1.
Gambia Colony and Protectorate
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The Gambia Colony and Protectorate was part of the British Empire in the New Imperialism era. The colony was the area surrounding Bathurst, and the protectorate the inland territory situated around the Gambia River. The foundation of the colony was Fort James and Bathurst, where British presence was established in 1815 and 1816, respectively. For various periods in its existence it was subordinate to the Sierra Leone colony, the boundaries of the territory were an issue of contention between the British and French authorities due to the proximity to French Senegal. Additionally, on occasions the British government had attempted to exchange it with France for other territories. France and Britain agreed in 1889 in principle to set the boundary at six miles north and south of the river and east to Yarbutenda and this should have been followed by the dispatchment of a joint Anglo-French Boundary Commission to map the actual border. Yet, at its arrival on place in 1891, the commission was met with resistance by local leaders whose territories they were coming to divide. ”The colony ended in 1965 when Gambia became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations. The economy of the Gambia, like other African countries at the time, was very orientated towards agriculture. Reliance on the groundnut became so strong that it made up almost the entirety of exports, groundnuts were the only commodity subject to export duties, these export duties resulted in the illegal smuggling of the product to French Senegal. The conditions in the Gambia proved unfavourable and typhoid killed much of the chicken stock, the River Gambia was the principal route of navigation and transport inland, with a port at Bathurst. The road network was concentrated around Bathurst, with the remaining areas largely connected by dirt roads. The only airport was at Yundum, built in World War II, post war it was used for passenger flights. Both British South American Airways and the British Overseas Airways Corporation had services, the former moving its service to Dakar, the airport was rebuilt in 1963 and the building is still in use today. In anticipation of independence, efforts were made to create internal self-government, the 1960 Constitution created a partly elected House of Representatives, with 19 elected members and 8 chosen by the chiefs. This constitution proved flawed in the 1960 elections when the two parties tied with 8 seats each. With the support of the chiefs, Pierra Sarr NJie of the United Party was appointed Chief Minister. Dawda Jawara of the Peoples Progressive Party resigned as Minister of Education, the Constitutional Conference paved the way for a new constitution that granted a greater degree of self-government and a House of Representatives with more elected members. Elections were held in 1962, with Jawaras Progressive Party securing a majority of the elected seats, under the new constitutional arrangements, Jawara was appointed Prime Minister, a position he held until it was abolished in 1970
2.
Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate
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The history of Sierra Leone began when the land became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago. Sierra Leone was founded by a famous Portuguese sailor named Pedro de Sintra, Sierra Leone has played a significant part in modern African political liberty and nationalism, and became independent from the United Kingdom in 1961. Queen Elizabeth II declared that Sierra Leone would be part of the commonwealth, the Afro-European colony was founded by a British organization for freed American slaves on March 11,1792. There were about 1,192 African Americans who were relocated from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone following the American Revolutionary War, the residents, including women, voted that year for the first time in elections for their officers. The people named this city Freetown, later other liberated slaves also settled at Freetown. The descendants of the waves of black settlers were collectively referred to as the Creoles or Krios. Archaeological finds show that Sierra Leone has been inhabited continuously for at least 2,500 years, the use of iron was introduced to Sierra Leone by the 9th century, and by AD1000 agriculture was being practiced by coastal tribes. Sierra Leones dense tropical rainforest partly isolated the land from other precolonial African cultures, European contacts with Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa. In 1462 Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra mapped the hills surrounding what is now Freetown Harbor, at this time the country was inhabited by numerous politically independent native groups. Several different languages were spoken, but there was similarity of religion, in the hilly savannah north of all of these lands were the Susu and Fula tribes. The Susu traded regularly with the peoples along river valley routes, bringing salt, clothes woven by the Fula, quality iron work. Portuguese ships began visiting regularly in the late 15th century, the estuary is one of the few good harbors on West Africas surf-battered Windward Shore, and also has access to clean drinking water. It soon became a destination of European mariners. Some of the Portuguese sailors stayed permanently, trading and intermarrying with the local people, when Europeans first arrived at Sierra Leone, slavery among the African peoples of the area was rare. According to historian Walter Rodney, the Portuguese mariners kept detailed reports, if the Africans were not much interested in acquiring slaves, the Portuguese—as well as the Dutch, French, and English who arrived later—certainly were. Initially their method was to cruise the coast, conducting quick kidnapping raids when opportunities presented themselves and this early slaving was essentially an export business. The use of slaves as laborers by the local Africans appears to have developed only later, the existence of an indigenous slave town was recorded by an English traveler in 1823. Known in the Fula language as a rounde, it was connected with the Sulima Susus capital city, weak or sick individuals would not be bought
3.
Gold Coast (British colony)
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The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957. The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471 and they encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial deposits of gold in the soil. In 1482, the Portuguese built the Castle of Elmina, the first European settlement on the Gold Coast, from here they traded slaves, gold, knives, beads, mirrors, rum and guns. News of the successful trading spread quickly, and eventually British, Dutch, Danish, Prussian, the European traders built several forts along the coastline. The Gold Coast had long been a name for the used by Europeans because of the large gold resources found in the area. The slave trade was the exchange for many years. The British Gold Coast was formed in 1867 after the British government abolished the African Company of Merchants in 1821 and seized privately held lands along the coast. They also took over the interests of other European countries, purchasing and incorporating the Danish Gold Coast in 1850. Britain steadily expanded its colony through the invasion of local kingdoms as well, particularly the Ashanti, the Ashanti people had controlled much of the territory of Ghana before the Europeans arrived and were often in conflict with them. They are the largest ethnic community in Ghana, four wars, the Anglo-Ashanti Wars, were fought between the Ashanti and the British, who were sometimes allied with the Fante. During the First Anglo-Ashanti War, the two groups fought because of a disagreement over an Ashanti chief and slavery, tensions increased in 1874 during the Second Ashanti War when the British sacked the Ashanti capital of Kumasi. The Third Ashanti War occurred because the new Ashanti ruler Asantehene wanted to exercise his new title, from 1895–1896 the British and Ashanti fought in the Fourth and final Ashanti War, where the Ashanti fought for and lost their independence. In 1900 the Ashanti Uprising took place, resulting in the British capture of the city of Kumasi, at the end of this last Ashanti War, the Ashanti people became a British protectorate on 1 January 1902. By 1901, all of the Gold Coast was a British colony, with its kingdoms, the British exported a variety of natural resources such as gold, metal ores, diamonds, ivory, pepper, timber, grain and cocoa. The British colonists built railways and the transport infrastructure which formed the basis for the transport infrastructure in modern-day Ghana. They also built Western-style hospitals and schools to provide modern amenities to the people of the empire, by 1945, the native population was demanding more autonomy in the wake of the end of the Second World War and the beginnings of the decolonisation process across the world. By 1956, British Togoland, the Ashanti protectorate, and the Fante protectorate were merged with the Gold Coast to create one colony, in 1957, the colony gained independence under the name of Ghana. By the late century, the British, through conquest or purchase occupied most of the forts along the coast
4.
Colonial Nigeria
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Colonial Nigeria was the area of West Africa that became the modern day Nigeria, during the time of British rule in the 19th and 20th centuries. British influence in the region began with the prohibition of trade to British subjects in 1807. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884, British influence in the Niger area increased gradually over the 19th century, but Britain did not effectively occupy the area until 1885. Other European powers acknowledged Britains power over the area in the 1885 Berlin Conference, from 1886 to 1899, much of the country was ruled by Royal Niger Company, authorized by charter, and governed by George Taubman Goldie. In 1900, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate passed from hands to the Crown. Progressive constitutions after World War II provided for increasing representation and electoral government by Nigerians, the colonial period proper in Nigeria lasted from 1900 to 1960, after which Nigeria gained its independence. Administration and military control of the territory was primarily by white Britons. Following military conquest, the British imposed a system designed to profit from African labour. The essential basis of system was a money economy—specifically the British pound sterling—which could be demanded through taxation, paid to cooperative natives. The amalgamation of different ethnic and religious groups into one federation created internal tension which persists in Nigeria to the present day. In the 1700s, the British Empire and other European powers had settlements and forts in West Africa but had not yet established the plantation colonies which existed in Americas. Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that the African societies were established and more populous than those of the Americas. Local leaders, cognizant of the situation in the West Indies, India, and elsewhere, recognized the risks of British expansion. A chief of Bonny in 1860 explained that he refused a British treaty due to the tendency to induce the Chiefs to sign a treaty whose meaning they did not understand, and then seize upon the country. European slave trading from West Africa began before 1650, with people taken at a rate of about 3,000 per year and this rate rose to 20,000 per year in the last quarter of the century. The slave trade was heaviest in the period 1700–1850, with an average of 76,000 people taken from Africa each year between 1783 and 1792, at first, the trade centered around West Central Africa, now the Congo. But in the 1700s, the Bight of Benin became the next most important hub, ouidah and Lagos were the major ports in Biafra. From 1790–1807, predominantly British slave traders purchased 1000–2000 slaves each year in Lagos alone, the trade subsequently continued under the Portuguese
5.
West Africa
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West Africa, also called Western Africa and the West of Africa, is the westernmost subregion of Africa. Early human settlers from northern Holocene societies arrived in West Africa around 12,000 B. C, sedentary farming began in, or around the fifth millennium B. C, as well as the domestication of cattle. By 1500 B. C, ironworking technology allowed an expansion of productivity. Northern tribes developed walled settlements and non-walled settlements that numbered at 400, in the forest region, Iron Age cultures began to flourish, and an inter-region trade began to appear. The desertification of the Sahara and the change of the coast cause trade with upper Mediterranean peoples to be seen. Local leather, cloth, and gold also contributed to the abundance of prosperity for many of the following empires. Also, based on the archaeology of city of Kumbi Saleh in modern-day Mauritania, three great kingdoms were identified in Bilad al-Sudan by the ninth century. They included Ghana, Gao and Kanem, the Sosso Empire sought to fill the void, but was defeated by the Mandinka forces of Sundiata Keita, founder of the new Mali Empire. In the 15th century, the Songhai would form a new dominant state based on Gao, in the Songhai Empire, under the leadership of Sonni Ali, further east, Oyo arose as the dominant Yoruba state and the Aro Confederacy as a dominant Igbo state in modern-day Nigeria. The Kingdom of Nri was a West African medieval state in the present-day southeastern Nigeria, the Kingdom of Nri was unusual in the history of world government in that its leader exercised no military power over his subjects. The kingdom existed as a sphere of religious and political influence over a third of Igboland, the Eze Nri managed trade and diplomacy on behalf of the Nri people, and possessed divine authority in religious matters. The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire of what is today Western, established in the 15th century, the Oyo Empire grew to become one of the largest West African states. It rose through the organizational skills of the Yoruba, wealth gained from trade. The Benin Empire was an empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City, Edo and it should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin, formerly called Dahomey. The Benin Empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in the hinterland of West Africa. Olfert Dapper, a Dutch writer, describing Benin in his book Description of Africa and its craft was the most adored and treasured bronze casting in the history of Africa. It was annexed by the British Empire in 1897 during the invasion, in the early 19th century, a series of Fulani reformist jihads swept across Western Africa
6.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
7.
The Gambia
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The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa that is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa, the Gambia is situated on either side of the Gambia River, the nations namesake, which flows through the centre of The Gambia and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 10,689 square kilometres with a population of 1,882,450 at the April 2013 census, Banjul is the Gambian capital, and the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama. Later, on 25 May 1765, The Gambia was made a part of the British Empire when the government formally assumed control, in 1965, The Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara, who ruled until Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless 1994 coup. Adama Barrow became The Gambias third president in January 2017, after defeating Jammeh in December 2016 elections, Jammeh initially refused to accept the results, which triggered a constitutional crisis and military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States, resulting in his exile. The Gambias economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism, in 2008, about a third of the population lived below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. The name Gambia is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra/Kambaa, meaning Gambia river, upon independence as a Commonwealth realm, the country used the name The Gambia. Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the name of the country became Republic of The Gambia. The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the name to Islamic Republic of The Gambia in December 2015. On 29 January 2017 the new President Adama Barrow said the name will go back to Republic of The Gambia. Arab traders provided the first written accounts of the Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries, during the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to an export trade in slaves, gold and ivory. At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called Gambia was part of the Mali Empire, the Portuguese reached this area by sea in the mid-15th century, and began to dominate overseas trade. In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with the Gambia, between 1651 and 1661, some parts of the Gambia were under the rule of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and were bought by Prince Jacob Kettler. The British Empire occupied the Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there following the Capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 First Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River and this was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856. As many as three million slaves may have taken from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated
8.
Sierra Leone
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Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north-east, Liberia to the south-east, Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. Sierra Leone has an area of 71,740 km2. Sierra Leone is divided into four regions, the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area. Freetown is the capital, largest city and its economic and political centre, Bo is the second largest city. The other major cities are Kenema, Makeni and Koidu Town, Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature. Sir Milton Margai built his government based on democratic principles. Throughout his time in power, Sir Milton Margai was very popular across Sierra Leone, the main opposition APC, led by its leader Siaka Stevens, narowly defeated the ruling SLPP under the leadership of Albert Margai in the 1964 general elections. Stevens ruled for eighteen years in a government, in which his critics. Soldiers and politicians convicted of plotting a coup to topple Stevens were executed, under president Stevens, the APC was made the only legal political party in Sierra Leone, and all other political parties were banned, including the main opposition. Stevens handpicked successor, retired major general Joseph Saidu Momoh, lacked the political dominance of Stevens, Momoh reestablished the country as a multi party democracy in 1991. The current constitution of Sierra Leone was adopted in 1991 during the presidency of Joseph Saidu Momoh, the rebels started the civil war in 1991 in the eastern part of the country during Momohs presidency. Momoh was very unpopular, and Public anger against the Momoh government increasingly grew due to corruption, poor economy. In 1992 a group of officers in the army led by a 25-year-old captain, Valentine Strasser. In 1996 during the war, another military coup of soldiers within Strassers inner circle, led by a 32 year old Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio, toppled Strasser. Since independent to present, Sierra Leones politics has been dominated by two political parties, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party and the All Peoples congress. From 1991 to 2002, the Sierra Leone civil war was fought and this proxy war left more than 50,000 people dead, much of the countrys infrastructure destroyed, and over two million people displaced as refugees in neighbouring countries. In January 2002, then Sierra Leones president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, fulfilled his promise by ending the civil war, with help by the British Government, ECOWAS
9.
Ghana
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Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy, located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km², Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east, Ghana means Warrior King in the Soninke language. The territory of present-day Ghana has been inhabited for a millennium, numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful was the Kingdom of Ashanti. Beginning in the 15th century, numerous European powers contested the area for trading rights, following over a century of native resistance, Ghanas current borders were established by the 1900s as the British Gold Coast. On 6 March 1957, it became the first sub-Saharan African nation to become independent of European colonisation, a multicultural nation, Ghana has a population of approximately 27 million, spanning a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Five percent of the population practices traditional faiths,71. 2% adhere to Christianity and 17. 6% are Muslim and its diverse geography and ecology ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical jungles. Ghana is a country led by a president who is both head of state and head of the government. Ghanas economy is one of the strongest and most diversified in Africa, following a century of relative stability. Ghanas growing economic prosperity and democratic political system have made it a power in West Africa. It is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, Group of 24, Ghana was already recognized as one of the great kingdoms in Bilad el-Sudan by the ninth century. Ghana was inhabited in the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms in the Southern and this included the Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Mankessim Kingdom. Until the 11th century, the majority of modern Ghanas territorial area was unoccupied and uninhabited by humans. Although the area of present-day Ghana in West Africa has experienced many population movements, by the early 11th century, the Akans were firmly established in the Akan state called Bonoman, for which the Brong-Ahafo Region is named. From the 13th century, Akans emerged from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, to create several Akan states of Ghana and these states included Bonoman, Ashanti, Denkyira, Mankessim Kingdom, and Akwamu Eastern region. By the 19th century, the territory of the part of Ghana was included in the Kingdom of Ashanti. The Kingdom of Ashanti government operated first as a loose network, prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan Ashanti people created an advanced economy based on principally gold and gold bar commodities then traded with the states of Africa. The earliest known kingdoms to emerge in modern Ghana were the Mole-Dagbani states, the Mole-Dagombas came on horseback from present-day Burkina Faso under a single leader, Naa Gbewaa. The death of Naa Gbewaa caused civil war among his children, some of whom broke off and founded separate states including Dagbon, Mamprugu, Mossi, Nanumba, Akan trade with European states began after contact with Portuguese in the 15th century
10.
Nigeria
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Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country. Modern-day Nigeria has been the site of numerous kingdoms and tribal states over the millennia, the modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms, Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960, and plunged into a civil war from 1967 to 1970. Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, owing to its large population, with approximately 184 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has one of the largest populations of youth in the world, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims in the northern part. A minority of the population practise religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as native to the Igbo. As of 2015, Nigeria is the worlds 20th largest economy, worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and it overtook South Africa to become Africas largest economy in 2014. The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent, Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globes next BRIC-like economies. It is also listed among the Next Eleven economies set to become among the biggest in the world, Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country and this name was coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Lord Lugard, a British colonial administrator. The origin of the name Niger, which applied only to the middle reaches of the Niger River, is uncertain. The word is likely an alteration of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen used by inhabitants along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu prior to 19th-century European colonialism. The Nok civilisation of Northern Nigeria flourished between 500 BC and AD200, producing life-sized terracotta figures which are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa, further north, the cities Kano and Katsina have a recorded history dating to around 999 AD. Hausa kingdoms and the Kanem-Bornu Empire prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa, the Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri, and the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture, Nri and Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the Umeuri clan. Members of the clan trace their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri, in West Africa, the oldest bronzes made using the lost-wax process were from Igbo Ukwu, a city under Nri influence. The Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and Oyo in southwestern Nigeria became prominent in the 12th and 14th centuries, the oldest signs of human settlement at Ifes current site date back to the 9th century, and its material culture includes terracotta and bronze figures
11.
Gold Coast (region)
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The Gold Coast is the gold rich region that is now the nation of Ghana on the petroleum sweet crude oil and natural gas rich Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, Africa. The Gold Coast, Slave Coast, Pepper Coast and Ivory Coast were named after the main export resources there, early uses of the term Gold Coast refer literally to the coast and not the interior. It was not until the 19th century that the term came to refer to areas that are far from the coast, the Gold Coast was to the east of the Ivory Coast and to the west of the Slave Coast. Gold Coast was first colonized by the Portuguese, with settlement in 1482 of the Portuguese Gold Coast, in 1642 this became part of the Dutch Gold Coast, which had been colonized by the Dutch since 1598. The Dutch stayed in the region until 1871, when the last of their settlements were taken over by the British Gold Coast, there was also the Brandenburger Gold Coast, which established a colony in the area in 1682. It later became the Prussian Gold Coast, in 1721 it was sold to the Dutch. Sweden also had settlements in Gold Coast, with the Swedish Gold Coast established by the Swedes in 1650, but seized by Denmark in 1663, the Danes had been in the Gold Coast Since 1658. In 1850 all of the settlements became part of the British Gold Coast, the British had taken over all of Gold Coast by 1871. They captured more territory inland in the nineteenth century after the Ashanti wars. In 1957, the territory of Gold Coast was granted independence as Ghana, kwame Nkrumah United Gold Coast Convention and The Big Six Convention Peoples Party
12.
Freetown
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Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leones major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and political centre, the city proper had a population of 1,050,301 at the 2015 census. The citys economy revolves largely around its harbor, which occupies a part of the estuary of the Sierra Leone River in one of the worlds largest natural deep water harbors, the population of Freetown is ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse. The city is home to a significant population of all of Sierra Leones ethnic groups. As in virtually all parts of Sierra Leone, the Krio language is Freetowns primary language of communication and is by far the most widely spoken language in the city. The city of Freetown was founded as a land for freed African American and West Indian slaves, Freetown is the oldest capital to be founded by African Americans, having been founded thirty years before Monrovia, Liberia. The city of Freetown is locally governed by an elected city council municipality, known as the Freetown City Council. Members of the Freetown City Council and the Mayor are elected every four years, the current mayor of Freetown is Franklyn Bode Gibson, of the APC, who was elected mayor with 68. 25% of the votes, in the 2012 Freetown municipal mayoral election. The City of Freetown is divided into three regions, the East End, Central, and the West End. The East End is both the most populous, and the most densely populous of the three regions within Freetown, the East End is home to the countrys harbor. Central Freetown is home to the State House, the House of Parliament, the Supreme Court, the National Stadium, the Bank of Sierra Leone, the West of Freetown is the least populous of the three regions within Freetown. The West End is home to the countrys Lumley Beach, Fourah Bay College, and these blacks were African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians, and blacks born in Britain. They established the Province of Freedom and the settlement of Granville Town on land purchased from local Koya Temne subchief King Tom, the British understood the purchase was to mean that their new settlers had the land for ever. King Toms successor, King Jimmy, burnt the settlement to the ground in 1789 and these 1787 settlers did not formally establish Freetown, even though the bicentennial of Freetown was celebrated in 1987. But formally, Freetown was founded in 1792, in 1791, Thomas Peters, an African American who had served in the Black Pioneers, went to England to report the grievances of the black population in Nova Scotia. Some of these African Americans were ex-slaves who had escaped to the British forces who had given their freedom. Land grants and assistance in starting the settlements had been intermittent, during his visit, Peters met with the directors of the Sierra Leone Company and learned of proposals for a new settlement at Sierra Leone
13.
Gambia
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The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa that is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa, the Gambia is situated on either side of the Gambia River, the nations namesake, which flows through the centre of The Gambia and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 10,689 square kilometres with a population of 1,882,450 at the April 2013 census, Banjul is the Gambian capital, and the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama. Later, on 25 May 1765, The Gambia was made a part of the British Empire when the government formally assumed control, in 1965, The Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara, who ruled until Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless 1994 coup. Adama Barrow became The Gambias third president in January 2017, after defeating Jammeh in December 2016 elections, Jammeh initially refused to accept the results, which triggered a constitutional crisis and military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States, resulting in his exile. The Gambias economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism, in 2008, about a third of the population lived below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. The name Gambia is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra/Kambaa, meaning Gambia river, upon independence as a Commonwealth realm, the country used the name The Gambia. Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the name of the country became Republic of The Gambia. The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the name to Islamic Republic of The Gambia in December 2015. On 29 January 2017 the new President Adama Barrow said the name will go back to Republic of The Gambia. Arab traders provided the first written accounts of the Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries, during the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to an export trade in slaves, gold and ivory. At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called Gambia was part of the Mali Empire, the Portuguese reached this area by sea in the mid-15th century, and began to dominate overseas trade. In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with the Gambia, between 1651 and 1661, some parts of the Gambia were under the rule of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and were bought by Prince Jacob Kettler. The British Empire occupied the Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there following the Capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 First Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River and this was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856. As many as three million slaves may have taken from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated
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Western Region, Nigeria
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The former Western State of Nigeria was formed in 1967 when the Western Region was subdivided into the states of Lagos and Western State. Its capital was Ibadan, which was the capital of the old region, in 1976 the state was subdivided into three new states, Ogun, Ondo and Oyo. The region now consist of nine states, across three zones, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun. Contesting the Nigerian State, Civil Society and the Contradictions of Self-Organization
15.
Northern Region, Nigeria
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Northern Nigeria was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, it had independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. In 1962 it acquired the territory of the British Northern Cameroons, the Kwatarkwashi culture, a variant of the Nok culture centred mostly around Zamfara in Sokoto Province is thought by some to be the same or an offshoot of the Nok. The Fourteen Kingdoms unified the diverse lore and heritage of Northern Nigeria into a cohesive ethno-historical system, Seven of these Kingdoms developed from the Kabara legacy of the Hausa people. The Seven Hausa states included, Daura, -1806 Kano 998 -1807 Katsina c.1400 -1805 Zazzau c.1200 -1808 Gobir. Thus they are called the Banza Bakwai meaning Bastard Seven, the Banza Bakwai adopted many of the customs and institutions of the Hausa Bakwai but were considered unsanctioned or copy-cat kingdoms by non-Hausa people. With the decline of the Nok and Sokoto, who had previously controlled Central and they are closely linked with the Kanuri people of Kanem-Bornu, the Birom, Gwari, Nupe and Jukun. The Hausa aristocracy, under influence from the Mali Empire adopted Islam in the 11th century CE, by the 12th century CE the Hausa were becoming one of Africas major powers. The architecture of the Hausa is perhaps one of the least known, many of their early mosques and palaces are bright and colourful and often include intricate engraving or elaborate symbols designed into the facade. By 1500 CE the Hausa utilized a modified Arabic script known as Ajami to record their own language, the Hausa compiled several written histories, usuman dan Fodio led a jihad against the Hausa States and finally united them into the Sokoto Caliphate. The Sokoto Caliphate was under the authority of the Commander of the Faithful. Under Dan Fodio, the Empire was bicephalous and divided into two territories each controlled by an appointed vizier, each of the territories was further divided into autonomous Emirates under mainly hereditary local Emirs. The Bornu Empire was initially absorbed into the Sokoto Caliphate of Usman dan Fodio, the Royal Niger Companys territory did not represent a direct threat to much the Sokoto Caliphate or the numerous states of Northern Nigeria. This changed, when Fredrick Lugard and Taubman Goldie laid down a plan to pacify the Niger interior. The protectorate of Northern Nigeria was proclaimed at Ida by Fredrick Lugard on January 1,1897, the basis of the colony was the 1885 Treaty of Berlin which broadly granted Northern Nigeria to Britain, on the basis of their protectorates in Southern Nigeria. Hostilities with the powerful Sokoto Caliphate soon followed, the Emirates of Kotogora and Illorin were the first to be conquered by the British. In February 1903, the fort of Kano, seat of the Kano Emirate was captured, Sokoto. On March 13,1903, the Grand Shura of Caliphate finally conceded to Lugards demands and proclaimed Queen Victoria, Queen and sovereign of the Caliphate and all its lands. The Governor, Frederick Lugard, with limited resources, ruled with the consent of local rulers through a policy of rule which he developed into a sophisticated political theory
16.
Postcolonialism
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Postcolonialism or postcolonial studies is an academic discipline that analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism speaks about the consequences of external control and economic exploitation of native people. As a genre of history, postcolonialism questions and reinvents the manner in which a culture is being viewed. Anthropologically, it records human nations between the colonists and the peoples under colonial rule, seeking to build an understanding of the nature and practice of colonial rule. It also examines the effects of rule on the cultural aspects of the colony and its treatment of women, language, literature. Postcolonialism is aimed at destabilizing these theories by means of which colonialists perceive, understand, Colonialism was presented as the extension of civilization, which ideologically justified the self-ascribed racial and cultural superiority of the Western world over the non-Western world. Especially in the colonisation of the Far East and in the late-nineteenth century Scramble for Africa, hence, Belgium and Britain, and France and Germany proffered theories of national superiority that justified colonialism as delivering the light of civilisation to unenlightened peoples. A decolonised people develops a postcolonial identity that is based on interactions between different identities which are assigned varying degrees of social power by the colonial society. e. Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, in The Wretched of the Earth, the psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon analysed and medically described the nature of colonialism as essentially destructive. Its societal effects—the imposition of a subjugating colonial identity—are harmful to the health of the native peoples who were subjugated into colonies. Fanon wrote the ideological essence of colonialism is the denial of all attributes of humanity of the colonised people. Such dehumanization is achieved with physical and mental violence, by which the colonist means to inculcate a servile mentality upon the natives, for Fanon the natives must violently resist colonial subjugation. Hence, Fanon describes violent resistance to colonialism as a mentally cathartic practice, which purges colonial servility from the native psyche, thus he supported the Front de Libération Nationale in the Algerian War for independence from France. Michel Foucault argues that colonial discourses are where power and knowledge become intertwined and his work implies that power does not exist for punitive measures but rather, power provides a consistent gratification during its perpetual expression. Orientalism thus conflated and reduced the world into the homogeneous cultural entity known as the East. In Edward Said, The Exile as Interpreter, about Saïds Orientalism and that the applied power of such cultural knowledge allowed Europeans to rename, re-define, and thereby control Oriental peoples, places, and things, into imperial colonies. The power–knowledge binary relation is conceptually essential to identify and understand colonialism in general, with this described binary logic, the West generally constructs the Orient subconsciously as its alter ego. Therefore, descriptions of the Orient by the Occident lack material attributes and this inventive, or imaginative interpretation subscribes female characteristics to the Orient and plays into fantasies that are inherent within the Wests alter ego
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Kwame Appiah
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Appiah was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, before moving to New York University in 2014. He currently holds an appointment at the NYU Department of Philosophy, for two years Joe Appiah was the leader of a new opposition party that was made by the countrys three opposing parties, simultaneously he was the president of the Ghana Bar Association. Between 1977 and 1978, he was Ghanas representative at the United Nations and he died in an Accra hospital in 1990. Anthony Appiah was raised in Kumasi, Ghana, and educated at Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge, Appiah has three sisters, Isobel, Adwoa and Abena. As a child, he spent a good deal of time in England, staying with his grandmother Isobel. His family has a political tradition, his maternal grandfather Sir Stafford was Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer under Clement Attlee. His great grandfather, Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, was the Labour Leader of the House of Lords under Ramsay MacDonald, through Isobel, he is also descended from the British pharmacist James Crossley Eno. He lives with his husband, Henry Finder, in an apartment in Manhattan, Appiah has written about what it was like growing up gay in Ghana. Appiah taught philosophy and African-American studies at the University of Ghana, Cornell, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton Universities from 1981 to 1988. He was, until recently, a Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton and was serving as the Bacon-Kilkenny Professor of Law at Fordham University in the fall of 2008. Appiah also served on the board of PEN American Center and was on a panel of judges for the PEN/Newmans Own First Amendment Award. He has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Harvard universities and lectured at other institutions in the US, Germany, Ghana and South Africa. Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee of Ashesi University College in Accra, currently, he is the professor of philosophy and law at NYU. His Cambridge dissertation explored the foundations of probabilistic semantics, in 1992, Appiah published In My Fathers House, which won the Herskovitz Prize for African Studies in English. Among his later books are Colour Conscious, The Ethics of Identity and he has been a close collaborator with Henry Louis Gates Jr. with whom he edited Africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Appiah was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts, in 2008, Appiah published Experiments in Ethics, in which he reviews the relevance of empirical research to ethical theory. In the same year, he was recognized for his contributions to racial, ethnic, as well as his academic work, Appiah has also published several works of fiction. His first novel, Avenging Angel, set at the University of Cambridge, involved a murder among the Cambridge Apostles, Appiahs second and third novels are Nobody Likes Letitia and Another Death in Venice
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Neo-colonialism
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Neo-colonialism is discussed in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Noam Chomsky. Some neocolonial ideas, like cities, are popular among economists. Neocolonialism labels European countries continued economic and cultural relationships with their former colonies, Nkrumah theoretically developed and extended to the post–War 20th century the socio-economic and political arguments presented by Lenin in the pamphlet Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. The pamphlet frames 19th-century imperialism as the extension of geopolitical power. Neocolonialism was formally defined by the All-African Peoples Conference and published in the Resolution on Neo-colonialism, at both the Tunis conference and the Cairo conference, AAPC described the actions of the French Community of independent states, organized by France, as neocolonial. Moreover, neocolonialism was integrated into the national liberation ideologies of Marxist guerrilla armies, the representative example of European neocolonialism is Françafrique, the French Africa constituted by the continued close relationships between France and its former African colonies. In 1955, the usage of the French Africa term, by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast, denoted positive social, cultural. It was later applied by critics to describe an imbalanced international relation. The politician Jacques Foccart, the advisor for African matters to French presidents Charles de Gaulle. Cited examples are Omar Bongo, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Idriss Déby, the most contested part was in the province of Katanga where the Union Minière du Haut Katanga, part of the Société, controlled the mineral-resource-rich province. After a failed attempt to nationalize the mining industry in the 1960s, in 1961, regarding the economic mechanism of neocolonial control, in the speech Cuba, Historical Exception or Vanguard in the Anti-colonial Struggle. Argentine revolutionary Ché Guevara said, Dependency theory is the description of economic neocolonialism. It proposes that the economic system comprises wealthy countries at the center. Economic neocolonialism extracts the human and natural resources of a country to flow to the economies of the wealthy countries. It claims that the poverty of the countries is the result of how they are integrated in the global economic system. It includes the concept of the late 19th century semi-colony and it contrasts the Marxist perspective of the Theory of Colonial Dependency with capitalist economics. The latter proposes that poverty is a development stage in the countrys progress towards full integration in the global economic system. During the mid-to-late 20th century, in the course of the conflict between the U. S. and the U. S. S. R
19.
Barclays
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Barclays /ˈbɑːrkliz/ is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London. It is a bank with operations in retail, wholesale and investment banking, as well as wealth management, mortgage lending. It has operations in over 50 countries and territories and has around 48 million customers, Barclays is organised into four core businesses, Personal & Corporate, Barclaycard, Investment Banking and Africa. Barclays traces its origins to a banking business established in the City of London in 1690. James Barclay became a partner in the business in 1736, in 1896 several banks in London and the English provinces, including Backhouses Bank and Gurneys Bank, united as a joint-stock bank under the name Barclays and Co. Over the following decades Barclays expanded to become a nationwide bank, in 1967, Barclays deployed the worlds first cash dispenser. Barclays has a listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. According to a 2011 paper by Vitali et al, Barclays traces its origins back to 1690 when John Freame, a Quaker, and Thomas Gould started trading as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street, London. The name Barclays became associated with the business in 1736, when James Barclay, in 1728 the bank moved to 54 Lombard Street, identified by the Sign of the Black Spread Eagle, which in subsequent years would become a core part of the banks visual identity. In 1896 several banks in London and the English provinces, notably Backhouses Bank of Darlington and Gurneys Bank of Norwich, united under the banner of Barclays, between 1905 and 1916 Barclays extended its branch network by making acquisitions of small English banks. In 1925 the Colonial Bank, National Bank of South Africa, in 1938 Barclays acquired the first Indian exchange bank, the Central Exchange Bank of India, which had opened in London in 1936 with the sponsorship of Central Bank of India. In May 1958, Barclays was the first UK bank to appoint a female bank manager, hilda Harding managed Barclays Hanover Square branch in London until her retirement in 1970. In 1965, Barclays established a US affiliate, Barclays Bank of California in San Francisco, Barclays launched the first credit card in the UK, Barclaycard, in 1966. On 27 June 1967, Barclays deployed the worlds first cash machine, the British actor Reg Varney was the first person to use the machine. In 1969, a merger with Martins Bank and Lloyds Bank was blocked by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. Also that year, the British Linen Bank subsidiary was sold to the Bank of Scotland in exchange for a 25% stake, Barclays DCO changed its name to Barclays Bank International in 1971. In August 1975, following the secondary banking crash, Barclays acquired Mercantile Credit Company, in 1980, Barclays Bank International expanded its business to include commercial credit and took over American Credit Corporation, renaming it Barclays American Corporation
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British West African pound
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The British West African Pound was once the currency of British West Africa, a group of British colonies, protectorates and mandate territories. It was equal to the pound sterling and was subdivided into 20 shillings. In the 19th century, the pound sterling became the currency of the British West African territories, the West African territories in question were Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. In 1912, the authorities in London set up the West African Currency Board, the circumstance prompting this move was a tendency for existing UK coins used in the West African territories to leave the region and return to the UK, hence causing a local dearth of coinage. A unique British West African variety of the coinage would not be accepted in the shops of Britain. Australian authorities issued local coinage as a step towards full nationhood, the British West African pound was also adopted by Liberia in 1907, replacing the Liberian dollar, although it was not served by the West African Currency Board. Liberia changed to the U. S. dollar in 1943, togo and Cameroon adopted the West African currency in 1914 and 1916 respectively, when British and French troops took over those colonies from Germany as part of World War I. Beginning in 1958, the British West African pound was replaced by local currencies in the individual territories, the replacements were, In 1907, aluminium 1⁄10 penny and cupro-nickel 1 penny coins were introduced. In 1908, cupro-nickel replaced aluminium in the penny and, in 1911, holed. In 1913, silver 3 and 6 pence,1 and 2 shillings were introduced, in 1920, brass replaced silver in these denominations. In 1938, larger, cupro-nickel 3 pence coins were introduced, in 1952, bronze replaced cupro-nickel in the 1⁄10, ½ and 1 penny coins. The last coins of British West Africa were struck in 1958, in 1916, the West African Currency Board introduced notes for 2,10 and 20 shillings, followed by 1 shilling notes in 1918. Only the 10 and 20 shillings notes were issued after 1918, the last notes were produced in 1962. Gambian pound Ghanaian pound Gold Coast ackey Nigerian pound West African Monetary Zone Economic Community of West African States References Sources
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British Togoland
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British Togoland, officially the Mandate Territory of Togoland and later officially the Trust Territory of Togoland, was a territory in West Africa, under the administration of the United Kingdom. It was effectively formed in 1916 by the splitting of the German protectorate of Togoland into two territories, French Togoland and British Togoland, during the First World War, initially it was a League of Nations Class B mandate. In 1922, British Togoland was formally placed under British rule while French Togoland, following the Second World War, the political status of British Togoland changed - it became a United Nations Trust Territory, although still administered by the United Kingdom. During the decolonization of Africa, a plebiscite was organised in British Togoland in May 1956 to decide the future of the territory, a majority of voters taking part voted to merge the territory with the neighbouring Gold Coast, a British Crown colony. On 13 December 1956, the United Nations General Assembly passed General Assembly resolution 1044 on “The future of Togoland under British administration”, by that resolution the UN acknowledged the outcome of the plebiscite held in the Territory which was a majority in favour of unity with Gold Coast. The resolution recommended that the United Kingdom effect the union of Togoland with Gold Coast upon the independence of Gold Coast, British Togolands capital was Ho, which presently serves as the capital of Volta Region. The region includes much of the former mandates territory, the territory of British Togoland was first formed after a partition of Togoland on 27 December 1916, during World War I. British and French forces already occupied Togoland, after the war, on 20 July 1922, the League of Nations gave its mandate to formally transfer control of British Togoland to the United Kingdom. After World War II, the became a United Nations trust territory administered by the United Kingdom. Prior to the mandate and trusteeship periods, British Togoland was administered as part of the territory of the Gold Coast. In 1954, the British government informed the UN that it would be unable to administer the Trust Territory after 1957, in response, in December 1955, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution advising the British government to hold a plebiscite on the future of British Togoland. On 9 May 1956, this plebiscite was held under UN supervision with the choice between formal integration with the future independent Gold Coast or continuation as a Trust Territory, the Togoland Congress campaigned against integration. It was reported that the results was 42% against from the Ewe people
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Danish Gold Coast
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The Danish Gold Coast denotes the colonies that Denmark-Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast, which is on the petroleum and natural gas rich Gulf of Guinea. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by the Danish West India Company, on April 20,1663, the Danish seizure of Fort Christiansborg and Carlsborg completed the annexation of the Swedish Gold Coast settlements. From 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the Danish West India-Guinea Company, from December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the Portuguese occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish crown colony, from 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation. On 30 March 1850 all of Denmarks Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the Kingdom of Denmark were sold to Britain, the title of its chief colonial administrator was Opperhoved since 1658, only in 1766 upgraded to Governor. The following forts were in the possession of Denmark until all forts were sold to the United Kingdom in 1850, apart from these main forts, several forts and trading posts were temporarily held by the Danes. Colonial Heads of Danish Gold Coast the office-holders of the Danish Gold Coast WorldStatesmen- Ghana Closing the Books, Governor Edward Carstensen on Danish Guinea, translated from the Danish by Tove Storsveen. Article about the Danish Gold Coast during the Napoleonic Wars
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Dutch Gold Coast
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The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1598. On 6 April 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast was, in accordance with the Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1870–71, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in contemporary Ghana. By 1471, they had reached the area that was to become known as the Gold Coast because it was an important source of gold. The Portuguese trading interests in gold, ivory and pepper so increased that in 1482 the Portuguese built their first permanent trading post on the western coast of present-day Ghana. This fortress, a castle called São Jorge da Mina, was constructed to protect Portuguese trade from European competitors. The Portuguese position on the Gold Coast, known as Portuguese Gold Coast, after Barent Eriksz successfully sailed to the Gold Coast in 1591, Dutch merchants began trading in the area. Pieter de Mareess publications greatly increased the interest of merchants in the region, Dutch traders then petitioned the States-General of the Dutch Republic to build a fort on the coast. The States-General were receptive of their demands, and sent Jacob Clantius, after the Twelve Yearss Truce ended in 1621, the Dutch West India Company was established, which tried to seize the Portuguese colonies in Africa and America as part of the Groot Desseyn plan. After failing in 1625, the managed to capture Elmina Castle from the Portuguese in 1637. Fort San Sebastian at Shama and Fort Santo Antonio at Axim followed in 1640 and 1642 respectively, the Dutch West India Company was given the monopoly on trade in the West Indies, including the Gold Coast, in 1621. Mismanagement meant that several disillusioned employees of the Dutch West India Company left the company to work for another European power. Hendrik Carloff, for example, was a former high-ranking officer in the company, whereas Swedish presence on the Gold Coast turned out to be only temporary, British and Danish settlement in the area proved to be permanent. From 1694 until 1700, the Dutch West India Company fought the Komenda Wars with the British over trade rights with the Eguafo Kingdom, in addition, Brandenburgers also had forts in the area from 1682 onwards, until they were bought out by the Dutch in 1717. The Portuguese had completely left the area, but still the Gold Coast had the highest concentration of European military architecture outside of Europe, the European powers were sometimes drawn into conflicts with local inhabitants as Europeans developed commercial alliances with local political authorities. Another way conflicts with the inhabitants was avoided was through marriage. European men often created alliances with the local African people through a known as cassare or calisare. Casar is derived from the Portuguese, which means to marry, Dutch men and other Europeans would marry African woman whose familys had ties to the Atlantic slave trade. In this way, both Africans and Europeans benefited from other and allowed for peaceful trading partnerships
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Portuguese Gold Coast
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The Portuguese Gold Coast was a Portuguese colony on the West African Gold Coast on the Gulf of Guinea. On August 29,1637 the Dutch occupied São Jorge da Mina, on January 9,1642 the whole colony was ceded to the Dutch, who made it part of their Dutch Gold Coast colony. The Portuguese governors, going by this modest, military style, were,1482 -1485 - Diogo de Azambuja 1485 -1486 - Álvaro Vaz Pestano 148, - Álvaro Mascarenhas c.1487 - João Fogaça 1495 -1499 - Lopo Soares de Albergaria 1499. - Diogo Lopes de Sequeira 1506, - António de Bobadilha c.1510 - Manuel de Góis 1513 - Afonso Caldeira c.1513 - António Fróis 1514 -1516. - Nuno Vaz de Castelo Branco 1516,1540 -1543 - António de Miranda de Azevedo 1541 -1545. - Lopo de Sousa Coutinho 1545 - Diogo Soares de Albergaria 1545 -1548 - António de Brito 1548 -1550 - Lopo de Sousa Coutinho 1550, - Diogo Soares de Albergaria 1552. - Rui de Melo 1556 -155, - Afonso Gonçalves de Botafogo 155. -1559 - António de Melo 1559 - Manuel da Fonseca 1559 -1562 - Rui Gomes de Azevedo 1562 -15, - Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo c.1562 - João Vaz de Almada Falcão 156. - Francisco de Barros de Paiva 1564 -15,1570 -1573 - António de Sá c.1573 - Martim Afonso c.1574 - c.15. 1579 - c.1583 - Vasco Fernandes Pimentel 1583 -1586 - João Rodrigues Pessanha 1586 -15, - Luís Tomé de Castro 162. -1629 - João da Serra de Morais 1629 - c.1632 -,1632 -1634 - Pedro de Mascarenhas 1634 -1634 - Duarte Borges 1634 -1642 - André da Rocha Magalhães 1642 -1642 - Francisco de Sotte WorldStatesmen. org, Portuguese Gold Coast
25.
Scramble for Africa
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The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, occupation, division, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. It is also called the Partition of Africa and the Conquest of Africa, in 1870, only 10 percent of Africa was under European control, by 1914 it had increased to 90 percent of the continent, with only Ethiopia, the Dervish state and Liberia still being independent. The Berlin Conference of 1884, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa, is referred to as the starting point of the scramble for Africa. The latter years of the 19th century saw the transition from informal imperialism, by influence and economic dominance, to direct rule. But Europeans showed comparatively little interest in the interior for some two centuries thereafter, European exploration of the African interior began in earnest at the end of the 18th century. By 1835, Europeans had mapped most of northwestern Africa, in the middle decades of the 19th century, famous European explorers included David Livingstone and H. M. Stanley, each of whom mapped vast areas of Southern Africa and Central Africa. Arduous expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s by Richard Burton, John Speke and James Grant located the central lakes. By the end of the 19th century Europeans had charted the Nile from its source, traced the courses of the Niger, Congo and Zambezi Rivers, and realized the vast resources of Africa. Even as late as the 1870s, European states still controlled only ten percent of the African continent, the most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by Portugal, the Cape Colony, held by the United Kingdom, and Algeria, held by France. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent of European control, technological advances facilitated European expansion overseas. Industrialisation brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of navigation, railways. Medical advances also played an important role, especially medicines for tropical diseases, the development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, made vast expanses of the tropics more accessible for Europeans. Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the last regions of the largely untouched by informal imperialism, was also attractive to Europes ruling elites for economic. In addition, surplus capital was more profitably invested overseas, where cheap materials, limited competition. Additionally, Britain wanted the southern and eastern coasts of Africa for stopover ports on the route to Asia and its empire in India. However, in Africa – excluding the area became the Union of South Africa in 1910 – the amount of capital investment by Europeans was relatively small. Consequently, the involved in tropical African commerce were relatively small. Rhodes had carved out Rhodesia for himself, Léopold II of Belgium later, John A. Hobson argued in Imperialism that this shrinking of continental markets was a key factor of the global New Imperialism period
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