Dutch Gold Coast - Administration - Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company

During the reign of the Dutch West India Company, the government of the colony was headed by a Director-General. The Director-General was assisted by a Council composed of senior colonial officers. Aside from being the supreme ruler of the colony, the Director-General was also the supreme commander of the land and sea forces, and highest judicial officer. The Director-General had a double mandate, being installed by both the States-General of the Dutch Republic and the Dutch West India Company. The colonial government was based at Fort Nassau in Mouri between 1621 and 1637, and at Fort George in Elmina from 1637 onward.

When the Dutch conquered Luanda and São Tomé from the Portuguese in 1642, the Dutch West India Company's possessions on the coast of Africa were divided into two separate commandments. The government at Elmina was charged with the rule over "Guinea and its dependencies from Cabo Tres Puntas to Cabo Lopes Gonsalves," and the government at Luanda with the possessions south of the latter cape, including São Tomé. The title of the Director-General at Elmina was changed to "Director-General of the North Coast of Africa." When the Dutch lost Luanda to the Portuguese in 1648, Sao Tomé was shortly ruled from Elmina, until it was recaptured by the Portuguese as well in the same year.

With the establishment of the Second Dutch West India Company in 1675, the government structure was revised. The area under the authority of the Director-General was redefined as "the Coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone all exclusively to 30 degrees South of the equator, together with all the islands in between," thereby nominally reinstating the claim on the territories lost in this area to the Portuguese. The title of the Director-General was concurrently changed to "Director-General of the North and South Coast of Africa." This larger claim was not primarily meant to reclaim Luanda and Sao Tomé from the Portuguese, however, but merely to establish authority over Dutch trade in the area. This was especially relevant for Loango, from which the Dutch began buying slaves in large amounts from the 1670s onward. Until the liquidation of the Dutch West India Company in 1791, the title of the Director-General and the limits of jurisdiction remained the same.