Background
Ethnicity:
Dutch soldier and administrator, was born at Hattem, Gelderland
He became a lieutenant general in the army of the Batavian Republic, established by the French in 1795, and opposed the British and Russians in North Holland in 1799. In 1806, in the service of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, he conquered East Friesland and Westphalia, for which he was made a marshal. He was in the Dutch East Indies as governor general from 1808 to 1811 and published a record of his administration there in 1814. During Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812-1813, Daendels defended Modlin, near Warsaw. After the defeat of Napoleon, Daendels became reconciled with the restored House of Orange. In 1815 William I of the Netherlands appointed Daendels administrator of the Dutch possessions on the Guinea Coast, West Africa. He died at Elmina, Gold Coast, on May 2, 1818.