Agli albori della presenza europea in Africa occidentale: forti costieri e trasformazioni territoriali in Ghana, secoli XV-XVIII

This article concerns the first European settlements (from the 15th to the 18th century), along the West African coast, named the Gold Coast (nowadays, part of the state of Ghana), and discusses the influence of this presence on the African reality at that time. In this area, the Portuguese, the Danish, the Swedish, the Brandenburgs, the Dutch, the French and the English built a large number of forts and also several castles as the headquarters for their commercial endeavours, especially gold at the start and then slaves for the New World later. It was during the 17th century that a network of urban centres was developed in the Gold Coast, both along the coast as well as inland, as the result of the presence of these European forts, often in competition among themselves, and because of the intensification of local and regional trade, between the Africans themselves and also with the foreigners who had settled there.;

Marzia Marchi, Agli albori della presenza europea in Africa occidentale: forti costieri e trasformazioni territoriali in Ghana, secoli XV-XVIII in "STORIA URBANA " 92/2000, pp , DOI: