Lucas

= __Colonial__ __Ghana__  = In 1471, the Portuguese had landed in what became known as ‘The Gold Coast’, because of its abundance of gold. By 1482, Portuguese trading had increased enough that they began to establish their first settlement in western Ghana, known as Elmina Castle. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, adventurers and traders from other European nations began to arrive in Ghana. The Dutch were the first to challenge the Portuguese in Ghana, and in 1642, when Elmina Castle was taken, the Portuguese left the region. The Dutch West India Company led the majority of Dutch exploration and protection during the eighteenth century. In 1750, the British established the British African Company of Merchants to counter the Dutch. The Swedish and Prussians attempted to explore and establish trading posts in the Gold Coast, but the British and Dutch drove them out. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the British had finally ended all Dutch presence in the Gold Coast; taking control of all its resources and forts. Military battles between the Ashanti and Fante tribes resulted in the Fante tribe signing the Bond of 1844 with Britain. The original idea was that the British would have the power to oversee murder and robbery cases amongst its people. However, by 1850, the British became so powerful that they replaced the traditional African courts with their British courts. The British went even further to declare the Gold Coast a crown colony on July 24, 1877, after their defeat of Ashanti tribe. Despite, the British made no claims to the rights of the lands, and so they were not challenged to any great length. The British then moved the capital from Cape Coast to Christiansborg in Accra. In 1896, the British defeated the Ashanti tribe again, but this time they established their own political reforms to the people. They banished the ‘ashantehene’ and his council and replaced them with a resident commissioner who had civil and criminal jurisdiction over the tribe. Meanwhile, the British became interested in the regions north of the Ashanti area, because the French and Germans were making rapid expansions into that area. In 1902, the Northern Territories became a British protectorate. Now that the British had control of the three regions of the Gold Coast, they transformed the areas into one single political unit, known simply as the Gold Coast. May 1956, the people of the Volta region (British Mandated Togoland) voted to recognize specific boundaries of Ghana. Ghana had not yet gained independence, but this brought the country one step closer. One year later, on March 6, 1957, Ghana became the first African nation to gain independence. A paper had been drawn up by Prime Minister Nkrumah for Gold Coast independence, and the British accepted.