Plan du Fort Anglois et de la Ville du Cap de Corse.

Title

Plan du Fort Anglois et de la Ville du Cap de Corse.

Description

City plan of Cape Coast in Ghana at the Gulf of Guinea in Africa.

ca. 1760

Artist

Schley, van der (1715-1779)

Jakob van der Schley (1715 -1779) was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for "La Vie de Marianne" by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), "Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme", published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages" are signed by van der Schley.

Historical Description

The first inhabitants of Ghana were members of the Sango or Sangoan culture - named after the first locations in Sango Bay on the Ugandan side of Lake Victoria. The population strata in Ghana and Togo, which are now considered to be autochthonous, are essentially groups who immigrated in large groups from the north or northeast to the areas south of the savannah belt of Togo and Ghana from the 9th and 10th centuries. This migratory movement was triggered by a change in the climate, which was associated with changes in the vegetation of the savannah areas. The modern state of Ghana takes its name from the ancient Kingdom of Ghana, which was geographically located a few thousand kilometers northwest and has no ethnic or historical connection to the current state of Ghana. In the pre-colonial period there were several large empires or federations on the territory of the present-day state. The first of these states, the empires of Dagomba, Mamprusi or Gonja, arose in the savannah region in northern Ghana and was culturally shaped by the empire of the Mossi further north and by Islam. Around 1600 the Ashanti Empire began to rise in central Ghana to become the dominant power in all of present-day Ghana. On the Gold Coast, the fortified settlements of European powers (Portuguese, English, Dutch, Brandenburgers, Swedes, Danes) have been lined up in a density like in no other area of ​​Africa since the 17th century. Around 1820 the Colonial Office took over the British trading post on the Gold Coast. An agreement was reached between the British and the Fanti to defend themselves against the Ashanti from inland. In 1874 the British declared the coastal strip a crown colony. In 1957 the British crown colony Gold Coast and British Togoland became independent under the name Ghana.