The Contest for Salaga: Anglo-German Conflict in the Gold Coast Hinterland

European acquisition of territories on the West African coast in the late nineteenth century was meant to be a prelude to the exploitation of the vast resources – real or imaginary – of various parts of the continent for the benefit of the respective colonizing metropolitan power. However, such expectations depended, among other things, on the extension of the coastal enclaves inland, the development of such territories in order to produce the required export staples, and the control not only of the trade routes but also the markets of the hinterland. In the case of Germany the acquisition of colonies and the search for interior markets and trade routes became urgent, if only to enable her merchants to counter the alleged discriminatory tariffs set up by British and French rivals who were already well-established on the West African coast long before 1884. The search for the ‘Salaga market’ in the Gold Coast hinterland – in itself a pursuit of a myth – clearly illustrates the concern of both the German Togoland and British Gold Coast authorities to secure interior trade and trade routes, perhaps principally to feed their customs posts on the coast in order to earn enough revenue to sustain their administration. Map, notes.