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Cape Coast Castle
Cape Coast Castle war ursprünglich ein kleiner Handelsplatz, wurde dann aber nach und nach zum Fort ausgebaut, bis es schliesslich der zweitgrösste Sklaven-Umschlagplatz nach Elmina war.Im Castle wurde ein Modernes Museum eingerichtet was die Geschichte in Bildern und Film Vorfürungen wiedergibt
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| Accra | Cape Coast | Elmina | Kakum National Park | Kumasi | Mole National Park | Volta Lake |
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Waterfalls |
The North |
Forts in the West |
Monkey Sanctuary |
Rivers of the West |
When the British Captains John Lok and William Towerson reached the coast of the Gold Coast in 1555 and 1556 Cape Coast was a small fishing village by the name of Oguaa with roughly 20 mud huts enclosed by a reed fence. In 1610 a Portuguese Lodge was built on the outskirts of the Village and the village was renamed Cabo Corso. From then on the little village rapidly grew and changed hands a number of times until it was occupied by the Swedes in 1652 for six years until it was captured by the Danes who signed a treaty with the presiding local Chief to construct a larger fort. The fort was taken over briefly by the Dutch until it fell into the hands of the British during the Anglo - Dutch War of 1664 - 65. Cabo Corso became Cape Coast and was Britain's headquarters on the Gulf of Guinea. The British begun modernizing and expanding the fort in 1672 to become modern day Cape Coast Castle. By the late 17th century Cape Coast had grown from a small fishing village into one of the most important trading posts along the West African coast and now had about 500 houses.
Cape Coasts importance came from its position as link between the maritime trade routes of the European powers and the terrestrial trade routes through to the Sahel. Throughout the 18th century Cape Coasts economy was dominated by its role as one of the main Slave Trade Markets in West Africa. At ant time before 1807 when Slave Trade was officially abolished there would have been a total of 1,500 slaves waiting in the castles dungeons to be shipped off to the New World.
Following the re-
establishment of legitimate trade from the Gulf of Guinea by 1821, all
British Castles were formally taken over by the British Crown and placed
under the governor of Sierra Leone. Cape Coast served as administrative
headquarters for Britain's Castles from 1828 until 1874 when it became
the first seat of government of Britain's Gold Coast colony. Three years
later the administration was moved to Accra.
Today Cape Coast still has many of the colonial buildings standing and
the town is much the same in layout as it was then. The Castle has been
renovated and has a magnificent museum telling its history.