Gold Coast (region)

This article is about the African region. For other uses, see Gold Coast (disambiguation).

Historical region of West Africa

5°27′N 0°58′W﻿ / ﻿5.450°N 0.967°W﻿ / 5.450; -0.967

Gold Coast

Gold Coast location in red

Status| Currently the Republic of Ghana
Demonym(s)| Gold Coastian or Gold Coaster (Ghanaian)
Area

• Total

| 238,535 km2 (92,099 sq mi)
Population

• Estimate

| about 31,072,945[1]
Time zone| UTC+0 (GMT)

• Summer (DST)

| UTC+0 (GMT)
Gold Coast

* Bonos (Bono state)
* Fantes (Mankessim Kingdom)
* Ashantis (Ashanti Empire)
* Dagombas (Kingdom of Dagbon)
* Danes (Danish Gold Coast)
* Dutch (Dutch Gold Coast)
* English-British (British Gold Coast)
* Ewes (British Togoland)
* Germans (Brandenburger Gold Coast, Prussian Gold Coast)
* Portuguese (Portuguese Gold Coast)
* Swedes (Swedish Gold Coast)
* Gold Coastians–Ghanaians (Ghana)

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The Gold Coast was the name for a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa that was rich in gold, petroleum, sweet crude oil and methane gas. This former region is now known as the country Ghana.

## Etymology and position

[edit]

Richard William Seale's 1750 map of the Gold Coast

The Gold Coast, Slave Coast, Pepper Coast (or Grain Coast) and Ivory Coast were named after the main export resources found there, respectively.[2]

Early uses of the term Gold Coast refer strictly to the coast and not the interior.[2] It was not until the 19th century that the term came to refer to areas that are far from the coast.[2]

The Gold Coast was to the east of the Ivory Coast and to the west of the Slave Coast.[2]

## Territorial entities

[edit]

Gold Coast region territorial entities were:

* Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
* Dutch Gold Coast (Dutch, 1598–1872)
* Swedish Gold Coast (Swedes, 1650–1658; 1660–1663)
* Couronian Gold Coast (Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, 1651–1661)
* Danish Gold Coast (Denmark-Norway, 1658–1850)
* Brandenburger Gold Coast and Prussian Gold Coast (Germans, 1682–1721)
* British Gold Coast (English, 1821–1957)

Ghana is the legal name for the region loosely referred to as the Gold Coast comprising the following four separate parts, which immediately before independence had distinct constitutional positions:[2]

* the Gold Coast Crown Colony;
* the Ashanti Crown Colony;
* the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Protectorate; and
* the Trust Territory of Togoland (under British administration).

The United Kingdom government was responsible for shepherding through the Ghana Independence Act 1957 with Charles Arden-Clarke. Lord Listowel explained that the name was chosen "in accordance with the wishes of the Gold Coastian population".[3]

## History

[edit]

1930s Stamp Gold Coast Golden Stool with George VI.

Europeans reached this region of Africa in 1482, and for centuries afterwards, various European empires and trading companies set up trading posts, known as factories there. They used these colonies to exploit the resources rather than to settle large numbers of subjects.

The Portuguese Gold Coast was the first claim.[2] The Dutch arrived in 1598 and in 1642 incorporated the Portuguese territory into the Dutch Gold Coast.[2] The Dutch stayed in the region until 1871, when the last of their settlements were bought by the British Gold Coast.[2]

There was also the Brandenburger Gold Coast, which established a colony in the area in 1682.[2] It later became the Prussian Gold Coast.[2] In 1721 the Dutch purchased it.[2] The Swedish Gold Coast settlements date to 1650. The Danes arrived in 1663 and later seized the Swedish territory and incorporated it into the Danish Gold Coast.[2] In 1850 all of the settlements became part of the British Gold Coast.[2]

In 1774 a London commercial expert references a witness that "the king of Guinea, the greatest city in all the countries of Negroland, has a mass of gold of thirty pounds weight as it was naturally produced in the mines which is completely pure, tough and malleable without having been smelted".[4] The British had taken over all of Gold Coast by 1871.[2] They captured more territory inland in the late 19th century after the Anglo-Ashanti wars.[2] In 1957, the territory comprising the Gold Coast Crown Colony, the Ashanti Crown Colony, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Protectorate and British Togoland were united as an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations under the name Ghana.[2]

## See also

[edit]

* Birimian
* Convention People's Party
* Early history of Ghana
* Geology of Ghana
* Kwame Nkrumah
* United Gold Coast Convention and The Big Six

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Ghana - Population". countryeconomy.com.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "The Legislation Providing for the Grant of Independence to Ghana". Journal of African Law. 1 (2). Cambridge University Press: 99–112\. 1957. doi:10.1017/S0021855300000176. JSTOR 745294. S2CID 249895708.
3. ^ Lord John Hope, The Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (11 December 1956). "Ghana Independence Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 562\. United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 229–326. "First, there is the name "Ghana." This has been conferred on the new country in accordance with local wishes. It was the name of an ancient kingdom, in what is now French territory south of the Sahara, which has acquired great historic significance in the Gold Coast."
4. ^ Postlethwayt, Malachy (1774). "Africa". Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. Vol. 1 (4th ed.). London: W. Strahan, J. & F. Rivington.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gold Coast of Africa.

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Akan states of the Gold Coast Region

* Adanse
* Great Akan
* Akuapem
* Akwamu
* Akyem
* Bosome
* Abuakwa
* Kotoku
* Asen
* Asanteman
* Ashanti Twi
* Bono
* Denkyira
* Dwabena
* Eguafo
* Fante Confederacy
* Fante
* Fetu
* Efutu
* Gyaaman
* Abron
* Twifo

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Forts of the former European colonial powers on the Gold Coast

Brandenburg-Prussian forts|

* Groß Friedrichsburg
* Dorothea

British forts|

* Apollonia
* Metal Cross
* Sekondi
* Komenda
* Cape Coast
* Victoria
* Royal
* William
* William (lighthouse)
* Tantumquery
* Winneba
* James
* Vernon

Danish forts|

* Frederiksborg
* Christiansborg
* Augustaborg
* Fredensborg
* Kongensten
* Prinsensten
* Carlsborg
* William

Dutch forts|

* Elize Carthago
* Ruychaver
* Saint Anthony
* Hollandia
* Dorothea
* Batenstein
* Witsen
* Orange
* San Sebastian
* Vredenburgh
* Elmina
* Coenraadsburg
* Nassau
* William
* Egya
* Amsterdam
* Patience
* Goede Hoop
* Crèvecoeur
* Singelenburgh

Portuguese forts|

* Santo António de Axim
* São Sebastião de Shema
* São Jorge da Mina
* São Francisco Xavier

Swedish forts|

* Carlsborg
* William
* Batenstein
* Christiansborg
* Witsen
* Apollonia

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Regions of Africa

Central|

* Guinea region
* Gulf of Guinea
* Cape Lopez
* Mayombe
* Igboland
* Mbaise
* Pool Malebo
* Congo Basin
* Chad Basin
* Cameroonian Highlands forests
* East Sudanian savanna
* Congolian rainforests
* Ouaddaï highlands
* Ennedi Plateau

East|

* African Great Lakes
* Albertine Rift
* East African Rift
* Great Rift Valley
* Gregory Rift
* Rift Valley lakes
* Virunga Mountains
* Kavirondo
* Zanj
* East African montane forests
* Eastern Arc Mountains
* Serengeti
* Horn of Africa
* Afar Triangle
* Al-Habash
* Barbaria
* Danakil Alps
* Danakil Desert
* Ethiopian Highlands
* Dahlak Archipelago
* Hanish Islands
* Gulf of Aden
* Gulf of Tadjoura
* Red Sea
* Indian Ocean islands
* Comoro Islands
* Lamu Archipelago
* Madagascar
* Central Highlands
* Northern Highlands
* Zanzibar Archipelago
* Swahili coast

North|

* Eastern Desert
* Maghreb
* Ancient Libya
* Atlas Mountains
* Barbary Coast
* Gibraltar Arc
* Ifriqiya
* Nile Valley
* Nile Delta
* Bashmur
* Cataracts of the Nile
* Darfur
* Lower Egypt
* Lower Nubia
* Middle Egypt
* Nile Delta
* Nuba Mountains
* Nubia
* The Sudans
* Upper Egypt
* Tibesti Mountains
* Western Sahara

South|

* Rhodesia
* North
* South
* Thembuland
* Succulent Karoo
* Nama Karoo
* Bushveld
* Maputaland
* Highveld
* Fynbos
* Indian Ocean coastal belt
* Albany thickets
* Cape Floristic Region
* Skeleton Coast
* Kalahari Desert
* Okavango Delta
* Cape Peninsula
* False Bay

West|

* Pepper Coast
* Gold Coast
* Slave Coast
* Ivory Coast
* Cape Palmas
* Cape Mesurado
* Guinea region
* Guinean Forests of West Africa
* Upper Guinean forests
* Lower Guinean forests
* Guinean forest-savanna mosaic
* Guinea Highlands
* Gulf of Guinea
* Dahomey Gap
* Niger Basin
* Niger Delta
* Inner Niger Delta
* West Sudanian savanna
* Yorubaland

Macro-regions|

* Aethiopia
* Afromontane
* Arab world
* Commonwealth realm
* Equatorial Africa
* Françafrique
* Greater Middle East
* Guineo-Congolian region
* Islands of Africa
* List of countries where Arabic is an official language
* Mediterranean basin
* MENASA
* Middle East
* Middle East and North Africa
* Miombo woodlands
* Mittelafrika
* Negroland
* Northeast Africa
* Portuguese-speaking African countries
* Sahara
* Sahel
* Southeast Africa
* Sub-Saharan Africa
* Sudan (region)
* Sudanian savanna
* Tropical Africa
* Zambezian region

Authority control databases: National |

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* BnF data

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