Because of its importance during the early European colonial period in West Africa and its testimony to the African gold trade and the Atlantic slave trade, the fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979 (along with several other castles and forts in Ghana).

Although the Gold Coast was already settled by Portuguese, there was little effort to evict the Dutch, as the military resources were committed to the war in Europe.

This changed after the signing of the Twelve Years' Truce between Portugal-Spain and the Dutch Republic in 1609.

In 1612, Clantius built a reinforced fort at Mouri, which, due to the unfamiliarity of the Dutch with building in the tropics, was notorious for its unhealthy conditions.

At the end of 1781 Captain Thomas Shirley in the frigate HMS Leander, together with the sloop-of-war Alligator, sailed for the Dutch Gold Coast with a convoy consisting of a few merchant-vessels and transports.