effort to prevent the Dutch from taking control of the fort vacated by the British. This effort was successful and the Dutch were rebuffed. Amfo Otu, one of the Great Fante War Lords, next turned to trying to take Elmina, the centre of Dutch power on the coast. The attempt to storm the city failed and the Fante forces became bogged down in a long war. In 1871 the constitution was rewritten and a new Executive Council was created. Amfo Otu and Edu of Mankessim were elected co-King-Presidents, but shortly afterward Amfo Otu's role was switched to the General Field Marshal and Edu became the sole King-President. Weakening of the Confederacy The Fante Confederacy was substantially weakened by European powers including the British, Dutch and Danish. They saw it as a threat to their control and dominance of Africa. The long fighting around Elmina soon began to drain the resources of the state. It proved unable to collect much of the poll tax, and the British refused to allow the Confederacy to tax lucrative trade in the region. For a time the Ghartey brothers (one of the first indigenous millionaires in Africa)funded the state out-of-pocket, but soon the Confederacy's coffers dwindled. Moreover, the fighting with the Dutch and its allies had left the northern part of the Confederacy, on the border with the Ashanti, undefended and these regions felt the Confederation was failing to provide the needed protection. Whiles the confederacy waged war against the Dutch in the South West, they also waged war on their Northern Flank with the Ashantis in protecting their vast territory. This proved to be a stretch too far for the state. British reaction to the Confederacy was mixed. Originally, the British had little interest in directly administering the region themselves and some felt a self-governing European style state was a positive development. However, other British representatives in the region and in London saw the Confederacy as a dangerous precedent that was anti-British and doomed to failure. The Dutch, while winning militarily against the Fante, could little afford to fight a war in West Africa and decided to abandon the entire Gold Coast. The British, now in control of the entire region, approached the leaders of the Confederation and offered them money and also sew distrust among the Fante Paramount Chiefs. This infighting led to the Fante being amalgamated into the Gold Coast around 1873.