When Did Britain Colonize Ghana?

The Republic of Ghana is a nation situated in Western Africa named after the Kingdom of Ghana that existed from the 7th century AD to the 11th century; the lands that make up present day Ghana were believed to have been settled by migrants from the kingdom which existed further to the north.

Europeans first arrived in Ghana in the 15th century and the region became known as the Gold Coast due to the gold mines found there; the Portuguese first established a trading base in the area with the Gold Coast becoming a center of the slave trade. The Portuguese were followed by other European powers like the British, the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danes and the Germans.

The first recorded presence of the British is in the 16th century when Thomas Windham a British explorer visited the region in 1553. The actual colonizing of the Gold Coast by the British took place during the 19th century when they defeated the locally dominant Ashanti tribes in a series of wars fought over a period of years from 1826-1900. Ghana achieved independence on March 6, 1957 one of the first African countries to become independent.