Danish Gold Coast: Difference between revisions

Danish Gold Coast Settlements
*Danske Guldkyst*
Danish Gold Coast Settlements Danske Guldkyst
1658–1850
	Flag of Denmark Coat of arms of Denmark
	Denmark-Norway and its overseas territories
	Christiansborg Fredensborg Kongensten Prinsensten Augustaborg Danish Gold Coast (Ghana) Map of the Danish Gold Coast
Status	Denmark–Norway crown colony (1658–1814); Danish Colony (1814–1850)
Capital	Osu (Christiansborg) (1658–1850)
Common languages	Danish, German (official); Ga, Dangme, Ewe, Akan
King of Denmark
• 1658–1670	Frederick III of Denmark-Norway (first)
• 1848–1863	Frederick VII of Denmark (last)
Governor
• 1658-1659	Hendrik Carloff
• 1847-1850	Rasmus Eric Schmidt
History
• Denmark-Norway annexation from Sweden	1658
• Treaty of Copenhagen	1660
• Disestablished	March 30 1850
Currency	Danish rigsdaler
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Swedish Gold Coast
British Gold Coast
Today part of	Ghana

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The Danish Gold Coast (Danish: Danske Guldkyst or Dansk Guinea) comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by the Danish West India Company (a chartered company), later as a crown colony of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The area under Danish influence was over 10,000 square kilometres.^[1]

The five Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the Kingdom of Denmark were sold to the United Kingdom in 1850. Denmark had wanted to sell these colonies for some time as the expenses required to run the colonies had increased following the abolition of slavery. Although Britain was also struggling with rising costs, it sought to purchase them to reduce French and Belgian influence in the region, as well as to further curtail the slave trade that still operated there.^[2] The purchased settlements and forts were later incorporated into the British Gold Coast.^[3]

History

On April 20, 1663, the Danish seizure of Fort Christiansborg and Carlsborg completed the annexation of the Swedish Gold Coast settlements. From 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the Danish West India-Guinea Company. From December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the Portuguese occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish crown colony. From 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation.

Following the 1792 decree abolishing Denmark's participation in the Atlantic slave trade (implemented in 1803),^[4] the purpose of their forts on the Guinea coast became uncertain. Previously, these outposts had served solely for the slave trade, with no real impact beyond isolated trading activities.^[5]^[6] Colonial planners, recognising their limited knowledge of the surrounding territories (as evidenced by requests for detailed information),^[7] sought for other options. This shift coincided with growing abolitionist sentiment and the desire to establish plantation colonies in Africa to produce tropical commodities such as sugar and coffee.^[8]^[9]

Debate arose over the most suitable locations for these new agricultural endeavours.^[10] The fertile Volta River region and the Akuapem Hills emerged as frontrunners, with the Council on the Guinea Coast even resisting orders to close outlying forts, fearing negative consequences for trade and security. The Slave Trade Commission ultimately favoured the Volta region for plantations, while rescinding the closure order in 1799.^[11] This back-and-forth illustrates the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of the forts and the challenges Denmark faced in adapting its colonial strategy in the wake of the abolition of the slave trade.

Internal disagreements within the Danish administration further complicated the future of the forts. Evaluations by Peter Thonning and Governor Wrisberg revealed opposing views on inland and coastal plantation projects.^[12] The Coastal Council even suggested a temporary continuation of the slave trade to facilitate the establishment of these ventures.^[13] This reflects the challenges Denmark faced - limited geographical knowledge, internal disagreements over strategy and the impact of the Napoleonic Wars, which further hampered colonial efforts.

In the post-Napolenic-war period, Peter Thonning, now focused on cost reduction, proposed new inland fortifications.^[14] This shift reflects Denmark's continuing difficulties in adapting its colonial strategy without the slave trade. Figures such as Thonning envisioned inland plantation ventures that required good relations with powerful African states such as Asante.^[15] Others, however, advocated a more limited role for the forts, focusing on trade and defence.^[16] The Guinea Commission, led by Thonning, explored inland colonies, but ultimately failed to convince a cost-conscious Danish government.^[17] King Christian VIII even sought to sell the forts altogether [66]. The arrival of Governor Carstensen in 1842 briefly revived interest in a more active colonial approach, with plantations at Akuapem and annual visits by warships to project power.^[18]

However, Denmark's waning enthusiasm for colonialism and financial constraints ultimately led to the sale of the forts to Great Britain in 1850, marking the end of its colonial ambitions in Africa.^[19] On 30 March 1850 all of Denmark's Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the Kingdom of Denmark were sold to Britain and incorporated into the British Gold Coast.^[3]

This period reveals the internal struggles within the Danish administration and the unfulfilled ambitions that marked Denmark's brief venture into African colonialism.

The title of its chief colonial administrator was opperhoved (singular; sometimes rendered in English as station chief) since 1658, only in 1766 upgraded to Governor.

Danish slave trade

The Danes were involved in the slave trade from the mid-17th century until the early 19th century. The Danish navy and its mercantile marine were recorded as the fourth largest in Europe in this period. With the establishment of the Gold Coast colony in the 1660s, commodities such as gold and ivory dominated at first, but by the turn of the 18th century, slaves were the most important commodity in the Danish trade. Those who commanded the large slave ships were often instructed to convert their cabin into a kind of moveable showroom upon arrival on the African coast. While throughout the 18th century, Danish exports of enslaved Africans accounted for about 5 percent of the total exports from the Gold Coast, by the 1780s, this was up to 10 percent.

In 1672, the Danish West India and Guinea Company also began establishing colonies in the Caribbean at Saint Thomas, Saint John in 1718, and Saint Croix in 1733. While these possessions were rather small, at only 350 square kilometers collectively, they became of utmost importance in the transatlantic slave trade under the Danish flag because of their intensive and highly profitable sugar production which depended on slave labor. As a result, and because mortality rates were higher than fertility rates among slaves in the Danish West Indies, it became necessary to import slaves every year. Most of these enslaved human beings came directly from Africa while others came from foreign Caribbean islands.

After the slave trade was abolished in 1803, Danish colonizers attempted to establish cotton, coffee, and sugar plantations on the Gold Coast; however, these were largely unsuccessful. By 1817, almost all of the Danish posts on the Coast were abandoned, with the exception of Fort Christiansborg, which was, along with the other posts, sold to the British in 1850.^[3] Throughout the transatlantic slave trade, it is estimated that about 12.5 million Africans were taken captive and 10.7 million of them were transported to the Americas. The Danish slave trade constituted about 1 percent of this trade, with about 100,000 Africans embarked. Denmark was reportedly the first European colonial empire to ban its slave trade in 1792, although this law did not come into effect until 1803, and illegal trading continued into the nineteenth century.^[20]

Forts and settlements

Main forts

The following forts were in the possession of Denmark until all forts were sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.

Place in Ghana	Fort name	Founded/ Occupied	Ceded	Comments
Accra	Fort Christiansborg	1658	1850	First captured from the Swedes in 1658. Occupied between 1680 and 1682 by the Portuguese. Sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.
Old Ningo	Fort Fredensborg	1734	1850	Sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.
Keta	Fort Prinsensten	1784	1850	Sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.
Ada	Fort Kongensten	1784	1850	Sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.
Teshie	Fort Augustaborg	1787	1850	Sold to the United Kingdom in 1850.

Temporarily held forts and trading posts

Apart from these main forts, several forts and trading posts were temporarily held by the Danes.

Place in Ghana	Fort name	Founded/ Occupied	Ceded	Comments
Cape Coast	Fort Carlsborg	1658	1664	Captured from the Swedes in 1658. Captured by the British in 1664.
Amanful	Fort Frederiksborg	1659	1685
Cong	Cong Heights	1659	1661

References

^ Gøbel, Erik (2016-01-01), "Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89", The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition, BRILL, pp. 268–271, doi:10.1163/9789004330566_015, ISBN 978-90-04-33056-6, retrieved 2022-02-05
^ van Dantzig, Albert; Priddy, Barbara (1971). A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana. Liberty Press. p. 49.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gobel, Erik (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 3–7. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.
^ Hopkins, Daniel. "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850." Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Brill, 2018. 148-169.
^ Daniel Hopkins, Peter Thonning and Denmark’s Guinea Commission: A Study in Nineteenth-century African Colonial Geography (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
^ Per O. Hernæs, Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim: University of Trondheim, 1995), 129–303.
^ Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston: Boston University Press, 1966, 120–122.
^ Selena Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788) (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1992), 190.
^ Daniel Hopkins, ‘The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark’s African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807, Itinerario 25 (2001): 154–184, 156–159.
^ Joseph Evans Loftin, Jr., The Abolition of the Danish Atlantic Slave Trade (Doctoral Thesis: Louisiana State University, 1977), 128–129
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 155ff.
^ Hopkins, Daniel. "Danish natural history and African colonialism at the close of the eighteenth century: Peter Thonning's ‘scientific journey’to the Guinea Coast, 1799–1803." Archives of Natural History 26.3 (1999): 369-418..
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.
^ Kea, R. A. (1967). Ashanti-Danish Relations: 1780-1831 (Doctoral dissertation, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana), 470-471.
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 164ff.
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 162ff.
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 166ff.
^ Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 167ff.
^ Erik, Gobel (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.

External links

[1] Gøbel, Erik (2016-01-01), "Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89", The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition, BRILL, pp. 268–271, doi:10.1163/9789004330566_015, ISBN 978-90-04-33056-6, retrieved 2022-02-05

[2] van Dantzig, Albert; Priddy, Barbara (1971). A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana. Liberty Press. p. 49.

[:0-3] Gobel, Erik (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 3–7. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.

[4] Hopkins, Daniel. "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850." Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Brill, 2018. 148-169.

[5] Daniel Hopkins, Peter Thonning and Denmark’s Guinea Commission: A Study in Nineteenth-century African Colonial Geography (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

[6] Per O. Hernæs, Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim: University of Trondheim, 1995), 129–303.

[7] Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston: Boston University Press, 1966, 120–122.

[8] Selena Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788) (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1992), 190.

[9] Daniel Hopkins, ‘The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark’s African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807, Itinerario 25 (2001): 154–184, 156–159.

[10] Joseph Evans Loftin, Jr., The Abolition of the Danish Atlantic Slave Trade (Doctoral Thesis: Louisiana State University, 1977), 128–129

[11] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 155ff.

[12] Hopkins, Daniel. "Danish natural history and African colonialism at the close of the eighteenth century: Peter Thonning's ‘scientific journey’to the Guinea Coast, 1799–1803." Archives of Natural History 26.3 (1999): 369-418..

[13] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.

[14] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.

[15] Kea, R. A. (1967). Ashanti-Danish Relations: 1780-1831 (Doctoral dissertation, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana), 470-471.

[16] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 164ff.

[17] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 162ff.

[18] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 166ff.

[19] Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 167ff.

[20] Erik, Gobel (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.

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@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 {{Gold Coast (Ghana)}}
 [[File:Christiansborg Castle2.jpg|thumb|A contemporary drawing of Fort Christiansborg, now [[Osu Castle]]. The outpost to the right is Fort Prøvestenen.]]
-The '''Danish Gold Coast''' ({{lang-da|Danske Guldkyst}} or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that [[Denmark–Norway]] controlled in [[Africa]] as a part of the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]] (roughly present-day southeast [[Ghana]]), which is on the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under [[indirect rule]] by the [[Danish West India Company]] (a [[chartered company]]), later as a crown colony of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The area under Danish influence was over 10,000 square kilometres.<ref>{{Citation|title=Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89|date=2016-01-01|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004330566_015|work=The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition|pages=268–271|publisher=BRILL|doi=10.1163/9789004330566_015|isbn=978-90-04-33056-6|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref>
+The '''Danish Gold Coast''' ({{langx|da|Danske Guldkyst}} or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that [[Denmark–Norway]] controlled in [[Africa]] as a part of the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]] (roughly present-day southeast [[Ghana]]), which is on the [[Gulf of Guinea]]. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under [[indirect rule]] by the [[Danish West India Company]] (a [[chartered company]]), later as a crown colony of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The area under Danish influence was over 10,000 square kilometres.<ref>{{Citation|title=Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89|date=2016-01-01|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004330566_015|work=The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition|pages=268–271|publisher=BRILL|doi=10.1163/9789004330566_015|isbn=978-90-04-33056-6|access-date=2022-02-05 |last1=Gøbel |first1=Erik }}</ref>
-The five Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the [[Kingdom of Denmark]] were sold to the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] in 1850. Denmark had wanted to sell these colonies for some time as the expenses required to run the colonies had increased following the abolition of slavery. Although Britain was also struggling with rising costs, it sought to purchase them to reduce [[French colonial empire|French]] and [[Belgian colonial empire|Belgian]] influence in the region, as well as to further curtail the slave trade that still operated there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Dantzig |first=Albert |title=A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana |last2=Priddy |first2=Barbara |publisher=Liberty Press |year=1971 |pages=49}}</ref> The purchased settlements and forts were later incorporated into the [[British Gold Coast]].<ref name=":0" />
+The five Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the [[Kingdom of Denmark]] were sold to the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] in 1850. Denmark had wanted to sell these colonies for some time as the expenses required to run the colonies had increased following the abolition of slavery. Although Britain was also struggling with rising costs, it sought to purchase them to reduce [[French colonial empire|French]] and [[Belgian colonial empire|Belgian]] influence in the region, as well as to further curtail the slave trade that still operated there.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=van Dantzig |first1=Albert |title=A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana |last2=Priddy |first2=Barbara |publisher=Liberty Press |year=1971 |pages=49}}</ref> The purchased settlements and forts were later incorporated into the [[British Gold Coast]].<ref name=":0" />
 ==History==
-On April 20, 1663, the Danish seizure of [[Osu Castle|Fort Christiansborg]] and [[Cape Coast Castle|Carlsborg]] completed the annexation of the [[Swedish Gold Coast]] settlements. From 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the [[Danish West India-Guinea Company]]. From December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish [[crown colony]]. From 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation. On 30 March 1850 all of [[Denmark]]'s Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the [[Kingdom of Denmark]] were sold to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and incorporated into the [[British Gold Coast]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition|last=Gobel|first=Erik|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|year=2016|isbn=978-90-04-33027-6|pages=3–7}}</ref>
+On April 20, 1663, the Danish seizure of [[Osu Castle|Fort Christiansborg]] and [[Cape Coast Castle|Carlsborg]] completed the annexation of the [[Swedish Gold Coast]] settlements. From 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the [[Danish West India-Guinea Company]]. From December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish [[crown colony]]. From 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation.
+Following the 1792 decree abolishing Denmark's participation in the [[Atlantic slave trade]] (implemented in 1803),<ref> Hopkins, Daniel. "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850." Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Brill, 2018. 148-169.</ref> the purpose of their forts on the Guinea coast became uncertain. Previously, these outposts had served solely for the slave trade, with no real impact beyond isolated trading activities.<ref> Daniel Hopkins, Peter Thonning and Denmark’s Guinea Commission: A Study in Nineteenth-century African Colonial Geography (Leiden: Brill, 2013).</ref><ref> Per O. Hernæs, Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim: University of Trondheim, 1995), 129–303.</ref> Colonial planners, recognising their limited knowledge of the surrounding territories (as evidenced by requests for detailed information),<ref>Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston: Boston University Press, 1966, 120–122.</ref> sought for other options. This shift coincided with growing [[abolitionist]] sentiment and the desire to establish plantation colonies in Africa to produce tropical commodities such as sugar and coffee.<ref>Selena Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann
+Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788) (Oxford: Oxford University
+Press for the British Academy, 1992), 190.</ref><ref>Daniel Hopkins, ‘The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark’s African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807, Itinerario 25 (2001): 154–184, 156–159.</ref>
+Debate arose over the most suitable locations for these new agricultural endeavours.<ref>Joseph Evans Loftin, Jr., The Abolition of the Danish Atlantic Slave Trade (Doctoral Thesis: Louisiana State University, 1977), 128–129</ref> The fertile [[Volta River]] region and the [[Akropong#Akropong–Akuapem|Akuapem]] Hills emerged as frontrunners, with the Council on the [[Guinea Coast]] even resisting orders to close outlying forts, fearing negative consequences for trade and security. The Slave Trade Commission ultimately favoured the Volta region for plantations, while rescinding the closure order in 1799.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 155ff.</ref> This back-and-forth illustrates the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of the forts and the challenges Denmark faced in adapting its colonial strategy in the wake of the abolition of the slave trade.
+Internal disagreements within the Danish administration further complicated the future of the forts. Evaluations by [[Peter Thonning]] and Governor Wrisberg revealed opposing views on inland and coastal plantation projects.<ref>Hopkins, Daniel. "Danish natural history and African colonialism at the close of the eighteenth century: Peter Thonning's ‘scientific journey’to the Guinea Coast, 1799–1803." Archives of Natural History 26.3 (1999): 369-418..</ref> The Coastal Council even suggested a temporary continuation of the slave trade to facilitate the establishment of these ventures.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.</ref> This reflects the challenges Denmark faced - limited geographical knowledge, internal disagreements over strategy and the impact of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], which further hampered colonial efforts.
+In the post-Napolenic-war period, Peter Thonning, now focused on cost reduction, proposed new inland fortifications.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 159ff.</ref> This shift reflects Denmark's continuing difficulties in adapting its colonial strategy without the slave trade. Figures such as Thonning envisioned inland plantation ventures that required good relations with powerful African states such as Asante.<ref>Kea, R. A. (1967). Ashanti-Danish Relations: 1780-1831 (Doctoral dissertation, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana), 470-471.</ref> Others, however, advocated a more limited role for the forts, focusing on trade and defence.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 164ff.</ref>
+The Guinea Commission, led by Thonning, explored inland colonies, but ultimately failed to convince a cost-conscious Danish government.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 162ff.</ref> King Christian VIII even sought to sell the forts altogether [66]. The arrival of Governor Carstensen in 1842 briefly revived interest in a more active colonial approach, with plantations at Akuapem and annual visits by warships to project power.<ref> Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 166ff.</ref>
+However, Denmark's waning enthusiasm for colonialism and financial constraints ultimately led to the sale of the forts to Great Britain in 1850, marking the end of its colonial ambitions in Africa.<ref>Hopkins, "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts", 2018. 167ff.</ref> On 30 March 1850 all of [[Denmark]]'s Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the [[Kingdom of Denmark]] were sold to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and incorporated into the [[British Gold Coast]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition|last=Gobel|first=Erik|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|year=2016|isbn=978-90-04-33027-6|pages=3–7}}</ref>
+This period reveals the internal struggles within the Danish administration and the unfulfilled ambitions that marked Denmark's brief venture into African colonialism.
 The title of its chief colonial administrator was ''[[opperhoved]]'' (singular; sometimes rendered in English as [[station chief]]) since 1658, only in 1766 upgraded to Governor.
@@ Line 179: / Line 194: @@
 [[Category:Danish Gold Coast| ]]
-[[Category:History of Ghana]]
 [[Category:Former colonies in Africa]]
 [[Category:Former Danish colonies]]
-[[Category:European colonisation in Africa]]
+[[Category:European colonisation of Africa]]
 [[Category:History of West Africa]]
 [[Category:States and territories established in 1658]]
@@ Line 188: / Line 202: @@
 [[Category:British West Africa]]
 [[Category:1658 establishments in Denmark]]
+[[Category:Denmark–Norway]]

v t e Forts of the former European colonial powers on the Gold Coast
Brandenburg-Prussian forts	Groß Friedrichsburg Dorothea
British forts	Apollonia Metal Cross Sekondi Komenda Cape Coast Victoria Royal William William (lighthouse) Tantumquery Winneba James Vernon
Danish forts	Frederiksborg Christiansborg Augustaborg Fredensborg Kongensten Prinsensten Carlsborg William
Dutch forts	Elize Carthago Ruychaver Saint Anthony Hollandia Dorothea Batenstein Witsen Orange San Sebastian Vredenburgh Elmina Coenraadsburg Nassau William Egya Amsterdam Patience Goede Hoop Crèvecoeur Singelenburgh
Portuguese forts	Santo António de Axim São Sebastião de Shema São Jorge da Mina São Francisco Xavier
Swedish forts	Carlsborg William Batenstein Christiansborg Witsen Apollonia