Battle of Elmina (1625) 1625
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 25 October 1625 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1625 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Ghana | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Dutch–Portuguese War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 5.0830, -1.3470 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Elmina was a military engagement of the Dutch-Portuguese War, fought near the castle of São Jorge da Mina (Elmina Castle) in the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1625. It was fought between 1,200 soldiers of the Dutch West India Company (transported by a fleet of 15 ships) who landed and assaulted the Portuguese garrison of the castle. The garrison was reinforced by 200 African allies put in service of the governor Sottomayor by the local caciques.
The Dutch opened the battle by bombarding the castle. Then the Dutch began to march to the castle, but they were ambushed by the Portuguese and their African allies from hidden positions and were almost totally massacred. Among the dead were the commander-in-chief and all his officers. The Portuguese had very few casualties and took 15 flags, 15 drums, and more than 1,000 muskets, pikes, pistols, and dresses.
The Dutch ships fired over 2,000 cannonballs at the castle before they withdrew.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Elmina (1625) (revision 1375871907), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Elmina (1637) 1637 · 0 km
- Battle of Elmina (1781) 1781 · 0 km
- Capture of Carolusborg (1658) 1658 · 12 km
- Assault on Osu 1678 · 140 km
- Battle of Amoaful 1874 · 154 km
- Katamanso War 1826 · 162 km
Other battles of the Dutch–Portuguese War
- Siege of Malacca (1606) 1606
- Battle of Swally 1612
- Battle off Hormuz (1625) 1625
- Battle of Elmina (1637) 1637
- Battle of Goa (1638) 1638
- Siege of Salvador (1638) 1638
- Siege of Salvador (1638) 1638
- Action of 12–17 January 1640 1640
- Siege of Malacca (1640–1641) 1640
- Second Battle of Guararapes 1649
All 12 battles of the Dutch–Portuguese War →
Browse more: battles in Ghana · Africa · Early modern battles