New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading factory gave rise to the settlement around Fort Amsterdam. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the fur trade operations of the Dutch West India Company in the North River. In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625.
The Netherlands began its colonization of the Americas with the establishment of trading posts and plantations, which preceded the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch in Asia. While the first Dutch fort in Asia was built in 1600, the first forts and settlements along the Essequibo River in Guyana date from the 1590s. Actual colonization, with the Dutch settling in the new lands, was not as common as by other European nations. Many of the Dutch settlements were lost or abandoned by the end of the 17th century, but the Netherlands managed to retain possession of Suriname until it gained independence in 1975. Among its several colonies in the region, only the Dutch Caribbean still remains to be part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands today.
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, 20.4 km2 (7.9 sq mi), had a population of 284,124 inhabitants, and the larger Greater Accra Region, 3,245 km2 (1,253 sq mi), had a population of 5,455,692 inhabitants. In common usage, the name "Accra" often refers to the territory of the Accra Metropolitan District as it existed before 2008, when it covered 199.4 km2 (77.0 sq mi). This territory has since been split into 13 local government districts: 12 independent municipal districts and the reduced Accra Metropolitan District (20.4 km2), which is the only district within the capital to be granted city status. This territory of 199.4 km2 contained 1,782,150 inhabitants at the 2021 census, and serves as the capital of Ghana, while the district under the jurisdiction of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly proper (20.4 km2) is distinguished from the rest of the capital as the "City of Accra".
Axim is a coastal town and the capital of Nzema East Municipal district, a district in Western Region of South Ghana. Axim lies 64 kilometers west of the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, west of Cape Three Points. Axim has a 2013 settlement population of 27,719 people.
The Mfantsefo or Fante are an Akan people. The Fante people are mainly located in the Central and Western coastal regions of Ghana. Over the last half century, due to fishing expeditions, Fante communities are found as far as Gambia, Liberia and even Angola. Major Fante cities in modern Ghana include Kasoa, Winneba, Agona Swedru, Tarkwa, Oguaa, Edina (Elmina), Mankessim, Sekondi and Takoradi.
Fort William may refer to:
Elmina, also known as Edina by the local Fante, is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region, situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, 12 kilometres west of Cape Coast. Elmina was the first European settlement in West Africa and it has a population of 33,576 people.
The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1612. The Dutch began trading in the area around 1598, joining the Portuguese which had a trading post there since the late 1400s. Eventually, the Dutch Gold Coast became the most important Dutch colony in West Africa after Fort Elmina was captured from the Portuguese in 1637, but fell into disarray after the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century. On 6 April 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast was, in accordance with the Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1870–71, ceded to the United Kingdom.
The Portuguese Gold Coast was a Portuguese colony on the West African Gold Coast along the Gulf of Guinea. Established in 1482, the colony was officially incorporated into Dutch territory in 1642 following Portugal’s defeat in the Dutch-Portuguese War. From their seat of power at the fortress of São Jorge da Mina, the Portuguese commanded a vast internal slave trade, creating a slave network that would expand after the end of Portuguese colonialism in the region. The primary export of the colony was gold, which was obtained through barter with the local population. Portuguese presence along the Gold Coast increased seamanship and trade in the Gulf, introduced American crops into the African agricultural landscape, and made Portuguese an enduring language of trade in the area.
Anomabu, also spelled Anomabo and formerly as Annamaboe, is a town on the coast of the Mfantsiman Municipal District of the Central Region of South Ghana. Anomabu has a settlement population of 14,389 people.
New Netherland was the 17th century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territory was the land from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern Cape Cod. The settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, with small outposts in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Its capital of New Amsterdam was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on the Upper New York Bay.
Fort Patience is a Dutch-built fort located in the township of Apam, in the Central Region of Ghana. Originally built in 1697, it served as a defensive fortification and a trading post. Because of its testimony to European pre-colonial and colonial influence in West Africa, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with several other forts and castles in Ghana.
Nana Amuah-Afenyi VI, known informally as King Peggy, is the reigning chief of the town of Tantum, in the Mfantsiman Municipal District, Ghana. Born in the Gold Coast and a naturalized citizen of the United States since 1997, she moved to the United States in the 1970s when she was in her early twenties to work as a secretary at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., where she still works. Following the death of her uncle in 2008, she was selected as his successor through a series of traditional rituals. She is a devout Christian, and she lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Asebu was a former Fante chiefdom and town in the Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese District, Central Region, Ghana. In the history of the Gold Coast, Asebu is notable for being the first Fante chiefdom to sign a treaty with the Dutch Republic in 1612. The treaty allowed the Dutch to establish Fort Nassau at Mouri, now known as Moree.
Ussher Fort is a fort in Accra, Ghana. It was built by the Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is a day's march from Elmina and to the east of Accra on a rocky point between two lagoons. It was one of three forts that Europeans built in the region during the middle of the 17th century. Fort Crèvecœur was part of the Dutch Gold Coast. The Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty (1867), which defined areas of influence on the Gold Coast, transferred it to the British in 1868. Because of its significance in the history of European colonial trade and exploitation in Africa, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.
Fort Amsterdam, is a former slave fort in Abandze, Central region, Ghana. It was built by the English between 1638 and 1645 as Fort Cormantin or Fort Courmantyne, and was captured by admiral Michiel de Ruyter of the Dutch West India Company in 1665, in retaliation for the capture of several Dutch forts by the English Admiral Holmes in 1664. It was subsequently made part of the Dutch Gold Coast, and remained part of it until the fort was traded with the British in 1868. The Fort is located at Abandze, on the north-east of Cape Coast in the Mfantseman District of the Central Region of Ghana. Because of its testimony to European economic and colonial influence in West Africa and its historical importance in the Atlantic slave trade, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 along with other forts and castles in Ghana.
Fort Metal Cross, originally Fort Dixcove, is a military structure located on a promontory at the fishing community of Infuma in Dixcove, in the Western Region of Ghana. Because of its history in the Atlantic slave trade and its testimony to European-African trade, the Fort was included as one of the Forts and Castles of Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions that became a World Heritage Site in 1979.
Fort Komenda was a British fort on the Gold Coast, currently preserved as a ruin. Because of its testimony to the Atlantic slave trade and European economic and colonial influence in West Africa, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, along with several other castles and forts in Ghana.
Mfantseman is one of the constituencies represented in the Parliament of Ghana. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Mfantseman is located in the South Dayi district of the Volta Region of Ghana. It was created in 2012 ahead of the 2012 Ghanaian general election.
