By paving the way for the establishment of coastal forts along the Gold Coast, the arrival of several European trading companies further transformed the landscape of society and trade along the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast. While the Dutch controlled fifteen forts, the British possessed nine establishments along the Gold Coast (Dantzig, 1980b). Embodying a complex set of AfroEuropean military, diplomatic and commercial relations, coastal forts were also focal points of European wars (Hair and Law, 1998, vol. I, p. 250; Deveau, 2005, pp. 130-5; Davenant, 1709, p. 6; Klooster, 2016, pp. 101-3; Sutton, 2014, pp. 56-91; Shumway, 2014, p. 65). Often built only after the Africans granted permission, their existence was sometimes predicated upon payment of rent by the Europeans (Valsecchi, 2011, p. 45; Makepeace, 1989, pp; 237-84) As stated in a contemporaneous account, 'every inch of ground is the property of the Negroes - and they are sufficiently tenacious thereof. The very castles pay them ground rent' (J. S. G., 1753, p. 12-13; DeCorse, 1992, p. 164; DeCorse, 1998, p. 222; DeCorse, 2018).  
Most importantly, these coastal hubs ushered in an era of unprecedented urbanization and cosmopolitanism, while also setting the stage for the formation of small, yet highly influential, African trading families. A case in point was  
Edward Barter, a mixed-race man educated in England who built himself a fort and dominated trade on the Gold Coast in the late seventeenth century (Daaku, 1970, pp. 98-9). Another example was John Conny, who played a key role in trade relations in a Brandenburg fort and once refused to turn it over to the Dutch (Jones, 1985, p. 11). At Anomabo, John Currantee skillfully played the British off against the French to maximize his leverage in trade and politics (Shumway, 2014, pp. 33, 42, 76-9; Kea, 2000; Everts, 2009; Weiss, 2015; Everts, 2012; Ipsen, 2015; Sparks, 2014, chapter 2).