I am studying about European forts at the Gold Coast in 17th century, and some guy on here told me i should make a thread about it and i thought why the fuck not, so here it is.
Sorry in advance for my shitty english and desu its gonna be kind of a rant, i'll try sorting it properly, but my writing skills aren't the best and i might forget something or might sound confusing sometimes, so ask me if anything is wrong.
First of, i want to describe how did things generally work on the Gold Coast (trading companies, forts, politics, warfare etc.) and then to show how it worked in reality i'm gonna describe a major conflict on the Gold Coast between Dutch and the English at the end of 17th century known as Komenda Wars.
>Companies It was a common practice that Europeans were starting various overseas trading companies, mostly it was because it gave the government good way to oversee and control everything that was going on, so the companies managed anything from settlement to warfare. Usually they were even founded and maintained by members of royal family (or generally speaking people associated with highest ranks of government). But even though the companies were highly under government influence, the directory was (mainly later on) composed of non-aristocratic merchants who were promoting their personal interests. Companies had variyng histories, but there were two main issues they all shared: Corruption and interlopers – free traders that were illegally breaching their government-given monopoly. Corruption in the west indian trade (between africa, new world, and europe) was incredibely high, which was one of the factors that lead some of the colonists/africans/european merchants to rather trade with interlopers, and eventually in 18th century, it became pretty clear that independent traders are even way more effective at trade (faster, able to strike better deals, more effectient) so during that century, most of companies lost their initial puprose and their only puprose became maintaining African forts.
Camden Young
>Forts Speaking specifically of Gold Coast, the company practice was unusual there because of the trading forts and lodges. Speacing de jure, Europeans never really owned any land in Africa. The land was just leased from local rulers, usually for some rent, percentage of profit from trade, or smaller levies on trade. The fort or the lodge then served as a sort of a trade nod, where traders from Africa and Europe could meet. Originally they didn't even need to be fortified, only later on forts became necessary, to be able to defend mainly from the sea, but also from inland.
Thomas Powell
>Europeans The day-to-day life on the forts is unfortunatelly very badly documented. Only sources for it are companies' letters, which are mostly just composed of trading records, material requests for the fort and political informations. The later description of Komenda wars will be based on those letters so i might get into more detail there. It was obvious that the main enemy there was boredom. The whites serving on forts were drinking like crazy and there are several records of people – even the highest officials – literally drinking themselves to death. Other way how to fight the boredom might've been entertainment in the nearby cities. But there was a high risk of whites getting kidnapped, or otherwise attacked, so outside tours were mostly limited by daylight. Still, there were a lot of instances, when whites managed to get a local girl pregnant, sometimes even marrier her, and the resulting mulattos eventually formed a completely new class of people on Gold Coast. Other factor relating to the population of the forts was related to Africa itself. Tropical climate, where sickness strived was unpopular back in England to say the least. About 60% of whites on forts died on some sickness. Even though the trade was profitable and pay was relatively high, nobody wanted to do this. Rarely the officials even had to resort to emplying convicted criminals, and other people working on the forts were males with nothing to lose, making the morale very low, alcohol abuse often, same as fights and conflicts, and the officials were very often corrupted.
Landon Kelly
>Politics During the early African-European contacts, when the only Europeans in Africa were Portugese, that was the end of it, they build some settlements and Africans came to buy and sell shit there. But when Dutch started btfoing Portugese around 1630, and African market opened to other Europeans (namely Dutch, English, French, Danes, Swedes and Brandenburgians), suddenly it started to get complicated. African rulers soon realized that trading with some companies is more profitable than with others, and competition started. The whole coast turned into a clusterfuck off everchanging alliances, bribes, trading deals, interwining European and African politics. Its too complicated and boring to go in detail, but generally, i can sum three main tendencies that drove the conflicts. 1. Control of the gold trade – Everybody wanted this, not just the Europeans, but the African states often waged war against each other to get better trading rights/caravan passage. 2. Waging wars to aquire slaves – The rulers officially denied it, but when the slave trade became so profitable it even surpassed gold trade at the end of 17th century, the increase in warfare, and the way wars were fought is a pretty obvious sign. 3. Companies trying to establish monopoly – There was a constant competition for better prices, and for making better deals with locals, which often resulted in locals being bribed into attacking competitors' fort and driving them out. What might be interesting is that the European politics on the Gold Coast were not necessarily related to European politics elsewhere. They might be and might not be, there were instances of wars starting because of conflict on the Gold Coast, and there were instances of companies attacking each other even though their mothercountries were allied.
Jackson Turner
What the fuck, there is only 12 sec waiting time between posts
>Warfare Difference between how wars were fought in Europe and in West Africa was tied to terrain. Specifically in Gold Coast, the main factor were the tropical forests. The forest itself was thick and hard to maneuver it, and around densely populated areas, the forest was secondary growth, which mean that the lower layers were even thicker and literally impenetrable. And the only paths through the forests were wide for two- max three men walking besides each other. Its pretty obvious that in those condition the classical european „battle on an open field“ was near impossible. As Thorton put it, the wars on Gold Coast usually had two phases. 1. was the skirmish phase. This phase started unofficially, without declaration of war, and there were no armies. There were just a group of soldiers (usually made from town militia, headed by local captian) that were raiding enemy territory. Their goal was to obviously steal loot, také people into slavery (so-called panyarring, which later obviously became more important), and last important part was murdering of civilian population. Africans waged this king of „demographic warfare“, which goal was to weaken the enemy's production, and their combat ability (less women and children = less future warriors) 2. was the battle phase. This part began when the kings officially declared war on each other, and immediatelly followed the assemblation of large armies. All the town militias grouped together and in very loose formation (since forest didn't allow any better) they marched towards each other, with a goal to meet in some open field (either natural or near settlements). The march of the armies was accompanied with a lot of surprise attacks from the forest.
Josiah Howard
>Warfare pt.2 What might come off as a surprise is that muskets were fairly popular and common in Africa. Originally they were handled by the nobles that made up heavy militia in front row of the army, but later on musketeers were composed mainly of personal slaves. At the end of 17th century, there are reports of some states having its whole army composed entirely of musketeers, and Europeans travellers often praised Africans for being able to handle gun better than European soldiers.
Just few curiosities: There was one instance, where Europeans (Dutch, to be specific) sent a regiment to Africa. When the Europeans met the Africans, they saw that the Africans are holding their muskets the wrong way around. Laughing at them, they ran towards them, hoping for easy kills, when suddenly Africans turned their guns around and massacred the Europeans. And in other instance, when African states were fighting each other, one of them won the war against incredible odds, because they bribed some local tribe of archers to fight for them. Because it was the rainy season and their enemies couldn't use muskets, the archers killed them from afar by hundreds.
When it comes to Europeans and warfare, it was much lighter. Europeans supplied their respectative African allies with guns, ammo and weapons, and in rare cases even with some regiments, but generally, they didn't leave the forts. Their warfare was just limited to attacking other forts or assaulting enemy ships off coast.
Ayden Price
>Slavery pt. 1 Whats well known by now is that Africans were engaged in slavery way before Europeans came in (same as literally every other society on this planet), but the way it has been practiced was way different. When some African noble took some prisoners in war and made them his slaves, they were working around his house, and eventually they became part of his household, it wasn't really uncommon that he made them free people at the end of his life, or that the slave status wasn't transfered to the offsprings. Slaves were treated just like little less free commoners. Actually the European attitude to slaves (racism) was formed by their justification for slavery. You see, christianity doesn't really allow slavery, but Europeans realized that slave workforce is necessary to work in their African gold mines (where they were originally used) so they started using the Old Testament and the part which states that jews are Gods chosen people, to justify that africans are factually inferior and therefor there is no harm in enslaving them. So as opposed to African societies where they were treated just like prisoners, they were treated like literal subhumans by Europeans.
Gavin Lewis
>Slavery pt. 2 Also few interesting stuff about the Atlantic slave trade: Originally, during the 17th century, the casualties during the slaving voyages were about 20-25%, but then, when slave prices increased, they were reduced to about 10%, which clearly shows that the negroes died solely due to bad treatment. But what might be interesting is that overall, the slave casualties for 17th-18th centuries were about 15%, meanwhile the casualties on the white ship crews were about 16%, mostly due to tropical sickness. So percentually speaking, slave trade actually killed more whites and blacks. And a lot of these casualties might have also happened because the african slavers, selling the slaves, made them look nice and healthy, but there were several instances, where hidden diseases or bad physical/mental condition became evident just few miles off African coast – too soon for europeans to cause it. Its also interesting how much interest did the Africans themselves took in the slave trade. I already said that the wars increased exponentially in the need to get slaves, but there was also this practice how to get slaves from your own people. The king of the state paid some women to go into some village, pretend to be his wifes and live there for a while. Then, every year, the king made a trip around all such villages in his state. When he entered some village, he meet with these women, and they accussed several men of touching them or acting indecent towards them. King them arrested all these men and voila, he had fresh supply of slaves to sell. The slave trade actually got so popular, that later on in 18th century, when slave trade was on decline or had moved elsewhere, there were instances when africans actually refused to trade with europeans, unless they buy their slaves.
Levi Sullivan
Damn, i spend like three hours writing this out and then five minutes posting it, i hope anybody will read it at least
Cooper Garcia
Anyway, now i'm gonna move on to the Komenda Wars, to show you how this all worked in reality. Its hard to summarize these wars, but generally speaking it was about English Royal African Company and Dutch West India Company competing about trading rights in the town of Komenda, which was part of kingdom of Eguafo, ruled by king called the Great Takyi (thats his actual name, not a title). What is interesting to keep in mind is that England and United Provinces were actually in personal union under William Orange at that time.
pic related is a contemporary drawing of both Komenda forts (English and the Dutch)
Grayson Hill
First some historical backround: Historically the English were the first to settle at Komenda, they built a small lodge there back in beggining of the century, but eventually were forced out by the Dutch. The Dutch were then (in 50s) forced out by English, supported by local powerful merchant called John Cabess. But this John Cabess later died in one of the clashes and Dutch moved back in. Situation calmed down for a while, but then French butted in in 1687, trying to build their own lodge there. This upset the relations between locals and Dutch, who wanted a guarantee that nobody else would trade at Komenda other than already established Dutch and English. (Now you see that the relations on Gold Coast were really a god damn clusterfuck) What happened then was complicated but simply put: Takyi agreed to the Dutch request and he denied French the right to build a lodge there, but he wasn't sure if they wouldn't try to get it by force, so he started assembling a minor combat force in Komenda. English who saw this started getting afraid that Takyi wants to drive them out, so they backed off from Komenda. Eventually the French never arrived and Dutch fort Verdenburg remained the only European trading fort in Komenda. Then, in 1694, the English decided to build a fort in there again. They had an agreement of Takyi and support of John Cabess, most powerful figure in Komenda, who was very likely the son of the previous Cabess. John Cabess actually invited the English back because he wanted to drive the Dutch out, but the English didn't know about it, only the Dutch (Bosman) were aware of the worsening relations.
David Phillips
The following timeline is based on correspondence from English chiefs at Komenda recieved by RAC headquarters in Cape Coast Castle, about 20km east of Komenda, and its also based on the book by Willem Bosman, who was head of the Dutch fort Verdenburg in Komenda at the time, and reported to WIC headquarters at Elmina castle, about 15km east of Komenda.
30th of November 1694 Seargant Thomas Wilson with his regiment of soldiers arrive in Komenda. He meets up with John Cabess, they trade pleasantries, and he sents a messanger inland, to meet up with Great Takyi. Together with John Cabess they raise an English flag over where the English lodge used to stand and where English fort will be built. For the meantime, John Cabess invites Wilson to live in one of his „villages“, which if just few shacks at the end of the town. Meanwhile the works on the fort begins. Each letter from each day is filled with requests for building materials and for workforce (Takyi and Cabess themselves supply slaves to English, so the fort is finished sooner), but the work goes on slowly and i'm not really gonna focus on writing it out here.
Henry Bell
4th of December 1694 There is a hill just behind the city, called „the Money Hill“ by Europeans, since there are supposedly gold deposits inside. Dutch began mining there in November, but John Cabess claims its local holy site and they can't intefere with there, but Dutch don't listen to him. Bosman claims that its a pile of bullshit about this „holy place“ and Cabess just wants to interfere with their designs since he doesn't like them. On 4th of December Cabess decides to také action and he orders several of his militiamen to attack Dutch miners at the hill. Apparently, Wilson (who was unaware of the whole issue) writes that nobody was hurt, but Cabess' soldiers burned down several Dutch crooms.
6th of December 1694 Dutch are getting armed, Wilson can spot canoes coming in from Elmina with weaponry and he requests to be sent some too from Cape Coast Castle. Dutch, who blame English for the whole quarell with Cabess, fire few warning shots from their fort over the village where English reside.
pic related is Elmina castle, center of WIC activities in Africa
Blake Phillips
6th -17th of December 1694 Wilson mentions he heard some rumors about Dutch trying to bribe Twifo and Denkyria (Eguafo's neighbors) into attacking Eguafo. This was a very common practice. As i said above, Europeans on the Gold Coast didn't really engage in any major conflict, they just acted as jews and bribed the African states to attack each other, to achieve their means.
19th of December 1694 Messenger comes down from Great Takyi, and he brings message of Takyi promising eternal friendship and help to the English. With that, it is clear that Eguafo is on the English side, and if Dutch want to maintain their trading position in Komenda, they have to fight for it.
24th of January 1695 Wilson reports about sending messengers to both Twifo and Denkyria to sort of „counter-bribe“ them. This was also a common tactic, just offering more money for not attacking. Twifo declines, but Denkyria actually takes the money, meaning that Denkyria took the money from Dutch to attack, from English to not attack, so now they got shitload of money and they didn't really need to do anything to get them – You see that the systém was benefitial to Africans as well.
pic related is Cape Coast Castle, center of RAC activities in Africa
Hunter Smith
8th of February 1695 Edward Searle, who was RAC official „chief-merchant“ arrives at the fort and takes over the command. Here you can see the cooperation between crown and the company, as Wilson was seargant of royal army, and Searle is a employee of the company.
18th of February 1695 Dutch managed to bribe another kingdom Etsi to go to war with Eguafo. From the second half of Freburary, Eguafo, Twifo and Etsi all start gathering their armies and hostilities start. At the end of February it also becomes clear that Ahanta (another African kingdom) also wants a part of Eguafo. Things start looking grim for Eguafo and the English, but at least the march of Twifo army is halted by Denkyria (who lies between Eguafo and Twifo), since Denkyrian king refuses them safe passage. In the end, Dutch need to bribe Denkyrian king once again, to let Twifo past. So Denkyria didn't do shit and gets a third bribe just in few months.
28th of Feburary 1695 Relationships worsen even in Komenda itself. Dutch ships Windhown arrives at Komenda shores, and some whites disembark, but they are stopped by Cabess' men, they start arguing and eventually shootout erupts. According to Bosman „several of the Dutch were killed“, and Searle only notes that one of the Dutch was taken prisoner and then he had his head publicly cut off.
Elijah Nelson
1st of March 1695 Dutch are burning „their Komenda“ - few shacks around their fort – in order to be able to defend it better. They are obviously expecting to get assaulted at this point. Also English galley arrives near shore on this day and fires some warining shots over Dutch fort Verdenburg.
2nd of March 1695 In the previous night, Dutch fort got assaulted by Cabess' soldiers. Searle and the English don't really know anything about the assault, but Bosman describes it: „Our enemies attacked us at night. I had a very little garrison, not even 20 men, half of which were not capable of service, and yet i forced them to retire with losses, after a five hours long fight. It was wonderful and no small sign of divine protection that we lost but two men in this action, for we had no doors to most of our gun-holes and the negroes poured smallshot on us as thick as hail (…) You may imagine what case we were in when one of them began to hack our very doors with an axe, but this undertaker being kill'd, the rest soon left.“ Searle writes that Cabess' only had two men wounded.
Kevin Green
3rd of March 1695 In the previous night, the English/Cabess' lodge got attacked. Searle describes the attack: „The Dutch last night came ashore with all their boats, and by force landed their men just against the fort (the construction site to be more precise); They leaped out of their boats and got up the rocks at thirty whiteman and three blacks, which swam before to show them the way, and just now came ashore and landed many cascks of privisions at the same place, the blacks continually firing at them, but had not the heart to advance to hinder it, the shot flying very thick from the (Dutch) castle and boats. One of our women slave going down to fetch some lime as they began firing came a shot from the ships, broke her crew (desu i have no idea what this might mean) all to pieces in her hand. Several shots from the castle and ships has flew directly over our fort.“
4th of March 1695 The coming clash between Twifo and Eguafo is approaching. Great Takyi sends a messenger to Searle, urging him to leave the fort for the time being, since if Twifo wins, the fate of Searle will be „uncertain“. Searle refuses to leave though.
Sebastian Parker
7th of March 1695 Something interesting happened, which really shows how complicated were the relations. As i said at the beggining, United Provinces and England were in personal union, so officially, RAC and WIC couldn't be in conflict. Now on this day, Searle writes that the Dutch blacks have captured an English canoe with slaves just off the shore. Searle, seeing this, runs on the shore and starts arguing with the blacks, and eventually forces them to go get Bosman from the Dutch fort. Bosman and Searle meet on the shore, and they „clear up the misunderstanding“, so Bosman returns the slaves to Searle. Searle then coomplains that he is also missing a few other canoes with slaves, but Bosman denies knowing anything about it. Its funny to see them reach an agreement like this when just three days ago, the Dutch were trying to assault the English lodge and probably kill Searle.
15th of March 1695 For the last few days, several houses on the edge of Komenda burned down. Nobody could find the perpetuators, only now Searle found out it was some scouts from Twifo, meaning the main army is really close.
Josiah Sanchez
19th of March 1695 Another part of „misunderstandings“, when some blacks from Elmina (meaning blacks emplyed by the Dutch) kindapped several English canoes, and claim its a retaliation for English kidnapping several Dutch canoes. Searle claims its all a big ruse, and that he never touched any Dutch canoes. Along with the English canoes there was a white Englishman kidnapped called Charles Jordan.
22nd of March 1695 After the „misunderstanding“, Charles Jordan is returned from Elmina to Komenda, and he reports that the Dutch at Elmina are ready for combat, canoes with 3-5 armed men leaving the fort several times a day.
1st of April 1695 The chances at the victory of Eguafo are increasing. As i listed in the „warfare“ section, if it wasn't obvious, so far it was just the first phase of war – the skirmish phase, and Eguafo was apparently winning. There was also some new alliances formed, Eguafo allying with Akrom, another neighboring kingdom, and in light of the new development of war, Denkyria started warming up to the idea of joining the Dutch again.
Cameron Allen
9th of April 1695 Edward Searle has gotten sick and leaves for Cape Coast Castle to heal (you see how high was the sickness rate among Europeans, when he got sick only after few months in Africa), meanwhile the command is taken over by Howseley Freeman.
28th of April 1695 The final big battle between Eguafo and Twifo took place. Much to the English rejoice, Great Takyi won and the survival of Eguafo was ensured.
Sebastian Rodriguez
And thats it from me, i hope this will be at least a bit interesting to some of you
pic related is a hundred years later, but its probably very similar to how soldiers looked back then
Ayden Martinez
Maybe you should write a book.
Jaxon Johnson
am I supposed to read all of this?
Jaxon Campbell
Yeah, I just come to this board to write erotic fanfic about pregnant Anne Frank and the CSA. Not to learn history like some fucking goober. Just kidding, I'll read it all OP. Thanks for an actual contribution to this board.
Kayden Harris
Just why write it here op? This is bookloads.
Lincoln Jenkins
>What the fuck, there is only 12 sec waiting time between posts Maybe because you are OP? Anyways, first good thread in days!
Cooper Evans
Great thread OP, ignore the low IQ spastics.
Logan Perry
he didn"t even post the sources
this could be fanfic for all we know
Christopher Watson
>The slave trade actually got so popular, that later on in 18th century, when slave trade was on decline or had moved elsewhere, there were instances when africans actually refused to trade with europeans, unless they buy their slaves. >africans actually refused to trade with europeans, unless they buy their slaves You're going straight to the SJW PC gulag for this one lad. Please report to your local college or university and check in with the Gender Studies and African History departments. They will get you placed in the correct gulag for reeducation.
Colton Peterson
Im back
Yeah its a shitload of text, the idea was that i separate it into stuff like warfare or slavery, so anybody can read what they are interested in. But as you can see, i like writing and i kind of got into it.
The Komenda wars are mainly based on Willem Bosman's New and Accurate Description and on the RAC letters published by Robin Law few years back Other than that, some of the sources and books i can recommend on Gold Coast are: Settlement, Trade and Politics in 17th century Gold Coast by Ray A. Kea (best one no contest) Forts and Castles of Ghana by Albert van Dantzig History of West Africa by multiple authors, but main editor is Ade Ajayi Historical Geography of Ghana by Kwamina Dickson is also good Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast by Kwame Daaku and Warfare in Atlantic Africa by John Thorto
Jack Bennett
Luckily the PC movement isn't really all that large here yet
When i was in high school, i even argued with one of the teacher (it was actually english lector from USA) about how blacks are statistically dumber than whites. She wasn't happy about it and classified be as nazi fuck ever since, but there were no other consequences.
Lucas Lewis
Europeans controlled gold mines in Africa? I always assumed that they only traded until the 19th century.
Tyler Nguyen
They controlled some of them on coast, like around Elmina (the name itself comes from El Mina - The Mine). But 90% of the gold mines were inlands and Africans were actually purpousely trying to hide their locations from Europeans.
Levi Gray
Pretty neat, OP I'll screencap it later so it can join the African Paratroopers and Congo War threads for the few discussions of African history that aren't /pol/
Austin Morales
Thanks for the posts OP. Between you and the HYW user I like the trend of making threads about real history. Here, have a child soldier
Nicholas Lopez
fascinating stuff OP
Hudson Bailey
Thanks lads, child soldiers are always appreciated
Colton Gray
You could post mode OP, go into detail you omitted
Don't mind nagging of those Who cant handle few paragraphs
Gavin Harris
I wrote it like a general summary, if you got any questions i might answer, ask away
Chase Campbell
Good thread OP
Cooper Phillips
Interesting stuff. It was a nice read. Thanks for writing it down here.
Dominic James
Thank you OP
Hudson Clark
bump for more details on the subsequent conflicts
Noah Richardson
Are you talking about the continuation of Komenda wars? They actually lasted until 1700, i just described the first part since i got too lazy, but if you want, i now refilled my energy with KFC, so i can write out more.
Alexander Brown
Yes, I obviously have not had time to get any of the books you mentioned above, but I completed some online cursory reading and it seems there were 4 notable conflicts in the Komenda wars?
You can write about whatever you want. I'll read that shit.
Julian Turner
Wikipedia article on Komenda wars explains it pretty well desu. The issue with going in depth is that there were shitload of everchanging alliances and the local politics and states aren't really well known.
I already described the first war, which was basically Twifo (supported by Dutch WIC) against Eguafo (supported by English RAC) and it was pretty straightforward, but the other war is when it started getting complicated.
What is also important to understand is that these were not any kind of separate wars, as long as Europeans were concerned. Even when there wasn't any conflict going on inlands, Dutch were still kidnapping English canoes and English were still capturing Dutch slaves, that was a continuation conflict with the intention to just cripple productivity of the other.
Anyway, i'll start describing rest of the wars, since i got nothing else to do anyway.
Easton Gray
After the battle between Twifo and Eguafo on 28th of April 1695, John Cabess became mediator of the peace talks and as such he left Komenda and went inlands where he spends whole May attending diplomatic meetings. Africans had their issues settled for the moment, but Dutch were still pretty mad about English being in Komenda, and English were mad about Dutch being mad. The relationship were basically abyssmal and in half of May, there is a mention in the correspondence of an order from Cape Coast Castle to capture any passing canoes from Elmina (= Dutch canoes). At the end of May the rainy season starts, and surprisingly heavy rains destroy the wooden shack where Freeman was sleeping, so he has to move in in the half-finished fort, and he complains about having everything soaked.
Jackson Davis
In June, the Dutch try to bribe some more African states to attack Eguafo, but they all turn down their offer, showing good Eguafo/English political position at the time. In half of June, Freeman gets sick with fever, probably from the rains, and surprisingly enough, asks Bosman (head of Dutch fort Verdenburg) for help, and the Dutch willingly lend him some of the best black doctors they had. At the end of the month, Freeman arranged a meeting between Bosman and Cabess, but he didn't realize they both hated each other from the bottom of their hearts. "John Cabess having six men and the Copeman (Bosman) ten, when after some time being seated in their chars and some discourse past, the Copeman having two pistols in his pocket, drew out one and fired at John Cabess, which he perceiving fell out of the chair upon the sand before the pistol went off. The Copeman fired the other pistol at him as he laid in the sand, but John Cabess grabling (dunno what this means) about escaped the fury of them both and by the asistance of his men got clear." Bosman was alledgedly cut in his thigh by one of Cabess' men, and in his rage at his failiure to kill Cabess', he was firing cannon shots at the city all night.
Charles Harris
After that shootout, situation calmed down. Both sides spent the rest of the summer just by petty kidnappings and getting African allies. Also there were first signs of discourse between English and Komendians, when in August Freeman started complaining about Komendians cheating on prices of the fish. In November, Freeman's health, which has been shit since the start of the rain season in May, detoriated and he left Komenda. Command of the fort was once again given to the Seargant Thomas Wilson.
Dominic Powell
In fall and winter of 1695, inner politic situation in Komenda develops, because a new player enters the game. There are mentions of another Takyi - they call him Little Takyi as opposed to Great Takyi - the king, little Takyi probably being his younger brother. And there are mentions of Little Takyi wanting to sieze the throne. This was obviously irresistible to the Dutch, who started supporting him, and gathering allies for him. The English were pretty unaware of that though, they were even uncertain of Little Takyi's very existance, since Great Takyi didn't share any info about the inner political situation with them, presumably to not seem weak. Wake up call for English came in 21st of January 1696. Out of nowhere, a huge fleet of canoes arrived at Komenda, with Dutch and strange flags, they spent a while there and eventually sailed eastwards, toward Elmina. Thats the first time that Wilson starts seriously considering the Little Takyi's threat in his letters.
Adrian Evans
The next day, 22nd of January 1696, Cabess confirms Wilson suspicion about Little Takyi being a serious thread, and Cabess also urges the English to join in the politics and counter-bribe the Dutch (who were bribing neighboring states to attack Eguafo and install Little Takyi on throne). Also the canoes return, and they split and start guarding the coast. It is becoming clear that the Dutch are getting ready for another armed conflict. 26nd of January 1696 Wilson woke up in the morning and realized all the blacks serving in "English Komenda" (little village surrounding their fort) left overnight, plus a lot of his canoes and supplies got stolen.
Julian Jackson
In early February, there are some mentions of alliances forming, apparently Dutch managed to bribe the kingdom of Adom into helping Little Takyi. 19th of February After a tornado storm at night, when the shore is all mess, the Dutch fire at the English fort from the sea. "Dutch Generals fleet being ashoar dare not put of, made all the force they could & came out of our side, thinking to have seized them ashoar, fired two or 3 small guns at the fort, we firing one great gun & several small arms made them retreat" Also what might be interesting is that during this gunfight, Wilson noticed that "our two mulattoes Browood & Tyger standing trembling & would not fire a gunn at their countrey men if you would hang them", so he complains about them and asks for proper slaves instead.
Ian Lopez
At the beggining of March, Wilson notices Dutch bringing new guns and soldiers at Fort Verdenburg and honestly, he starts loosing his shit in the letters, literally begging to get more men or ammo. The begging and panic is justified though, since the English for is not even near to finished, and the only occupants are a "few whites and not more than 10 blacks".
10th of March 1696 Previous night, a massive army of Adom soldiers appeared in Komenda. They went on to Fort Verdenburg, "their horns played for some while" and then went off in the direction to where Little Takyi had his camp. Together with this, Wilson mentions that few days ago, he heard a gunfight somewhere in the forest near the city, and he also mentions several townfolk from Komenda disappearing, indirectly blaming all that on the Adomian army.
John Martin
Neat, especially the bits on warfare. Definitely wasn't aware that muskets were so widespread in Africa.
Caleb Ortiz
20th of March 1696 Wilson write that heavy gunfire woke him up in the morning. The fights continued to rage on up until noon, when the whole place where Little Takyi set up his camp went up in flames. At 4PM, armies of Great Takyi entered Komenda and started joyfully celebrating victory. But just before the army entered the town, Wilson mentions that a several dozen negroes ran through the town and hid themselves in Fort Verdenburg, presumably what was left of Little Takyi's and Adomian forces. Later on Wilson added that after the celebrations were over alter that day, part of Great Takyi's armies went off to burn down the house of Adomian chief.
Landon Gray
Holy shit, THIS is why I still hang out on this board
Between wehraboo dreams and pregnant anne frank shitposts, gems like these are hard to find
Thanks for being a pretty cool guy, user
Jonathan Jones
Made me remember i had this saved
Henry Clark
26th of March 1696 Dutch slaves from Fort Verdenburg are denied access to local well for water and forests for wood by Komendians. Bosman sends out a messenger to Wilson, to ask him to let their slaves free passage, and Wilson acts like a cheeky cunt, saying its none of his business. Eventually Wilson arranges a meeting between Bosman's messenger and Cabess' messenger, which are supposed to reach an agreement, but it turns our to "who is the blame" contest, when the both messengers start arguing with each other about who started the war, spitting on ground and stuff. From reading Wilson's report about this, i can't help but just imagine him standing there, watching both of them argue about what was matter of life and death for them, and just smiling like a cheeky cunt, now that he knows that he is safe.
Adam Butler
31st of March 1696 Dutch, Komendians and Adomians reached an agreement and 160 Adomian soldiers are returning home through Komenda, kidnapping few English slaves on their way.
The second part of Komendian wars officially ended. If anybody cares i might write out the third and fourth part sometime, but i am too lazy to continue tonight.
Jose Brown
French traveller Jean Barbot even claimed that Africans are way better at handling them then Europeans, and they can fire two shots before European could even reload.
Thanks mate, you have no idea how glad that makes me feel
Aaron Roberts
Not OP but I like this very much thank you
Luis Diaz
>African Paratroopers and Congo War
I assume you don't have this one, so have fun
Logan Torres
>Veeky Forums being used for a discussion of actual history Holy shit
Nicholas Nguyen
There is this mythical comics on the topic. The author is know to be a psychopath when it comes to historical researches, and there's a whole volume where the action takes place in a fort on the Gold Coast, plans of the fort and daily life being precisely described, you should read it. (pretty sure it exists in many languages) fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Passagers_du_vent
Jason Cooper
reminder that there was no parachuting involved and they just leapfrogged the enemy positions in passenger airplanes
Wyatt Green
>christianity doesn't really allow slavery I hate to be the sort of guy who might lead this extremely interesting thread astray but that's not true.
Lucas Torres
lol that was actually an interesting read thank you
Asher Morales
Bump
Ryan Hughes
thank you for this.
Blake Richardson
Where the fuck are you from? Are you Dutch?
Jeremiah Gonzalez
Very interesting OP, thanks a lot. Im actually spending my next semester in Ghana starting next Thursday so this is great info.
Blake Cruz
Elaborate on this pls, because i have never read the bible, but all the books i read confirmed that with christianity came the abolition of slavery
Gabriel Evans
Didn't France have a strong presence in the gold and ivory coasts
Alexander Bennett
best thread i saw in ages
Nathaniel Turner
As an English lector from the US working in Budapest, that sucks. Most of the expat community here are downright Marxist.
Luis Kelly
Dude, he is obviously Czech
Jordan Adams
bump to read later
Sebastian Roberts
great thread
Austin Phillips
Anyone wanna redpill us on the Baltic states and their overseas empires?
Oliver Thompson
>African cities >cities >Not just Asanti and whatever preceded modern Lagos Gonna have to elaborate, this is news to me
Jack Carter
These posts are completely ignoring the Eurafricans and the development of White and European identity among the post contact black middlemen
Why didnt they try to colonize a little bit more than that?
A-Asking for a friend.
James Smith
Because prior to the development of antimalarials like quinine, most of Sub-Saharan Africa was an almost literal disease-ridden hellhole for Europeans. Attempts to establish colonies were notoriously difficult, and European powers were content to let the more disease-resistant locals do the legwork while they sat in the relative safety of their coastal trading posts and forts.
To get an idea of just how bad things could be, an account of a (British, IIRC) attempt to establish a colony in Sierra Leone saw 50% of the colonists dead in 6 months. More recently, the East African campaign in WW1 showed how absolutely devastating disease could be even if you had more modern medicine. Despite having (admittedly inadequate) supplies of quinine for the troops, the ratio of British and Commonwealth casualties from disease to combat were over 30:1.
Colonization as we think of it today didn't really become a thing until the latter half of the 1800s. Before that, Europeans literally didn't give a shit about conquering Africa - with the exception of South Africa, the only reason they were there was to make money.
Josiah Miller
Stuff like this is what I come to Veeky Forums for, thanks OP
Gavin Ramirez
You’re stupid
Andrew Mitchell
bump
Jason Murphy
Op are you Czech? T. person who loves Karel Capek
Noah Anderson
also did anyone take pictures of the posts or should i do it?
