Portuguese trading colony on the Gulf of Guinea coast of modern Ghana, centered on the fortress of São Jorge da Mina at Elmina — the first European trading post on the Gulf of Guinea and the oldest extant European building in Sub-Saharan Africa — built to control the West African gold trade.
The Dutch West India Company seized São Jorge da Mina in 1637 (after a failed 1596 attempt) and took over the whole Portuguese Gold Coast by 1642, ending Portuguese presence and beginning the Dutch Gold Coast era.
The standard English-language monograph on Portuguese presence and administration of the Gold Coast trading colony, covering São Jorge da Mina's 1482 founding through the 1637-42 Dutch conquest.