occured in areas before food had been plentiful; while
the pace of political centralization increased in those states that
benefited from the slave trade. By the turn of the 18th century
there already existed in the interior powerful states like Denkyra,
Adansi Akyem and Akwamu which was later joined by Asante, and other
Akan states and the Ewe and Ga-Adamgbe states. In Northern Ghana
the Mole-Dagbani states and Gonja had also attained a high level of
centralization.
Between 1600 and 1874 when the British converted their forts and settlements
along the Gold Coast littoral
into a Crown Colony there was further intensification of state building
activities in the Gold Coast resulting in the establishment and consolidation
of the Ga, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Asante, the Ewe, the Dagomba and
the Gonja. These states and many others were to play prominent
roles in the history of the Gold Coast.
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