Gold Coast (British colony)

The Gold Coast was a <a href="/facts/British_Empire/hrsz0j7A">British</a> <a href="/facts/Crown_colony/RnCkfdDR">Crown colony</a> on the <a href="/facts/Gulf_of_Guinea/IjU57jbg">Gulf of Guinea</a> in <a href="/facts/West_Africa/oV8Dk0kp">West Africa</a> from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as <a href="/facts/Ghana/IkUw32Ya">Ghana</a>. The term Gold Coast is also often used to describe all of the four separate jurisdictions that were under the administration of the <a href="/facts/Governor_of_the_Gold_Coast/y16aLExS">Governor of the Gold Coast</a>. These were the Gold Coast itself, <a href="/facts/Ashanti_(Crown_Colony)/x2zjj15R">Ashanti</a>, the <a href="/facts/Northern_Territories_of_the_Gold_Coast/Ux2Lz6vc">Northern Territories protectorate</a> and the <a href="/facts/British_Togoland/bfq49yJ8">British Togoland trust territory</a>.
The first European explorers to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial deposits of gold in the soil. In 1483, the Portuguese came to the continent for increased trade. They built the Castle of <a href="/facts/Elmina/MjFKsLXt">Elmina</a>, the first European settlement on the Gold Coast. From here they acquired <a href="/facts/Slavery/IXX2S92u">slaves</a> and gold in trade for European goods, such as metal knives, beads, mirrors, rum, and guns. News of the successful trading spread quickly, and British, Dutch, Danish, <a href="/facts/Germans/F7mBCrJ4">Prussian</a> and <a href="/facts/Sweden/u3qC7lyj">Swedish</a> traders arrived as well. The European traders built several forts along the coastline. The Gold Coast had long been a name for the region used by Europeans because of the large gold resources found in the area. The slave trade was the principal exchange and major part of the economy for many years. In this period, European nations began to explore and colonize the Americas. Soon the Portuguese and Spanish began to export African slaves to the Caribbean, and North and South America. The Dutch and British also entered the slave trade, at first supplying slaves to markets in the Caribbean and on the Caribbean coast of South America.
The Royal Trading Company was established by the British Crown in 1752 and succeeded by the <a href="/facts/African_Company_of_Merchants/sTN9E1pv">African Company of Merchants</a>, which led British trading efforts into the early 19th century. In 1821, the British government withdrew the company's charter and seized privately held lands along the coast, incorporating them into the British Gold Coast colony and taking over the local interests of other European countries. They purchased and incorporated the <a href="/facts/Danish_Gold_Coast/FhKfJmeU">Danish Gold Coast</a> in 1850 and the <a href="/facts/Dutch_Gold_Coast/DhvzhV4f">Dutch Gold Coast</a>, including <a href="/facts/Fort_Elmina/l1lHsl57">Fort Elmina</a>, in 1872. Britain steadily expanded its colony through the invasion and subjection of local kingdoms as well, particularly the Ashanti and <a href="/facts/Fante_Confederacy/Dxpyj335">Fante confederacies</a>.
The <a href="/facts/Ashanti_people/NIN7hfz6">Ashanti people</a> had controlled much of Ghana before Europeans arrived, and were often in conflict with them. In the 21st century they continue to constitute the largest ethnic community in Ghana. Four <a href="/facts/Anglo-Ashanti_Wars/Yq20Cm02">Anglo-Ashanti Wars</a> were fought between the Ashanti (Asante) and the British, who were sometimes allied with the Fante.
The First Anglo-Ashanti War (1822–24), was fought over an insult to an Ashanti chief. Sergeant Kujo Otetfo of the British Royal African Colonial Corps, during an argument with an Ashanti trader, "grossly abused the King of Ashanti, and it was this insignificant event that provided the spark that set the whole country in a blaze of war". In the Second Ashanti War (1873–74), the British sacked the Ashanti capital of <a href="/facts/Kumasi/TsrBy7X7">Kumasi</a>. The Third Ashanti War (1893–94) occurred because the new Ashanti ruler <a href="/facts/List_of_rulers_of_Asante/SELejBPk">Asantehene</a> wanted to exercise his new title. From 1895 to 1896 the British and Ashanti fought their fourth and final war, in which the Ashanti lost their independence. In 1900, they rebelled in the <a href="/facts/Ashanti_Uprising/vdpawJKw">Ashanti Uprising</a>, but the British suppressed the insurrection and captured the city of Kumasi. The territory of the Ashanti people became a British <a href="/facts/Protectorate/TEBGopb9">protectorate</a> on 1 January 1902.
By 1901, the British had established a colony incorporating all of the Gold Coast, with its kingdoms and tribes under a single administration. The British exploited and exported a variety of natural resources: gold, metal ores, diamonds, <a href="/facts/Ivory/pERH5AX6">ivory</a>, <a href="/facts/Black_pepper/6MMqGwm4">pepper</a>, timber, grain and <a href="/facts/Cocoa_bean/cAdQvQxy">cocoa</a>. The British built railways and a complex transport infrastructure to ship these commodities, which forms the basis for the transport system of modern-day Ghana. 
By 1945, in the wake of a major colonial role in the Second World War, nationalists in the Gold Coast stood up to demand more autonomy, sharing power with Britain from 1951 to 1955. By 1956, <a href="/facts/British_Togoland/bfq49yJ8">British Togoland</a>, the <a href="/facts/Northern_Territories_of_the_Gold_Coast/Ux2Lz6vc">Northern Territories protectorate</a> and the Ashanti protectorate were annexed to the Gold Coast. The <a href="/facts/Ghana_Independence_Act_1957/CBnn94MY">Ghana Independence Act 1957</a> constituted the Gold Coast Crown Colony as part of the new dominion of Ghana.

Gold Coast (British colony) open-in-new

Gold Coast (British colony)