‘This Matter Does not Concern the Europeans’: Jan Conny,  Caboceer Warfare, and the Conflicts over Gross Friedrichsburg (1710 –  1725)

During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Gold Coast of West Africa witnessed a period of significant violence. Growing wealthy and powerful off the trade with European powers, African traders – called caboceers by the Europeans – vied for control of the trade routes that ran from the gold fields in the hinterlands to the forts on the coast. John Conny is a well-known example of these, but his history has been dominated by a narrative based on hostile WIC sources. In this thesis, he is re-examined using a broader set of European archival sources (namely those of the Royal African Company and the Brandenburg African Company). The involvement of European powers in this history – both as participants in these wars and their role in setting the stage for these conflicts – is redefined, while it is also connected to broader patterns in European attempts at enforcing their will on the Gold Coast (in relation to Africans and other Europeans). Finally, the nature of...Show moreDuring the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Gold Coast of West Africa witnessed a period of significant violence. Growing wealthy and powerful off the trade with European powers, African traders – called caboceers by the Europeans – vied for control of the trade routes that ran from the gold fields in the hinterlands to the forts on the coast. John Conny is a well-known example of these, but his history has been dominated by a narrative based on hostile WIC sources. In this thesis, he is re-examined using a broader set of European archival sources (namely those of the Royal African Company and the Brandenburg African Company). The involvement of European powers in this history – both as participants in these wars and their role in setting the stage for these conflicts – is redefined, while it is also connected to broader patterns in European attempts at enforcing their will on the Gold Coast (in relation to Africans and other Europeans). Finally, the nature of fortifications on the Gold Coast is folded into the larger debate concerning fortifications in the colonial setting, challenging aspects of the military revolution thesis.Show less

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‘This Matter Does not Concern the Europeans’: Jan Conny, Caboceer Warfare, and the Conflicts over Gross Friedrichsburg (1710 – 1725)