Fort Ruychaver
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Fort Ruychaver, also Fort Ruijghaver, was a Dutch trading post in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, in contemporary
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
. It existed between 1654 and 1660 on the banks of River Ankobra. The name of the post goes back to Jacob Ruijghaver, the director of the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
's possessions on the Gold Coast, who ordered its establishment. The aim of the trading post was to enhance the trade in
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, as the area surrounding the fort was locally renowned for its gold mines. The classification of the trading post as a fort is a product of modern literature. The trading post was probably not as reinforced as the term "fort" implies, and likely consisted of a simple lodge and a few smaller huts.


Location

In the literature, two possible locations for the fort are given. The map shows both these locations. One possibility is that Fort Ruychaver was situated on the right bank of the Ankobra River, opposite the Bonsa River, in the Egwira Region. Doorman, among others, was of this school. The other theory, primarily advocated by Daaku, takes a diary entry of Director-General Valckenburg as the point of departure. The entry says that the trading post was situated 30 miles from the coast. As one
Amsterdam mile Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
equals 5,754.53
metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
, that would mean the fort's location is 173 kilometres inland. At this distance ("
as the crow flies The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points. Etymology The meaning of the expression is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1838): ...
") indeed a settlement called Sanaya is situated, where according to Daaku once stood Fort Ruychaver. At both locations, exhausted gold fields exist, that were also centres of gold production in pre-colonial times. It seems rather unlikely, however, that the Dutch travelled through vast gold fields in order to establish a fort 173 kilometres inland.


History

The history of the trading post was as dramatic as it was short-lived. The Dutch succeeded in controlling the area around
Fort Santo Antonio Fort Saint Anthony (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Forte de Santo António''; Dutch language, Dutch: ''Fort Sint Anthony'') was a fort built by the Portuguese people, Portuguese in 1515 near the town of Axim, in what is now Ghana. In 1642, th ...
at
Axim Axim is a coastal town and the capital of Nzema East Municipal district, a district in Western Region of South Ghana. Axim lies 64 kilometers west of the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, west of Cape Three Points. Axim ha ...
from 1642 onward, especially after signing the
Treaty of Axim The Treaty of Axim was concluded between the Netherlands and the chiefs of Axim in the western region of the Gold Coast (West Africa) and signed at Fort St. Anthony near Axim on 17 February 1642. The treaty regulated the jurisdiction of the Ne ...
with the local State of Axim on 17 February of the said year. With Axim as their base, the Dutch endeavoured to spread their influence further inland, so as to gain better access to the gold field there. This effort was not always very successful, not the least because of resistance of the native population.
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
competition in the Egwira region gold trade made the Dutch decide in 1654 to capture the French trading posts and settlements, which included a trading post near the future Fort Ruychaver. The natives certainly did not appreciate Dutch presence in their homeland too much, but at the same time welcomed the possibilities of trade with a European power. The Dutch tried to cement the uneasy peace that existed at that moment by sending African salt merchants from Axim to the fort to do the trade with the local Egwira. The peace did not last for long. In 1659, Dutch officers in Axim noted that the transport and communication routes to the fort were blocked, and in early 1660, the message arrived that the fort was destroyed by the local population, with the Axim merchants driven out. The Dutch effort to control the gold trade inland had failed. The Dutch only renewed their effort in the late 1830s, at that time attempting to establish a gold mine of their own.


Notes


References

* * Meredith, Henry (1812). ''An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa: with a brief history of the African Company'', London. * Cruickshank, Brodie (1855). ''Ein achtzehnjähriger Aufenthalt auf der Goldküste Afrika's'', Leipzig. * Doorman, J. G. (1898). ''Die Niederländisch-West-Indische Compagnie an der Goldküste'', In: ''Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde'' (Batavia), 40 (5/6), pp. 387–496. * Daaku, Kwame Yeboa (1970). ''Trade and politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720 - A Study of the African Reaction to European Trade'', Oxford. {{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1654 Dutch Gold Coast Castles in Ghana 1654 establishments in the Dutch Empire Ruychaver