History
Following the foundation of the Swedish Africa Company (1649) by Louis de Geer an expedition under the command of Hendrik Carloff was sent to Africa in 1650. Carloff made a treaty with the King of Futu (also Feta) on selling some areas of land. On 22 April 1650 the Swedish Gold Coast was founded and Carloff became its first administrator. In 1652 the foundations were laid of the fort Carlsborg
In 1656 Johan Filip von Krusenstierna (brother of the greatgrandfather of Adam Johann von Krusenstern) was appointed the new Governor. This enraged Carloff. He left Cabo Corso only to return on 27 January 1658 on the Danish Privateer "Glückstadt". Fort Carlsborg was seized and made part of the Danish Gold Coast colony.
King Charles X Gustav of Sweden made this one of his reasons to go to war with Denmark. After the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 Cabo Corso Castle was to be returned to Swedish administration: However it then was revealed that Carloff's associate Samuel Schmidt or Smith had already sold the colony in April 1659 to the Dutch West India Company on his own, and had disappeared with the gold to Angola.
Later on the local population started a successful uprising against their new masters and in December 1660 the King of the Efutu again offered Sweden control over the area. A new expedition was sent to the colony which remained under Swedish administration only for a short period. von Krusenstierna was reappointed as administrator.
On 20 April 1663 Fort Carlsborg and the capital Fort Christiansborg again were seized by the Danes after a long defense under the Swedish commander Anton Voss.
On 9 May 1664 the area again was seized, this time by Robert Holmes who made it part of the British Gold Coast colony.
Read more about this topic: Swedish Gold Coast
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)