Ghana: The Gold Coast of Africa Essay -- Geography

Ghana The Gold Coast of Africa The Gold Coast, now known as Ghana, is matchless of many civilizations ofAfrica. It was a British Colony until March 6, 1957, when it became free-living as the State of Ghana. In 1471, the Portuguese invaded this area and became involved in halcyontrade, giving the region the name, The Gold Coast. They built forts toprotect their monopoly of gold trade from merchants representing othernations. In 1642, the Dutch West India Company captured alone Portuguesestrong posts and they devoted their interests in slave trading sooner thangold trading. In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the Gold Coastwas one of the chief West African sources of slave export. At the beginningof the nineteenth Century the countries involved in slave trading beganabolishing it as abominable and immoral. The British abolished it in 1807,the Danish is 1804 and the Dutch in 1814. In 1821, British forts were transferred from private ownership togovernment control. The Gold Coast became a British colony and the newgovernment was known...