Goudkust

Goudkust is the Dutch name for the Gold Coast, a historic coastal region of West Africa along the Gulf of Guinea. The term was used from the 17th century to describe the network of Dutch trading posts and forts established to profit from gold and other coastal resources. The core of the area lies in what is today Ghana, with a string of forts and settlements established at key points along the coast, including Elmina, that became central to Dutch colonial commerce. The name reflects the long-standing European interest in the region’s gold resources and, later, in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

During the 17th to 19th centuries, the Dutch Gold Coast formed part of the Dutch colonial network. Competition with other European powers and changing treaties shaped its extent; in 1872 Britain and the Netherlands signed a treaty that largely ceded the coastal possessions to Britain. By 1874, the Dutch Gold Coast had ceased to exist as a separate entity, with the area integrated into the British Gold Coast colony. Ghana achieved independence in 1957.

Today, the term Goudkust is mainly of historical and scholarly relevance. The territory is part of present-day Ghana, a country whose economy relies heavily on cocoa production and, historically, on the wealth extracted through colonial trade. In Dutch-language sources, the name remains a reference point for studies of colonial-era West Africa.