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A folly fort or just folly is a specific type of fort built in shallow water, near the shore, in the second half of the 19th century. The main characteristic of a folly fort was that it was built on the water, very close to the edge, very small, and exclusively for military defense with no intention of being used as normal living quarters. They were really defense fortifications rather than what were called "forts" at the time, which were on land and much larger.
The name derives from forts built at the time in the south of England by 
The French Folly and Dutch Folly were forts in the
Commons Dutch_Folly_Fort
/ref> The French folly was located at , which is now well inland due to land reclamation. The British captured it on 6 November 1856 in an intense, one-hour action during the
A folly fort or just folly is a specific type of fort built in shallow water, near the shore, in the second half of the 19th century. The main characteristic of a folly fort was that it was built on the water, very close to the edge, very small, and exclusively for military defense with no intention of being used as normal living quarters. They were really defense fortifications rather than what were called "forts" at the time, which were on land and much larger.
The name derives from forts built at the time in the south of England by Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
and which were called " Palmerston's follies". Later, similar forts built by the Europeans in China came to be called "folly fort" or simply "folly".
The French Folly and Dutch Folly were forts in the Pearl River
The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...
in Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
(then romanized
In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...
as "Canton"), which the Europeans used during the Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
.
The Dutch folly was located at , which was then a small island in the river. Today two skyscrapers stand in the same place, which is at the water's edge and no longer an island due to land reclamation.SeCommons Dutch_Folly_Fort
/ref> The French folly was located at , which is now well inland due to land reclamation. The British captured it on 6 November 1856 in an intense, one-hour action during the
second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
.
A similar fort that saw action at the time was Macao Fort (), but it was never called "folly", possibly because the Chinese built it on a larger island that also had a temple. This island, fort, and temple still exist.
References
Coastal fortifications Sea forts Fortifications in China {{fort-stub