The 2000 Enggano earthquake, which registered 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale, and of 2007, with its 3.5-meter tsunami, had no effect on the strongly built fort.

The fort was built on an artificial hill, and construction, using both convict and local labor, took several years to complete.

[1] In 1760, during the Seven Years' War, a French squadron under the command of Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing took the fort and used it as a base to attack and subdue other British settlements on the west coast of Sumatra.

[citation needed] At one time, the native people of Bengkulu burned the fort, forcing the inhabitants to flee to Madras.

In exchange, the Dutch ceded Malacca to Britain and gave up their designs on the British settlement of Singapore.

In 1977, the fort was handed over to the then Department of Education and Culture to be restored and converted into a heritage site.