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The Gold Coast of West Africa was captured from the Portuguese by the Dutch West India Company (GWC) in 1637, and was used as a port for trading gold, as well as for its fleets’ long voyages to Asia where the Netherlands controlled majority stakes in the spice trade, and to the Americas where the GWC shipped slaves. The Gold Coast remained in Dutch hands until 1872-4 when the British moved in and made it a Crown Colony. Ghana achieved independence in 1957.<br/><br/> In this oil painting, the director-general wears a bright red jacket with richly embroidered cuffs. Below his tricorn hat he wears a wig, but a long ponytail is visible and there are traces of powder on his shoulder. Pranger points to an ivory staff of office on the table, which is covered with a green cloth bearing the initials GWC—'Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie'—meaning the Dutch West India Company. Behind him a servant waits patiently, holding a ‘pajong’, a ceremonial parasol, under his arm.
The Atlas Maior is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1662 and 1672, in Latin (11 volumes), French (12 volumes), Dutch (9 volumes), German (10 volumes) and Spanish (10 volumes), containing 594 maps and around 3000 pages of text.<br/><br/> It was the largest and most expensive book published in the seventeenth century. Earlier, much smaller versions, titled Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, Atlas Novus, were published from 1634 onwards.
The Dutch West India Company was a chartered company (known as the 'WIC') of Dutch merchants. On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.<br/><br/> The area where the company could operate consisted of West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and the eastern part of New Guinea. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the various trading posts established by the merchants.<br/><br/> The company became instrumental in the Dutch colonization of the Americas.