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Fort Orange, Ghana

former fortified colonial trade-post in Sekondi, Ghana

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ2182050 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fort Orange (Dutch: Fort Oranje) is a fort located in Sekondi, Western Region, Ghana. Built by the Dutch in 1642, it was originally established as a trading lodge. The site was enlarged into a full fort in 1690 to support the growing European trade and to provide protection against local conflicts and rival European powers.

It is situated adjacent to the English-built Fort Sekondi, which was constructed in 1682. The fort was transferred to British control in 1872 along with the rest of the Dutch Gold Coast holdings, following the Anglo-Dutch treaty of that year.

History

Fort Orange was first constructed as a lodge in 1642 by the Dutch West India Company to facilitate trade along the Gold Coast. During the 1670s, it operated as a trading post before being expanded into a fort in 1690. In September 1694, the fort was attacked by the Ahantas, which prompted reinforcement and remodeling of the structure to a full-fledged fortification by 1704.

Current situation

Fort Orange used to serve as a lookout post but currently serves as a naval base for the Ghana Ports and Harbor Authority.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Fort Orange, Ghana” as former fortified colonial trade-post in Sekondi, Ghana. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fort, Orange and Ghana.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1642, 1690, 1682, 1872—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1690-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Fort, Orange and Ghana providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Fort Orange, Ghana”, the useful work is to connect “former fortified colonial trade-post in Sekondi, Ghana” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2182050. Authority coordinates are 4.936, -1.707. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1642, 1690, 1682 and 1872.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fort Orange, Ghana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.