Dutch Gold Coast
The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch: Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea), was a portion of contemporary Ghana known as the Gold Coast (Dutch: Goudkust), that from 1612 was gradually colonised by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) from the Dutch and Batavian Republics (present-day Kingdom of the Netherlands). The Dutch began trading in the area around 1598, joining the Portuguese which had a trading post there since the late 15th century.