Gold Coast

The historical name for the coastal region of present-day Ghana, associated with gold commerce and European forts. British colonial rule ended there with Ghanaian independence in 1957.

Portuguese Gold Coast: The stretch of the West African coast where Portugal established early trading posts and forts, beginning in the late fifteenth century. Portuguese merchants built Elmina Castle in 1482, the first major European fort on the coast.
Osei Tutu: An Asante ruler who founded the Asante Empire around the turn of the eighteenth century. His state became a powerful inland neighbor and adversary of British coastal authority.
Gold trade in West Africa: The long-distance exchange of West African gold through Saharan, Atlantic, and regional trade networks. Gold commerce gave the coast its European name and drew foreign merchants.
Anglo-Ashanti wars: A series of conflicts between the British Empire and the Asante Empire from the nineteenth century to 1900. These wars extended British power from the coast into the interior.
Ghana: A West African country that became independent from British rule in 1957. Ghana succeeded the Gold Coast colony but has different borders and a sovereign national identity.
Elmina Castle: A Portuguese-built coastal fortress in present-day Ghana, completed in 1482 and later held by the Dutch and British. Its construction established a durable European foothold on the Gold Coast.
Yaa Asantewaa: An Asante queen mother who led resistance to British rule during the War of the Golden Stool in 1900. Her campaign challenged British control of the colony’s hinterland.
Trans-Saharan trade: A network of commercial routes linking West Africa with North Africa across the Sahara. It connected inland gold-producing regions to wider markets before Atlantic trade expanded.
War of the Golden Stool: The 1900 uprising in which Asante forces resisted British demands concerning the Golden Stool. It was a major challenge to British rule in the Gold Coast’s interior.
British Togoland: A former British-administered territory east of the Gold Coast that joined Ghana after a 1956 plebiscite. It was not part of the original coastal region, though it joined the colony before independence.

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