Portuguese Gold Coast

The Portuguese Gold Coast was a Portuguese colony on the Gulf of Guinea coast of West Africa, in what is now Ghana. Its seat of power was the fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina, built at Elmina in 1482 after Portuguese explorers reached the coast in 1471 and found a thriving trade in gold and ivory. The castle, the first major European construction in sub-Saharan Africa and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was erected on a natural peninsula between the Atlantic and the Benya River after Diogo de Azambuja negotiated with the local leader Caramansa. From Elmina the Portuguese directed a wide internal slave trade and exported gold obtained by barter with African merchants. Other settlements included Fort Santo Antonio at Axim, founded in 1515, Fort Sao Sebastiao at Shama and Fort Sao Francisco Xavier near Osu. Portuguese activity introduced American crops such as maize and cassava and made Portuguese an enduring language of trade in the region. Because Lisbon could never spare enough men to control the whole coast, its influence ran only from about New Town in the west to Adda in the east, and it was progressively challenged by English, Dutch and other European traders. The colony was formally incorporated into Dutch territory in 1642, after the Dutch West India Company captured Elmina.