Gold Coast (British colony)

By the late 19th century, the British, through conquest or purchase, occupied most of the forts along the coast. Two major factors laid the foundations of British rule and the eventual establishment of a colony on the Gold Coast: British reaction to the Asante wars and the resulting instability and disruption of trade, and Britain's increasing preoccupation with the suppression and elimination of the slave trade.{{Citation|last=Lambert|first=David|title=Slave-trade suppression and the image of West Africa in nineteenth-century Britain|date=2015-09-01|work=The suppression of the Atlantic slave trade|pages=146–165|publisher=Manchester University Press|doi=10.7228/manchester/9780719085116.003.0007|isbn=978-0-7190-8511-6}}McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), Britain and the Gold Coast: the Early Years

During most of the 19th century, Asante, the most powerful state of the Akan interior, sought to expand its rule and to promote and protect its trade.{{Cite journal|last=P. Hagan|first=George|date=1980|title=The Rule of Law in Asante, A Traditional Akan State|journal=Présence Africaine|volume=113|issue=1|pages=193–208|doi=10.3917/presa.113.0193|issn=0032-7638}} The first Asante invasion of the coastal regions took place in 1807; the Asante moved south again in the Ga-Fante War of 1811 and in the Ashanti–Akim–Akwapim War of 1814–16.{{Citation|last=Austin|first=Gareth|title=Asante, 1807–1956: The State, Output and Resources|work=Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana|year=2012|pages=34–71|place=Woodbridge, UK|publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited|doi=10.1017/upo9781580466363.008|isbn=978-1-58046-636-3}} These invasions, though not decisive, disrupted trade in such products as feathers, ivory, rubber and palm oil, and threatened the security of the European forts. Local British, Dutch, and Danish authorities were all forced to come to terms with the Asante.{{Citation|title=British traders and the restructuring of the palm products trade|date=1997-12-11|work=Commerce and Economic Change in West Africa|pages=128–150|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511582035.008|isbn=978-0-521-59074-7}} In 1817, the African Company of Merchants signed a treaty of friendship that recognised Asante claims to sovereignty over large areas of the coast and its peoples.{{Citation|last=Ross|first=Doran H.|title=Asante and related peoples|date=2003|work=Oxford Art Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t004502|isbn=978-1-884446-05-4}} The assets of the African Company of Merchants consisted primarily of nine trading posts or factories: Fort William, Fort James, Fort Sekondi, Fort Winneba, Fort Apollonia, Fort Tantumquery, Fort Metal Cross, Fort Komenda, and Cape Coast Castle, the last of which was the administrative centre.{{Citation|last=Nassaney|first=Michael S.|title=Fort St. Joseph Revealed Then and Now|date=2019-08-27|work=Fort St. Joseph Revealed|pages=223–246|publisher=University Press of Florida|doi=10.5744/florida/9780813056425.003.0010|isbn=978-0-8130-5642-5|s2cid=213549340}}

The coastal people, primarily some of the Fante and the inhabitants of the new town of Accra, who were chiefly Ga, came to rely on British protection against Asante incursions.{{Cite book|last=Sowerby|first=James|title=The British Miscellany: or coloured figures of new, rare, or little known animal subjects; many not before ascertained to be inhabitants of the British Isles and chiefly in the possession of the author /|date=1804|publisher=printed by R. Taylor & Co.; and sold by the author, J. Sowerby; by White; Johnson; Symonds; and by all booksellers, &c. in town and country|location=London|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.120056|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/120056}} But the merchant companies had limited ability to provide such security. The British Crown dissolved the company in 1821, giving authority over British forts on the Gold Coast to Charles MacCarthy, governor of the colony of Sierra Leone.{{Citation|title=Islamic Triumphalism in a Christian Colony: Temne Agency in the Spread and Sierra Leonization of Islam|date=2017-11-09|work=The Temne of Sierra Leone|pages=127–165|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108182010.006|isbn=978-1-108-18201-0}} The British forts and Sierra Leone remained under common administration for the first half of the century.{{Citation|last=Starbuck|first=David R.|title=British Forts in Northern New York State|date=2018-04-10|work=British Forts and Their Communities|publisher=University Press of Florida|doi=10.5744/florida/9780813056753.003.0002|isbn=978-0-8130-5675-3}} MacCarthy's mandate was to impose peace and to end the slave trade. He sought to do this by encouraging the coastal peoples to oppose Kumasi rule and by closing the great roads to the coast. Incidents and sporadic warfare continued, however.{{Citation|title=Antislavery on a Slave Coast|work=Freedom's Debtors|year=2017|pages=28–64|publisher=Yale University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt1vgwbg8.5|isbn=978-0-300-23152-6}} In 1824, MacCarthy was killed and most of his force was wiped out in a battle with Asante forces.{{Cite journal|last=Piette|first=A.|title=Childhood Wiped Out: Larkin, His Father, and the Bombing of Coventry|date=2013-08-20|journal=English|volume=62|issue=238|pages=230–247|doi=10.1093/english/eft030|issn=0013-8215|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/76445/3/WRRO_76445.pdf}} The British were able to defeat an Asante invasion of the coast in 1826 with a combined force of British and local forces, including the Fante and the people of Accra.{{Cite journal|last=Connaughton|first=Richard M.|date=2000-01-01|title=Organizing British Joint Rapid Reaction Forces (Joint Force Quarterly, Autumn 2000)|location=Fort Belvoir, VA|doi=10.21236/ada426696|doi-access=}}

File:Aschanti Gefecht 11 july 1824 300dpi.jpg]]

When the British government allowed control of the Gold Coast settlements to revert to the British African Company of Merchants in the late 1820s, relations with Asante were still problematic. From the Asante point of view, the British had failed to control the activities of their local coastal allies.{{Citation|title=Ahmadiyya Expansion to Asante|work=The Ahmadiyya in the Gold Coast|year=2017|pages=199–217|publisher=Indiana University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt2005s3h.15|isbn=978-0-253-02951-5}} Had this been done, Asante might not have found it necessary to attempt to impose peace on the coastal peoples. MacCarthy's encouragement of coastal opposition to Asante and the subsequent 1824 British military attack further indicated to Asante leaders that the Europeans, especially the British, did not respect Asante.

In 1830, a London committee of merchants chose Captain George Maclean to become president of a local council of merchants.{{Citation|title=de Mel, Sir Henry Lawson, (1877–8 May 1936), Member of the Legislative Council; Member of the Municipal Council; JP for the island; President Plumbago Merchants' Union; Proprietor H. L. de Mel & Co., merchants|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u213981}} Although his formal jurisdiction was limited, Maclean's achievements were substantial; for example, he arranged a peace treaty with Asante in 1831.{{Citation|title=de Mel, Sir Henry Lawson, (1877–8 May 1936), Member of the Legislative Council; Member of the Municipal Council; JP for the island; President Plumbago Merchants' Union; Proprietor H. L. de Mel & Co., merchants|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u213981}} Maclean also supervised the coastal people by holding regular court in Cape Coast, where he sentenced and punished those found guilty of disturbing the peace.{{Cite journal|last=Bernstein|first=Rachel|date=2015-07-06|title=HIV researcher found guilty of research misconduct sentenced to prison|journal=Science|doi=10.1126/science.caredit.a1500171|issn=1095-9203}} Between 1830 and 1843, while Maclean was in charge of affairs on the Gold Coast, no confrontations occurred with Asante. The volume of trade reportedly increased threefold.{{Cite journal|last=Grenfell-Williams|first=Dorothy|date=1962|title=Maclean of the Gold Coast|journal=African Affairs|volume=61|issue=245|pages=348–350|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a095044|issn=1468-2621}}

File:Elmina slave castle.jpg was purchased by Britain in 1873. Also known as St. George Castle, it is now a World Heritage Site]]

Maclean's exercise of limited judicial power on the coast was so effective that a parliamentary committee recommended that the British government permanently administer its settlements and negotiate treaties with the coastal chiefs to define Britain's relations with them.{{Cite journal|title=Précis of the Treaties and Engagements between the British Government and the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast of the Persian Gulf.|doi=10.1163/2405-447x_loro_com_110031}} The government did so in 1843, the same year crown government was reinstated. Commander Henry Worsley Hill was appointed first governor of the Gold Coast. Under Maclean's administration, several coastal tribes had submitted voluntarily to British protection.{{Citation|title=Thorburn, James Jamieson, (1864–14 Sept. 1929), Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gold Coast Colony, 1910–12|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u218141}} Hill proceeded to define the conditions and responsibilities of his jurisdiction over the protected areas. He negotiated a special treaty with a number of Fante and other local chiefs that became known as the Bond of 1844.{{Citation|last=Mackenzie|first=Alexander|title=Notifications Defining the "Inner Line" of British Jurisdiction in Frontier Districts|work=History of the Relations of the Government with the Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier of Bengal|year=2012|pages=395–398|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139192149.026|isbn=978-1-139-19214-9}} This document obliged local leaders to submit serious crimes, such as murder and robbery, to British jurisdiction; it laid the legal foundation for subsequent British colonisation of the coastal area.

Additional coastal states as well as other states farther inland eventually signed the bond, and British influence was accepted, strengthened, and expanded.{{Cite journal|title=Other dimensions of well-being: performance indicators: United States|doi=10.1787/888932778157}} Under the terms of the 1844 arrangement, the British appeared to provide security to the coastal areas; thus, an informal protectorate came into being.{{Citation|title=British Informal Influence in Ottoman Cyprus|date=2015|work=Protectorate Cyprus|publisher=I.B.Tauris|doi=10.5040/9780755623624.ch-001|isbn=978-1-78076-114-5}} As responsibilities for defending local allies and managing the affairs of the coastal protectorate increased, the administration of the Gold Coast was separated from Sierra Leone in 1850.{{Cite journal|last=Kaberry|first=Phyllis|date=1952|title=Western Africa: Part II. The Peoples of Sierra Leone Protectorate|journal=International Affairs|volume=28|issue=1|pages=117|doi=10.2307/2605063|jstor=2605063|issn=1468-2346}}

At about the same time, growing acceptance of the advantages offered by the British presence led to the initiation of another important step.{{Cite journal|last=Bernstein|first=Rachel|date=2015-01-09|title=NIH takes another step in recognizing same-sex marriage|journal=Science|doi=10.1126/science.caredit.a1500011|issn=1095-9203}} In April 1852, local chiefs and elders met at Cape Coast to consult with the governor on means of raising revenue. With the governor's approval, the council of chiefs constituted itself as a legislative assembly.{{Citation|title=Sharwood-Smith, Sir Bryan (Evers), (5 Jan. 1899–10 Oct. 1983), Governor, Northern Nigeria, 1954–57 (Lieut-Governor, and President Northern House of Chiefs, 1952–54); retd 1957|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u169029}} In approving its resolutions, the governor indicated that the assembly of chiefs should become a permanent fixture of the protectorate's constitutional machinery, but the assembly was given no specific constitutional authority to pass laws or to levy taxes without the consent of the people.{{Cite book|last=Levy|first=Leonard|title=Encyclopedia of the American Constitution|date=2000|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|isbn=0-02-864880-3|oclc=43648650}}{{Citation|last=Barnett|first=Randy E.|title=Constitutional Legitimacy without Consent: Protecting the Rights Retained by the People|date=2013-11-24|work=Restoring the Lost Constitution|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.23943/princeton/9780691159737.003.0003|isbn=978-0-691-15973-7}}

File:Prempeh-124-palaver-and-submission.jpg in 1896, the British proclaimed a protectorate over the Ashanti Kingdom.]]

In 1872, British influence over the Gold Coast increased further when Britain purchased the Dutch Gold Coast.{{Citation|title=Ahmadiyya Arrival in the Gold Coast|work=The Ahmadiyya in the Gold Coast|year=2017|pages=163–180|publisher=Indiana University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt2005s3h.13|isbn=978-0-253-02951-5}} The Asante, who for years had considered the Dutch at Elmina as their allies, thereby lost their last trade outlet to the sea. To prevent this loss and to ensure that revenue received from that post continued, the Asante staged their last invasion of the coast in 1873.{{Citation|last=YARAK|first=LARRY W.|title=Asante, the Dutch, and Elmina: An Overview, 1701–1872|date=1990-07-19|work=Asante and the Dutch 1744–1873|pages=93–132|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221562.003.0003|isbn=978-0-19-822156-2}} After early successes, they finally came up against well-trained British forces who compelled them to retreat beyond the Pra River.{{Cite journal|date=1994|title=83 The Fathers who Came after Them|journal=International Migration Review|volume=28|issue=1_suppl|pages=267–268|doi=10.1177/019791839402801s84|s2cid=220340725|issn=0197-9183}} Later attempts to negotiate a settlement with the British were rejected by the commander of their forces, Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley. To settle the Asante problem permanently, the British invaded Asante with a sizeable military force.{{Citation|title=Redgrave, Maj.-Gen. Sir Roy Michael Frederick, (16 Sept. 1925–3 July 2011), Commander, British Forces, Hong Kong, and Major-General Brigade of Gurkhas, 1978–80|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u32068}} The attack, launched in January 1874 by 2,500 British soldiers and large numbers of African auxiliaries, resulted in the occupation and burning of Kumasi, the Asante capital.{{Citation|title=Asante and Kumasi: A Muslim Minority in a "Sea of Paganism"|date=2004-01-12|work=Muslim Societies in African History|pages=124–138|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511811746.010|isbn=978-0-521-82627-3}}

The subsequent peace treaty required the Asante to renounce any claim to many southern territories. The Asante also had to keep the road to Kumasi open to trade. From this point on, Asante power steadily declined. The confederation slowly disintegrated as subject territories broke away and as protected regions defected to British rule.{{Cite web|last=Nketia|first=J.H. Kwabena|title=Asante music|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|series=Oxford Music Online|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000001399|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01399}} Enforcement of the treaty led to recurring difficulties and outbreaks of fighting. In 1896, the British dispatched another expedition that occupied Kumasi and forced Asante to become a protectorate of the British Crown. The British abolished the position of asantehene and exiled the incumbent from the colony.{{Citation|title=Stewart, Captain Sir Donald William, (22 May 1860–1 Oct. 1905), Commissioner, East African Protectorate from 1904; British resident, Kumasi, retired|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u191258}}

The core of the Asante federation accepted these terms grudgingly. In 1900, the Asante rebelled in the War of the Golden Stool but were defeated the next year.{{Citation|last1=Armitage|first1=Cecil Hamilton|work=The Ashanti Campaign of 1900|pages=1–11|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-05803-2|last2=Montanaro|first2=Arthur Forbes|title=The Quest of the Golden Stool|year=2011|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139058032.003}} In 1902, the British proclaimed Asante a colony under the jurisdiction of the governor of the Gold Coast.{{Cite journal|title=Sanitary Progress in the Gold Coast Colony|date=1902|journal=The Lancet|volume=159|issue=4111|pages=1710|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(01)85617-8|issn=0140-6736}} The annexation was made with misgivings and recriminations on both sides. With Asante subdued and annexed, British colonisation of the region became a reality.{{Citation|last=Ampene|first=Kwasi|title=Asante court music in historical perspective|date=2020-06-14|work=Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana|pages=34–63|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429340628-2|isbn=978-0-429-34062-8|s2cid=225687000}}

The British finally succeeded in their earlier plans to abolish slavery and slave trade. In 1874, the British declared all children born to slaves in the Gold Coast Protectorate after 1 January 1875 were born free, thereby introducing a gradual abolition of slavery in line with their policy in India.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 34 The British followed up these reforms by banning debt bondage and enslavement by pawning.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 35-36

However, the British did not enforce these laws, since the indigenous economy was dependent on slave labor and there were little opportunity for vage labor for former slaves; consequently, most slaves were never made aware of the anti-slavery laws, and slave owning and open slave dealing was tolerated until the British officials finally started to enforce the laws in 1911.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 34

In 1902 it was made illegal to "compel or attempt the compel the services" or another person, but slavery was not explicitly abolished due to British fear that an abolition would cause "internal disorganization"; chattel slavery was formally banned in 1908, but the British authorities did not enforce the law until the 1920s.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 36

When the Kingdom of Ashanti was conquered by the British in 1896, the British assured the chiefs that they would be allowed to keep their slaves; Asante became a colony in 1901 and in 1902 it was made illegal to "compel or attempt the compel the services" or another person, but slavery was not explicitly abolished due to British fear that an abolition would cause "internal disorganization"; chattel slavery was formally banned in 1908, but the British authorities did not enforce the law until the 1920s.Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 36

Military confrontations between Asante and the Fante contributed to the growth of British influence on the Gold Coast.{{Citation|title=The Hausa Force and the Religious Marketplace in the Fante States|work=The Ahmadiyya in the Gold Coast|year=2017|pages=31–59|publisher=Indiana University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt2005s3h.8|isbn=978-0-253-02951-5}} It was concern about Asante activities on the coast that had compelled the Fante states to sign the Bond of 1844. In theory, the bond allowed the British quite limited judicial powers—the trying of murder and robbery cases only. Also, the British could not acquire further judicial rights without the consent of the kings, chiefs, and people of the protectorate. In practice, however, British efforts to usurp more and more judicial authority were so successful that in the 1850s they considered establishing European courts in place of traditional African ones.{{Citation|title=Judicial Authority|work=British Overseas Territories Law|year=2011|publisher=Hart Publishing|doi=10.5040/9781472565433.ch-006|isbn=978-1-84946-019-4}}McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "The Colonial Era: British Rule of the Gold Coast".

As a result of the exercise of ever-expanding judicial powers on the coast and also to ensure that the coastal peoples remained firmly under control, the British, following their defeat of Asante in 1874, proclaimed the former coastal protectorate a crown colony.{{Cite journal|last=Glavovic|first=Bruce C.|date=2008|title=Sustainable coastal communities in the age of coastal storms: Reconceptualising coastal planning as 'new' naval architecture|journal=Journal of Coastal Conservation|volume=12|issue=3|pages=125–134|doi=10.1007/s11852-008-0037-4|s2cid=128678644|issn=1400-0350}} The Gold Coast Colony, established on 24 July 1874, comprised the coastal areas and extended inland as far as the ill-defined borders of Asante.{{Cite journal|last=Enríquez-de-Salamanca|first=Álvaro|date=2020|title=Evolution of coastal erosion in Palmarin (Senegal)|journal=Journal of Coastal Conservation|volume=24|issue=2|doi=10.1007/s11852-020-00742-y|s2cid=214784654|issn=1400-0350}}

The coastal peoples did not greet this move with enthusiasm. They were not consulted about this annexation, which arbitrarily set aside the Bond of 1844 and treated its signatories like conquered territories.{{Cite journal|title=California Conquered: The Annexation of a Mexican Province, 1846–1850|doi=10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim050080165}} The British, however, made no claim to any rights to the land, a circumstance that probably explains the absence of popular resistance.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9935-2014001|title=2013 Annual Report - Nothing Can Justify Torture Under Any Circumstance}} Shortly after declaring the coastal area a colony, the British moved the colonial capital from Cape Coast to the former Danish castle at Christiansborg in Accra.{{Cite journal|date=1968|title=British Columbia, coastal area|doi=10.4095/8830|doi-access=free}}

File:Gold Coast Map 1896.jpg

File:Pre-independence regions of Ghana.svg

The British sphere of influence was eventually extended to include Asante. Following the defeat of Asante in 1896, the British proclaimed a protectorate over the kingdom.{{Cite journal|date=2015|title=Amma Asante|journal=New British Cinema from Submarine to 12 Years a Slave|doi=10.5040/9780571343454.0007|isbn=9780571343454}} Once the asantehene and his council had been exiled, the British appointed a resident commissioner to Asante, who was given both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the territories.{{Citation|title=Wilkie, Alexander Mair, (24 May 1917–13 Aug. 1966), British Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, since 1962|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u58616}} Each Asante state was administered from Kumasi as a separate entity and was ultimately responsible to the governor of the Gold Coast. As noted above, Asante became a colony following its final defeat in 1901.{{Citation|title=Asante, Kwaku Baprui, (born 26 March 1924), High Commissioner for Ghana in London, 1991–93|date=2007-12-01|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u5796}}

In the meantime, the British became interested in the broad areas north of Asante, known generally as the Northern Territories. This interest was prompted primarily by the need to forestall the French and the Germans, who had been making rapid advances in the surrounding areas.{{Cite journal|date=1941|title=Interest. Judgments. Claim for Interest against Judgment Debtor Who Had Been Enjoined from Satisfying Judgment|journal=Harvard Law Review|volume=54|issue=4|pages=700–701|doi=10.2307/1333971|jstor=1333971|issn=0017-811X}} British officials had first penetrated the area in the 1880s, and after 1896 protection was extended to northern areas whose trade with the coast had been controlled by Asante.{{Cite journal|title=Imbalances had been growing before the crisis|doi=10.1787/814130478455}} In 1898 and 1899, European colonial powers amicably demarcated the boundaries between the Northern Territories and the surrounding French and German colonies. The Northern Territories were proclaimed a British protectorate in 1902.{{Cite journal|date=2012|title=Unexplored Territories|journal=What if I Had Been the Hero?|doi=10.5040/9781838710224.ch-003|isbn=9781838710224}}

Like the Asante protectorate, the Northern Territories were placed under the authority of a resident commissioner who was responsible to the governor of the Gold Coast. The governor ruled both Asante and the Northern Territories by proclamations until 1946.{{Citation|title=Bishop, Captain Frederick Edward, (23 March 1872–5 Sept. 1931), late Bedfordshire Regt; late travelling Commissioner, Northern Territories, Gold Coast|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u206187}}

With the north under British control, the three territories of the Gold Coast—the Colony (the coastal regions), Asante, and the Northern Territories—became, for all practical purposes, a single political unit, or crown colony, known as "the dependency" or simply as the Gold Coast.{{Cite book|last=Seebohm, Caroline.|title=Boca Rococo : how Addison Mizner invented Florida's gold coast|date=2001|publisher=Clarkson Potter|isbn=0-609-60515-1|oclc=45393879}} The borders of present-day Ghana were realised in May 1956 when the people of the Volta region, known as British Mandated Togoland, voted in a plebiscite to become part of modern Ghana.{{Cite journal|last=Valsecchi|first=Perluigi|date=2014|title=Free People, Slaves and Pawns in the Western Gold Coast: The Demography of Dependency in a Mid-Nineteenth-Century British Archival Source|journal=Ghana Studies|volume=17|issue=1|pages=223–246|doi=10.1353/ghs.2014.0010|s2cid=162392978|issn=2333-7168|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/558363|doi-access=free}}

File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-37-136-1-001.jpg]]

Beginning in 1850, the coastal regions increasingly came under control of the governor of the British fortresses, who was assisted by the Executive Council and the Legislative Council.{{Citation|title=Sircar, Sir Nripendra Nath, (died 1945), Law Member of Executive Council of Governor-General of India, 1934–39; late Vice-President, Viceroy's Executive Council; Leader of Indian Legislative Assembly|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u231810}} The Executive Council was a small advisory body of European officials that recommended laws and voted taxes, subject to the governor's approval.{{Citation|title=Sircar, Sir Nripendra Nath, (died 1945), Law Member of Executive Council of Governor-General of India, 1934–39; late Vice-President, Viceroy's Executive Council; Leader of Indian Legislative Assembly|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u231810}} The Legislative Council included the members of the Executive Council and unofficial members initially chosen from British commercial interests. After 1900 three chiefs and three other Africans were added to the Legislative Council, these being chosen from the Europeanized communities of Accra, Cape Coast, and Sekondi.{{Citation|title=Sarbah, John Mensah, (1864–28 Nov. 1910), Barrister, Lincoln's Inn, 1887; Senior Unofficial Member, Legislative Council, Gold Coast, from 1901; Senior Trustee, Mfantsi National Fund, 1902|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u190678}} The inclusion of Africans from Asante and the Northern Territories did not take place until much later. Prior to 1925, all members of the Legislative Council were appointed by the governor. Official members always outnumbered unofficial members.{{Citation|title=Gokhale, Hon. Gopal Krishna, (1866–20 Feb. 1915), representative of non-official members of Bombay Legislature on Viceroy's Legislative Council|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u186402}}McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "Colonial Administration".

The gradual emergence of centralised colonial government brought about unified control over local services, although the actual administration of these services was still delegated to local authorities. Specific duties and responsibilities came to be clearly delineated, and the role of traditional states in local administration was also clarified.{{Citation|title=Chapter I. Internal Organization of Local Authorities|date=1960-12-31|work=Financial Administration in Local Government|pages=13–26|place=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|doi=10.3138/9781487579906-003|isbn=978-1-4875-7990-6}}

The structure of local government had its roots in traditional patterns of government. Village councils of chiefs and elders were almost exclusively responsible for the immediate needs of individual localities, including traditional law and order and the general welfare. The councils, however, ruled by consent rather than by right.{{Cite journal|last=Deacon|first=Russell|date=2000|title='Pushing at a closed door': The 1998 welsh local government review and its implications for electing welsh councils|journal=Local Government Studies|volume=26|issue=3|pages=1–10|doi=10.1080/03003930008433996|s2cid=153482452|issn=0300-3930}} Chiefs were chosen by the ruling class of the society; a traditional leader continued to rule not only because he was the choice of what may be termed the nobility, but also because he was accepted by his people. The unseating or destooling of a chief by tribal elders was a fairly common practice if the chief failed to meet the desires or expectations of the community.{{Cite book|last=Duncan|first=Joyce|title=Service learning in the community : the cultural implications of positive change|year=2015|publisher=Momentum Press |isbn=978-1-60650-794-0|oclc=911067682}}{{Cite journal|title=A Jury May Have Sentenced a Man to Death Because He Is Gay. It's Time for a Federal Court to Hear His Bias Claim.|date=2018|doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9970-20180016}}

File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-39-2-1-001.jpg

Traditional chiefs figured prominently in the system of indirect rule adopted by British authorities to administer their colonies in Africa. According to Frederick Lugard, architect of the policy, indirect rule was cost effective because it reduced the number of European officials in the field.{{Citation|last=Myers|first=J. C.|title=Chiefs in the New South Africa|work=Indirect Rule in South Africa|year=2012|pages=70–95|place=Woodbridge, UK|publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited|doi=10.1017/upo9781580467421.006|doi-broken-date=2 December 2024 |isbn=978-1-58046-742-1}} By allowing local rulers to exercise direct administrative control over their people, opposition to European rule from the local population would be minimised.{{Citation|title=From Indirect to Direct Rule|work=The Invention of a European Development Aid Bureaucracy|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137318275_10 |isbn=978-1-137-31827-5}} The chiefs, however, were to take instructions from their European supervisors. The plan, according to Lugard, had the further advantage of civilising the natives, because it exposed traditional rulers to the benefits of European political organisation and values. This "civilizing" process notwithstanding, indirect rule had the ultimate advantage of guaranteeing the maintenance of law and order.

The application of indirect rule in the Gold Coast became essential, especially after Asante and the Northern Territories were brought under British rule.{{Citation|last=Thompson|first=Lanny|title=Legal Foundations of Colonial Rule|date=2010-07-31|work=Imperial Archipelago|pages=183–226|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|doi=10.21313/hawaii/9780824834012.003.0006|isbn=978-0-8248-3401-2}} Before the effective colonisation of these territories, the intention of the British was to use both force and agreements to control chiefs in Asante and the north. Once indirect rule was implemented, the chiefs became responsible to the colonial authorities who supported them. In many respects, therefore, the power of each chief was greatly enhanced.{{Citation|last=Graham|first=James D.|title=Indirect Rule: The Establishment of "Chiefs" and "Tribes" in Cameron's Tanganyika|date=2018-05-01|work=The Colonial Epoch in Africa|pages=23–32|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781351058551-3|isbn=978-1-351-05855-1}} Although Lugard pointed to the civilising influence of indirect rule, critics of the policy argued that the element of popular participation was removed from the traditional political system. Despite the theoretical argument in favour of decentralisation, indirect rule in practice caused chiefs to look to Accra (the capital) rather than to their people for all decisions.{{Cite journal|last=Osler|first=Mark William|date=2011|title=What Would It Look Like If We Cared About Narcotics Trafficking? An Argument to Attack Narcotics Capital Rather than Labor|journal=SSRN Electronic Journal|doi=10.2139/ssrn.1800370|s2cid=155227204|issn=1556-5068|url=https://digitalcommons.law.udc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=udclr|url-access=subscription}}

File:Gold Coast Stamp Elizabeth 1953 ½ d.jpg, 1953]]

Many chiefs and elders came to regard themselves as a ruling aristocracy. Their councils were generally led by government commissioners, who often rewarded the chiefs with honours, decorations, and knighthoods.{{Citation|last=Osborn|first=Michelle|editor3-first=Gabrielle|editor3-last=Lynch|editor2-first=Karuti|editor2-last=Kanyinga|editor1-first=Nic|editor1-last=Cheeseman|title=Chiefs, elders, and traditional authority|date=2020-02-14|work=The Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics|pages=296–309|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198815693.013.20|isbn=978-0-19-881569-3}} Indirect rule tended to preserve traditional forms and sources of power, however, and it failed to provide meaningful opportunities for the growing number of educated young men anxious to find a niche in their country's development. Other groups were dissatisfied because there was not sufficient co-operation between the councils and the central government and because some felt that the local authorities were too dominated by the British district commissioners.

In 1925, provincial councils of chiefs were established in all three territories of the colony, partly to give the chiefs a colony-wide function. This move was followed in 1927 by the promulgation of the Native Administration Ordinance, which replaced an 1883 arrangement that had placed chiefs in the Gold Coast Colony under British supervision.{{Citation|title=Atta, Nana Sir Ofori, (11 Oct. 1881–24 Aug. 1943), Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akyem Abuakwa; an Unofficial Member, Executive Council of Gold Coast, since 1942; Provincial Member of the Legislative Council, Gold Coast Colony; President of the Provincial Council of Chiefs, Eastern Province, Gold Coast Colony; Member of the Board of Education, Gold Coast Colony; Director of Akim, Limited; Member of District Agricultural Committee, Akim Abuakwa|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u222064}} The purpose was to clarify and to regulate the powers and areas of jurisdiction of chiefs and councils. Councils were given specific responsibilities over disputed elections and the unseating of chiefs; the procedure for the election of chiefs was set forth; and judicial powers were defined and delegated.{{Citation|last=Baldwin|first=Kate|title=Cross-National Data Set of Chiefs' Power|work=The Paradox of Traditional Chiefs in Democratic Africa|year=2016|pages=189–196|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781316422335.011|isbn=978-1-316-42233-5}} Councils were entrusted with the role of defining customary law in their areas (the government had to approve their decisions), and the provincial councils were empowered to become tribunals to decide matters of customary law when the dispute lay between chiefs in different hierarchies. Until 1939, when the Native Treasuries Ordinance was passed, however, there was no provision for local budgets.{{Cite book|last=Ubink|first=Janine M.|title=In The Land of the Chiefs : Customary Law, Land Conflicts, and the Role of the State in Peri-Urban Ghana|date=2008|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=978-90-8728-041-3|location=Amsterdam|doi=10.5117/9789087280413|doi-broken-date=13 November 2024 |hdl=1887/21154|s2cid=153527682 }} In 1935, the Native Authorities Ordinance combined the central colonial government and the local authorities into a single governing system.{{Cite journal|date=1935|title=Central and local authorities|journal=Tubercle|volume=17|issue=1|pages=43–44|doi=10.1016/s0041-3879(35)80807-6|issn=0041-3879}} New native authorities, appointed by the governor, were given wide powers of local government under the supervision of the central government's provincial commissioners, who assured that their policies would be those of the central government.

In the year 1948 native Ghanaians decided to fight for their independence.{{Citation|last1=Bell|first1=J. Bowyer|title=The Jews Attack, March 1948 – May 1948|date=2017-07-28|work=Terror Out of Zion|pages=290–313|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-13076-7|last2=Arens|first2=Moshe|doi=10.4324/9781315130767-10}}

The provincial councils and moves to strengthen them were not popular. Even by British standards, the chiefs were not given enough power to be effective instruments of indirect rule. Some Ghanaians believed that the reforms, by increasing the power of the chiefs at the expense of local initiative, permitted the colonial government to avoid movement toward any form of popular participation in the colony's government.

The years of British administration of the Gold Coast during the 20th century were an era of significant progress in social, economic, and educational development. Communications were greatly improved.{{Citation|last=Grass|first=Tim|title=How Fundamentalist were British Brethren during the 1920s?|date=2013-10-03|work=Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in the United Kingdom during the Twentieth Century|pages=115–131|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664832.003.0007|isbn=978-0-19-966483-2}} For example, the Sekondi-Tarkwa railroad, begun in 1898, was extended until it connected most of the important commercial centres of the south, and by 1937, there were 9,700 kilometres of roads. Telecommunication and postal services were initiated as well.{{Citation|last=Reid|first=Carlton|title=When Two Tribes Were One|date=2015|work=Roads Were Not Built for Cars|pages=1–7|place=Washington, DC|publisher=Island Press/Center for Resource Economics|doi=10.5822/978-1-61091-688-2_1|isbn=978-1-59726-315-3}}McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "Economic and Social Development".

New crops were also introduced and gained widespread acceptance. Cacao trees, introduced in 1878, brought the first cash crop to the farmers of the interior; it became the mainstay of the nation's economy in the 1920s when disease wiped out Brazil's trees. The production of cocoa was largely in the hands of Africans.{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=Isaac M.|title=Trees of Texas; An illustrated manual of the native and introduced trees of the state|date=1915|publisher=University of Texas|location=Austin|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.120501|hdl=2152/25198}} The Cocoa Marketing Board was created in 1947 to assist farmers and to stabilise the production and sale of their crop. By the end of that decade, the Gold Coast was exporting more than half of the world's cocoa supply.

The colony's earnings increased further from the export of timber and gold. Gold, which initially brought Europeans to the Gold Coast, remained in the hands of Africans until the 1890s. Traditional techniques of panning and shaft mining, however, yielded only limited output. The development of modern modes of extracting minerals made gold mining an exclusively foreign-run enterprise.{{Citation|title=Atta, Nana Sir Ofori, (11 Oct. 1881–24 Aug. 1943), Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akyem Abuakwa; an Unofficial Member, Executive Council of Gold Coast, since 1942; Provincial Member of the Legislative Council, Gold Coast Colony; President of the Provincial Council of Chiefs, Eastern Province, Gold Coast Colony; Member of the Board of Education, Gold Coast Colony; Director of Akim, Limited; Member of District Agricultural Committee, Akim Abuakwa|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u222064}} For example, the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, which was organised in 1897, gained a concession of about 160 square kilometres in which to prospect commercially for gold. Although certain tribal authorities profited greatly from the granting of mining concessions, it was the European mining companies and the colonial government that accumulated much of the wealth.{{Citation|title=4. "Something from Nothing": Generating Wealth in the Racialized Mining Economy|date=2015-01-31|work=Colonial Extractions|place=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|doi=10.3138/9781442619951-006|isbn=978-1-4426-1995-1}} Revenue from export of the colony's natural resources financed internal improvements in infrastructure and social services. The foundation of an educational system more advanced than any other else in West Africa also resulted from mineral export revenue.{{Cite journal|title=Revenue from export taxes|doi=10.1787/888933907963}}

Many of the economic and civil improvements in the Gold Coast in the early part of the current century have been attributed to Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, governor from 1919 to 1927. Born in Galt (near Toronto), Canada, Guggisberg joined the British army in 1889.{{Cite journal|last=KILLINGRAY|first=D.|date=1998-10-01|title=Beloved Imperialist: Sir Gordon Guggisberg governor of the Gold Coast|journal=African Affairs|volume=97|issue=389|pages=577|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007978|issn=0001-9909}} During the first decade of the 20th century, he worked as a surveyor in the British colonies of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, and later, during World War I, he served in France.

At the beginning of his governorship of the Gold Coast, Guggisberg presented a 10-year development program to the Legislative Council. He suggested first the improvement of transportation.{{Citation|title=Kole, Nene Sir Emmanuel Mate, (7 Feb. 1860–30 Jan. 1939), Paramount Chief of Manya Krobo, Gold Coast; Member of Legislative Council, Gold Coast, since 1911|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u212467}} Then, in order of priority, his prescribed improvements included water supply, drainage, hydroelectric projects, public buildings, town improvements, schools, hospitals, prisons, communication lines, and other services.{{Cite journal|date=2004|title=Medical schools conflict of interest policies improve; additional improvements suggested|doi=10.1037/e648622011-003|url=http://ori.dhhs.gov/html/publications/newsletters.asp|access-date=4 January 2022|archive-date=14 December 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041214094303/http://ori.dhhs.gov/html/publications/newsletters.asp|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}} Guggisberg also set a goal of filling half of the colony's technical positions with Africans as soon as they could be trained. His program has been described as the most ambitious ever proposed in West Africa up to that time.{{Cite thesis|title=An Effect that Taping has on %MVIC According to Bodyweight Half Squat Set|publisher=Korean Society for Neurotherapy|first=Lee|last=Soon|year=2015 |doi=10.17817/2015.07.09.249|doi-access=}} Another of the governor's programs led to the development of an artificial harbour at Takoradi, which then became Ghana's first port. Achimota College, which developed into one of the nation's finest secondary schools, was also a Guggisberg idea.{{Cite journal|title=Figure 9. Private consumption has led growth, which has been uncertain|doi=10.1787/888933600790}}

File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-46-53.jpg watches fourth-year boys operating lathes at the Trade Training Centre in Tamale, Northern Territories. This Centre provided four-year courses for boys leaving middle schools and evening classes for those who go from the middle schools into industry.]]

When measuring the influence of living standard during the colonial period, the obvious constraint of a long-term perspective is the limited amount of proper data and a consistent measure of human well-being.{{Cite journal|date=2013-11-05|title=Long-term unemployment rate|journal=How's Life? 2013|series=How's Life?|doi=10.1787/how_life-2013-graph10-en|isbn=9789264200746|issn=2308-9679}} The anthropometric methods provide a way to overcome the limitations, and reveal the evolution of the long run. Baten drew a long run trend that included the experience of the pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence era.{{Citation|last=Iyer|first=Lakshmi|title=The Long-Run Consequences of Colonial Institutions|date=2015-08-20|work=A New Economic History of Colonial India|pages=117–139|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315771083-8|isbn=978-1-315-77108-3}} The results indicate that for Ghana, the colonial period of the 20th century was not particularly bad. To be more precise the living standards improved rapidly in the first decade of 20th century when cocoa cultivation took off. In general, the performance of economy and living standard of colonial time shows a better record than the post-independence period.{{cite journal |last1=Baten |first1=Jörg |title=POPULATION AND LIVING STANDARDS 1914–45 |journal=The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe |volume=2}} It was through British-style education that a new Ghanaian elite gained the means and the desire to strive for independence. During the colonial years, the country's educational institutions improved markedly.{{Cite journal|date=2004|title=Life-years gained from defibrillator implantation. markedly nonlinear increase during 3 years of follow-up and its implications|journal=ACC Current Journal Review|volume=13|issue=7|pages=50|doi=10.1016/j.accreview.2004.07.038|issn=1062-1458}} From beginnings in missionary schools, the early part of the 20th century saw significant advances in many fields, and, although the missions continued to participate, the government steadily increased its interest and support.{{Cite journal|last=Lawson|first=Kevin E.|date=2003|title=Evangelical Christian Education in the Early 20th Century: Marginalization and New Beginnings|journal=Christian Education Journal: Research on Educational Ministry|volume=1|issue=1|pages=7–11|doi=10.1177/073989130300100102|s2cid=158253861|issn=0739-8913}} In 1909, the government established a technical school and a teachers' training college at Accra; several other secondary schools were set up by the missions. The government steadily increased its financial backing for the growing number of both state and mission schools. In 1948, the country opened its first centre of higher learning, the University College.

The colony assisted Britain in both World War I and World War II. From 1914 to 1918, the Gold Coast Regiment served with distinction in battles against German forces in Cameroon and in the long East Africa campaign.{{Cite journal|title=The Impact of the East Africa Campaign, 1914–1918 On South Africa and Beyond|doi=10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_b9789004188471_011}} In World War II, troops from the Gold Coast emerged with even greater prestige after outstanding service in such places as Ethiopia and Burma.{{Citation|last=Killingray|first=David|title=Military and Labour Policies in the Gold Coast During the First World War|date=1987|work=Africa and the First World War|pages=152–170|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-18827-7_8|isbn=978-1-349-18829-1}} In the ensuing years, however, postwar problems of inflation and instability severely hampered readjustment for returning veterans, who were in the forefront of growing discontent and unrest. Their war service and veterans' associations had broadened their horizons, making it difficult for them to return to the humble and circumscribed positions set aside for Africans by the colonial authorities.{{Cite book|date=2013-03-12|title=Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan|doi=10.17226/13499|pmid=24901192|isbn=978-0-309-26427-3|last1=Committee On The Assessment Of The Readjustment Needs Of Military Personnel|first1=Veterans|author2=Board on the Health of Select Populations|last3=Institute Of|first3=Medicine}} (See also Gold Coast in World War II).

As the country developed economically, the power gradually shifted from the hands of the governor and his officials into those of Ghanaians. The changes resulted from the gradual development of a strong spirit of nationalism and were to result eventually in independence.{{Cite journal|title=Figure 2.5. The Japanese wage system has gradually shifted from its traditional seniority pay system|doi=10.1787/888933890540}} The development of national consciousness accelerated quickly after World War II, when, in addition to ex-servicemen, a substantial group of urban African workers and traders emerged to lend mass support to the aspirations of a small educated minority.{{Citation|last=Morris|first=Marcus|title=Between workers and soldiers|date=2019-02-14|work=Veterans of the First World War|pages=48–64|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429056949-4|isbn=978-0-429-05694-9|s2cid=187898587}} Once the movement had begun, events moved rapidly—not always fast enough to satisfy the nationalist leaders, but still at a pace that surprised not only the colonial government but many of the more conservative African elements as well.McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "The growth of nationalism and the end of colonial rule".

As early as the latter part of the 19th century, a growing number of educated Africans increasingly found unacceptable an arbitrary political system that placed almost all power in the hands of the governor through his appointment of council members.{{Citation|title=Colonialism and the Educated Africans|date=2014|work=Postcolonial Modernism|pages=21–37|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.1215/9780822376309-002|isbn=978-0-8223-5732-2}} In the 1890s, some members of the educated coastal elite organised themselves into the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society to protest a land bill that threatened traditional land tenure. This protest helped lay the foundation for political action that would ultimately lead to independence.{{Cite journal|last=Mercer|first=David|date=1987|title=Patterns of protest: native land rights and claims in Australia|journal=Political Geography Quarterly|volume=6|issue=2|pages=171–194|doi=10.1016/0260-9827(87)90006-1|issn=0260-9827}} In 1920, one of the African members of the Legislative Council, Joseph E. Casely-Hayford, convened the National Congress of British West Africa, which sent a delegation to London to urge the Colonial Office to consider the principle of elected representation.{{Citation|last=Korang|first=Kwaku Larbi|title=Casely Hayford, Joseph Ephraim|date=2010-04-27|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.47795|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}} The group, which claimed to speak for all British West African colonies, represented the first expression of political solidarity between intellectuals and nationalists of the area.{{Citation|last=Korang|first=Kwaku Larbi|title=British West African National Congress|date=2010-04-27|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.47789|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}} Even though the delegation was not received in London (on the grounds that it represented only the interests of a small group of urbanised Africans), its actions aroused considerable support among the African elite at home.McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), [https://web.archive.org/web/20090109093130/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+gh0021) "Early Manifestations of Nationalism"].

Notwithstanding their call for elected representation as opposed to a system whereby the governor appointed council members, these nationalists insisted that they were loyal to the British Crown and that they merely sought an extension of British political and social practices to Africans.{{Cite ODNB|title=Labour Representation Committee members of the British parliament elected in 1906|date=2007-05-24|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/96943|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}} Notable leaders included Africanus Horton, Jr.; J. M. Sarbah; and S. R. B. Attah-Ahoma. Such men gave the nationalist movement a distinctly elitist flavour that was to last until the late 1940s.

The constitution of 1925, promulgated by Gordon Guggisberg, created provincial councils of paramount chiefs for all but the northern provinces of the colony. These councils in turn elected six chiefs as unofficial members of the Legislative Council.{{Citation|title=Atta, Nana Sir Ofori, (11 Oct. 1881–24 Aug. 1943), Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akyem Abuakwa; an Unofficial Member, Executive Council of Gold Coast, since 1942; Provincial Member of the Legislative Council, Gold Coast Colony; President of the Provincial Council of Chiefs, Eastern Province, Gold Coast Colony; Member of the Board of Education, Gold Coast Colony; Director of Akim, Limited; Member of District Agricultural Committee, Akim Abuakwa|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u222064}} Although the new constitution appeared to recognise African sentiments, Guggisberg was concerned primarily with protecting British interests.{{Citation|title=Moral Sentiments and Material Interests|chapter=Origins, Evidence, and Consequences|date=2005|publisher=The MIT Press|doi=10.7551/mitpress/4771.003.0004|isbn=978-0-262-27386-2}} For example, he provided Africans with a limited voice in the central government; yet, by limiting nominations to chiefs, he drove a wedge between chiefs and their educated subjects.{{Citation|title=Atta, Nana Sir Ofori, (11 Oct. 1881–24 Aug. 1943), Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akyem Abuakwa; an Unofficial Member, Executive Council of Gold Coast, since 1942; Provincial Member of the Legislative Council, Gold Coast Colony; President of the Provincial Council of Chiefs, Eastern Province, Gold Coast Colony; Member of the Board of Education, Gold Coast Colony; Director of Akim, Limited; Member of District Agricultural Committee, Akim Abuakwa|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u222064}} The intellectuals believed that the chiefs, in return for British support, had allowed the provincial councils to fall completely under control of the government. By the mid-1930s, however, a gradual rapprochement between chiefs and intellectuals had begun.

Agitation for more adequate representation continued. Newspapers owned and managed by Africans played a major part in provoking this discontent—six were being published in the 1930s. As a result of the call for broader representation, two more unofficial African members were added to the Executive Council in 1943.{{Cite journal|title=Figure 6.8. Immigrant-owned firms were more likely to be job creators|doi=10.1787/888934066425}} Changes in the Legislative Council, however, had to await a different political climate in London, which came about only with the postwar election of a British Labour Party government.

The new Gold Coast constitution of 1946 (also known as the Burns constitution after Sir Alan Burns, the governor of the time) was a bold document. For the first time, the concept of an official majority was abandoned.{{Citation|last=Sokolowski|first=Robert|title=The Formation of Husserl's Concept of Constitution|chapter=The Constitution Performed by Inner Time|date=1970|series=Phaenomenologica|volume=18|pages=74–115|place=Dordrecht|publisher=Springer Netherlands|doi=10.1007/978-94-017-3325-0_4|isbn=978-90-481-8316-6}} The Legislative Council was now composed of six ex officio members, six nominated members, and eighteen elected members. The 1946 constitution also admitted representatives from Asante into the council for the first time. Even with a Labour Party government in power, however, the British continued to view the colonies as a source of raw materials that were needed to strengthen their crippled economy. Change that would place real power in African hands was not a priority among British leaders until after rioting and looting in Accra and other towns and cities in early 1948 over issues of pensions for ex-servicemen, the dominant role of foreigners in the economy, the shortage of housing, and other economic and political grievances.

With elected members in a decisive majority, Ghana had reached a level of political maturity unequaled anywhere in colonial Africa. The constitution did not, however, grant full self-government.{{Cite journal|last=Bleek|first=Wolf|date=1990|title=Did the Akan resort to abortion in pre-colonial Ghana? Some Conjectures|journal=Africa|volume=60|issue=1|pages=121–131|doi=10.2307/1160430|jstor=1160430|pmid=12343106|s2cid=24702978 |issn=0001-9720|url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2130156/35567_abortion_conjectures._Africa_1990._pdf.pdf}} Executive power remained in the hands of the governor, to whom the Legislative Council was responsible. Hence, the constitution, although greeted with enthusiasm as a significant milestone, soon encountered trouble.{{Cite journal|date=1936|title=Members Elected by the Executive Council|journal=Africa|volume=9|issue=4|pages=543|doi=10.1017/s0001972000008986|s2cid=245910374 |issn=0001-9720}} World War II had just ended, and many Gold Coast veterans who had served in British overseas expeditions returned to a country beset with shortages, inflation, unemployment, and black-market practices. There veterans, along with discontented urban elements, formed a nucleus of malcontents ripe for disruptive action.{{Citation|title=Medals of Honor Presented to Black Veterans of World War II (1997)|date=2009-09-30|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.33755|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}} They were now joined by farmers, who resented drastic governmental measures required to cut out diseased cacao trees to control an epidemic, and by many others who were unhappy that the end of the war had not been followed by economic improvements.{{Citation|title=Of the Many Who Returned and Yet Were Dead|work=The Philosophy of War and Exile|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137351227_6 |isbn=978-1-137-35122-7}}

Although political organisations had existed in the British colony, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was the first nationalist movement with the aim of self-government "in the shortest possible time".{{Cite journal|last=Waters|first=R. S.|date=1933|title=Possible Results had Modern Air Reconnaissance Existed in 1914|journal=Royal United Services Institution. Journal|volume=78|issue=509|pages=44–59|doi=10.1080/03071843309433806|issn=0035-9289}} Founded in August 1947 by educated Africans who included J. B. Danquah, G. A. Grant (known as Paa Grant), R. A. Awoonor-Williams, Eric Ato Nkrumah (all lawyers except for Grant, who was a wealthy businessman), and others, the leadership of the organisation called for the replacement of chiefs on the Legislative Council with educated persons.{{Citation|title=Atta, Nana Sir Ofori, (11 Oct. 1881–24 Aug. 1943), Omanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akyem Abuakwa; an Unofficial Member, Executive Council of Gold Coast, since 1942; Provincial Member of the Legislative Council, Gold Coast Colony; President of the Provincial Council of Chiefs, Eastern Province, Gold Coast Colony; Member of the Board of Education, Gold Coast Colony; Director of Akim, Limited; Member of District Agricultural Committee, Akim Abuakwa|date=2007-12-01|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u222064}} For these political leaders, traditional governance, exercised largely via indirect rule, was identified with colonial interests and the past. They believed that it was their responsibility to lead their country into a new age. They also demanded that, given their education, the colonial administration should respect them and accord them positions of responsibility.{{Citation|date=1979-12-01|work=Black Education in New York State|pages=69–84|publisher=Syracuse University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv9b2x9d.8|isbn=978-1-68445-015-2|title=Public Responsibility|s2cid=241586403 }} As one writer on the period reported, "The symbols of progress, science, freedom, youth, all became cues which the new leadership evoked and reinforced."{{Cite journal|last=RENZ|first=MARION CASEY|date=1995|title=This writer became a nurse for All the wrong reasons Learn why she stayed|journal=Nursing|volume=25|issue=5|pages=47–49|doi=10.1097/00152193-199505000-00018|pmid=7746538|s2cid=193110128|issn=0360-4039|doi-access=free}} In particular, the UGCC leadership criticised the government for its failure to solve the problems of unemployment, inflation, and the disturbances that had come to characterise the society at the end of the war.{{Citation|last1=Wallis|first1=Joe|title=New Institutional Economics, New Public Management and Government Failure|date=1999|work=Market Failure, Government Failure, Leadership and Public Policy|pages=61–92|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-40797-2|last2=Dollery|first2=Brian|doi=10.1057/9780230372962_4}}McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "The Politics of the Independence Movements".

File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-43-9.jpg, Governor of the Gold Coast, greets Chiefs of the Northern Territories, 1953]]

Their opposition to the colonial administration notwithstanding, UGCC members were conservative in the sense that their leadership did not seek drastic or revolutionary change.{{Cite journal|last=Heuer|first=Jennifer|editor1-first=David|editor1-last=Andress|date=2014-03-03|title=Did Everything Change? Rethinking Revolutionary Legacies|journal=Oxford Handbooks Online|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199639748.013.036}}{{Cite book|last=Johnson, Chalmers Ashby.|title=Revolutionary change.|date=1982|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0-8047-1144-5|oclc=251351828}} This was probably a result of their training in the British way of doing things. The manner in which politics were then conducted was to change after Kwame Nkrumah created his Convention People's Party (CPP) in June 1949.{{Citation|title=Doing Things the Right Way: The Way You Were Taught|work=Doing Things the Right Way|year=1995|pages=23–36|publisher=University of Calgary Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv8jnzd8.11|isbn=978-1-55238-328-5}}

Nkrumah was born at Nkroful in the Nzema area and educated in Catholic schools at Half Assini and at Achimota School. He received further training in the United States at Lincoln University and at the University of Pennsylvania.{{Cite journal|last1=Tews|first1=Michael J.|last2=Frager|first2=Kelly|last3=Citarella|first3=Ashley I.|last4=Orndorff|first4=Robert M.|date=2018-08-01|title=What is Etiquette Today? Interviewing Etiquette for Today's College Student|journal=Journal of Advances in Education Research|volume=3|issue=3|doi=10.22606/jaer.2018.33005|issn=2519-7002|doi-access=free}} Later, in London, Nkrumah became active in the West African Students' Union and the Pan-African Congress.{{Citation|last=Robinson|first=Lisa Clayton|title=Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|date=2005-04-07|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.42169|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}} He was one of the few Africans who participated in the Fifth Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in 1945. During his time in Britain, Nkrumah came to know such outspoken anti-colonialists and intellectuals as the West Indian George Padmore, and the African-American W. E. B. Du Bois{{Citation|last=Schwarz|first=Bill|title=George Padmore|date=2003-12-04|work=West Indian Intellectuals in Britain|pages=132–149|publisher=Manchester University Press|doi=10.7228/manchester/9780719064746.003.0007|isbn=978-0-7190-6474-6|s2cid=242756948 }} In 1947, when the UGCC was created in the Gold Coast to oppose colonial rule, Nkrumah was invited from London to become the movement's general secretary.{{Citation|title=Nkrumah/Lumumba|work=African Intellectuals and Decolonization|year=2012|pages=27–36|publisher=Ohio University Press|doi=10.1353/chapter.711980|isbn=978-0-89680-486-9}}

Nkrumah's tenure with the UGCC was a stormy one. In March 1948, he was arrested and detained with other leaders of the UGCC for political activism. They were known as the Big Six of Ghana Politics.{{Citation|date=2007-11-15|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=52–72|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.9|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Secretary of the Ugcc}} Later, after the other members of the UGCC were invited to make recommendations to the Coussey Committee, which was advising the governor on the path to independence, Nkrumah broke with the UGCC and founded the CPP. Unlike the UGCC call for self-government "in the shortest possible time", Nkrumah and the CPP asked for "self-government now".{{Citation|last=Rubenfeld|first=Jed|title=Constitutional Self-Government on the Model of Speech|date=2001-04-10|work=Freedom and Time|pages=45–73|publisher=Yale University Press|doi=10.12987/yale/9780300080483.003.0003|isbn=978-0-300-08048-3}} The party leadership, made up of Nkrumah, Kojo Botsio, Komla A. Gbedemah, and a group of mostly young political professionals known as the "Verandah Boys", identified itself more with ordinary working people than with the UGCC and its intelligentsia.

Nkrumah's style and the promises he made appealed directly to the majority of workers, farmers, and youths who heard him; he seemed to be the national leader on whom they could focus their hopes. He also won the support of, among others, influential market women who, through their domination of small-scale trade, served as effective channels of communication at the local level.{{Citation|last=Wegmann|first=Andrew N.|title=He Be God Who Made Dis Man|date=2017-08-01|work=New Directions in the Study of African American Recolonization|publisher=University Press of Florida|doi=10.5744/florida/9780813054247.003.0004|isbn=978-0-8130-5424-7}}

The majority of the politicised population, stirred in the postwar years by outspoken newspapers, was separated from both the tribal chiefs and the Anglophile elite nearly as much as from the British by economic, social, and educational factors.{{Citation|title=From Talking Chiefs to a Native Coperative Élite|date=1996-06-21|work=From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite|pages=297–320|publisher=MQUP|doi=10.2307/j.ctt806bn.22|isbn=978-0-7735-6580-7}} This majority consisted primarily of ex-servicemen, literate persons who had some primary schooling, journalists, and elementary school teachers, all of whom had developed a taste for populist conceptions of democracy.{{Cite journal|date=2007-06-01|title=The Man Who Had All the Luck|journal=Man Who Had All the Luck, the|doi=10.5040/9781580814768}} A growing number of uneducated but urbanised industrial workers also formed part of the support group. Nkrumah was able to appeal to them on their own terms. By June 1949, when the CPP was formed with the avowed purpose of seeking immediate self-governance, Nkrumah had a mass following.{{Citation|date=2007-11-15|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=74–90|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.10|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Birth of the CPP}}

The constitution of 1951 resulted from the report of the Coussey Committee, created because of disturbances in Accra and other cities in 1948.{{Cite journal|last=Leek|first=J. H.|date=1948|title=Preliminary Draft of a World Constitution. Common Cause: A Monthly Report of the Committee to Frame a World Constitution|journal=Books Abroad|volume=22|issue=4|pages=418|doi=10.2307/40087909|jstor=40087909|issn=0006-7431}} In addition to giving the Executive Council a large majority of African ministers, it created an assembly, half the elected members of which were to come from the towns and rural districts and half from the traditional councils, including, for the first time, the Northern Territories.{{Cite journal|date=2015-05-21|title=More than half of all jobs created since 1995 were non-standard jobs|doi=10.1787/9789264235120-graph7-en}} Although it was an enormous step forward, the new constitution still fell far short of the CPP's call for full self-government. Executive power remained in British hands, and the legislature was tailored to permit control by traditionalist interests.{{Citation|last=Johnson|first=Nevil|title=A Parliamentary Government: the Executive Power|date=2004|work=Reshaping the British Constitution|pages=79–101|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|doi=10.1057/9780230503366_6|isbn=978-0-333-94620-6}}

With increasing popular backing, the CPP in early 1950 initiated a campaign of "positive action", intended to instigate widespread strikes and nonviolent resistance. When some violent disorders occurred, Nkrumah, along with his principal lieutenants, was promptly arrested and imprisoned for sedition.{{Citation|last1=Omer|first1=Haim|title=Nonviolent Resistance in Action|work=Nonviolent Resistance|pages=75–92|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-511-55065-2|last2=London-Sapir|first2=Shoshannah|year=2003|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511550652.006}} But this merely increased his prestige as leader and hero of the cause and gave him the status of martyr. In February 1951, the first elections were held for the Legislative Assembly under the new constitution. Nkrumah, still in jail, won a seat, and the CPP won an impressive victory with a two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.{{Citation|last=Biney|first=Ama|author-link=Ama Biney|title=From Activist to Leader of the CPP, 1945–1951|date=2011|work=The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah|pages=29–45|place=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|doi=10.1057/9780230118645_3|isbn=978-1-349-29513-5}}

The governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, released Nkrumah and invited him to form a government as "leader of government business", a position similar to that of prime minister. Nkrumah accepted.{{Citation|date=2007-11-15|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=92–102|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.11|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Leader of Government Business}} A major milestone had been passed on the road to independence and self-government. Nonetheless, although the CPP agreed to work within the new constitutional order, the structure of government that existed in 1951 was certainly not what the CPP preferred. The ministries of defence, external affairs, finance, and justice were still controlled by British officials who were not responsible to the legislature. Also, by providing for a sizeable representation of traditional tribal chiefs in the Legislative Assembly, the constitution accentuated the cleavage between the modern political leaders and the traditional authorities of the councils of chiefs.{{Cite journal|last=Kleist|first=N.|date=2011-06-29|title=Modern chiefs: Tradition, development and return among traditional authorities in Ghana|journal=African Affairs|volume=110|issue=441|pages=629–647|doi=10.1093/afraf/adr041|issn=0001-9909}}

The start of Nkrumah's first term as "leader of government business" was marked by cordiality and co-operation with the British governor. During the next few years, the government was gradually transformed into a full parliamentary system. The changes were opposed by the more traditionalist African elements, particularly in Asante and the Northern Territories. This opposition, however, proved ineffective in the face of continuing and growing popular support for a single over-riding concept—independence at an early date.

In 1952, the position of prime minister was created and the Executive Council became the cabinet. The prime minister was made responsible to the assembly, which duly elected Nkrumah prime minister. The constitution of 1954 ended the election of assembly members by the tribal councils.{{Citation|last=James|first=Simon|title=Relations between Prime Minister and Cabinet: From Wilson to Thatcher|date=1995|work=Prime Minister, Cabinet and Core Executive|pages=63–86|place=London|publisher=Macmillan Education UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24141-5_4|isbn=978-0-333-55528-6}} The Legislative Assembly increased in size, and all members were chosen by direct election from equal, single-member constituencies. Only defence and foreign policy remained in the hands of the governor; the elected assembly was given control of virtually all internal affairs of the colony.{{Citation|title=Aziz, Shaukat, (born 6 March 1949), Member for Attock, National Assembly, Pakistan, 2004–07; Prime Minister of Pakistan, 2004–07, and Minister of Finance, 1999–2007|date=2007-12-01|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u244938|doi-broken-date=13 November 2024 }}

The CPP pursued a policy of political centralisation, which encountered serious opposition. Shortly after the 1954 election, a new party, the Asante-based National Liberation Movement (NLM), was formed.{{Cite book|title=Afghan National Liberation Front (Afghanistan : Political party)./Liberation Front.|date=1990|publisher=University of Arizona Libraries|doi=10.2458/azu_acku_serial_jq1769_a8_a76_v6_n7|doi-broken-date=13 November 2024 }} The NLM advocated a federal form of government, with increased powers for the various regions. NLM leaders criticised the CPP for perceived dictatorial tendencies. The new party worked in co-operation with another regionalist group, the Northern People's Party.{{Citation|last=Wildenmann|first=Rudolf|editor1-first=Richard S|editor1-last=Katz|title=3. The Party Government of the Federal Republic of Germany: Form and Experience|date=1987-12-31|work=Party Governments|pages=78–117|place=Berlin, Boston|publisher=De Gruyter|doi=10.1515/9783110900255-004|isbn=978-3-11-090025-5}} When these two regional parties walked out of discussions on a new constitution, the CPP feared that London might consider such disunity an indication that the colony was not yet ready for the next phase of self-government.{{Citation|last=King|first=Tom|title=The Advent of Two New Micro Parties: The Palmer United Party and Katter's Australia Party|date=2015-01-21|work=Abbott's Gambit: The 2013 Australian Federal Election|publisher=ANU Press|doi=10.22459/ag.01.2015.17|isbn=978-1-925022-09-4|doi-access=free}}

The British constitutional adviser, however, backed the CPP position. The governor dissolved the assembly to test popular support for the CPP demand for immediate independence. The Crown agreed to grant independence if so requested by a two-thirds majority of the new legislature.{{Citation|title=19. Indonesia's demand for immediate independence|date=1972-12-31|work=Portrait of a Patriot|pages=373–376|place=Berlin, Boston|publisher=De Gruyter|doi=10.1515/9783110870640-020|isbn=978-3-11-087064-0}} New elections were held in July 1956. In keenly contested elections, the CPP won 57 per cent of the votes cast, but the fragmentation of the opposition gave the CPP every seat in the south as well as enough seats in Asante, the Northern Territories, and the Trans-Volta Region to hold a two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.{{Citation|title=Coattails Upside Down: How Assembly Elections Shape Presidential Elections|work=Votes from Seats|year=2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108261128.012|isbn=978-1-108-26112-8}}

Prior to the July 1956 general elections in the Gold Coast, a plebiscite was conducted under United Nations (UN) auspices to decide the future disposition of British Togoland and French Togoland.{{Cite journal|last1=L.|last2=Hilton|first2=T. E.|date=1962|title=Ghana Population Atlas. The Distribution and Density of Population in the Gold Coast and Togoland under United Kingdom Trusteeship|journal=Population (French Edition)|volume=17|issue=2|pages=353|doi=10.2307/1527080|jstor=1527080|issn=0032-4663}} The British trusteeship, the western portion of the former German colony, had been linked to the Gold Coast since 1919 and was represented in its parliament. A clear majority of British Togoland inhabitants voted in favour of union with their western neighbours, and the area was absorbed into the Gold Coast. There was, however, vocal opposition to the incorporation from some of the Ewe in southern British Togoland.{{Citation|title=Original Title|date=2017-02-03|work=The Ewe-Speaking People of Togoland and the Gold Coast|pages=7|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315295978-4|isbn=978-1-315-29597-8|s2cid=239521353 }}

On 6 March 1957, the Colony of Gold Coast gained independence as the state of Ghana.{{Cite book|last=Laronce, Cécile. Auteur.|title=L'influence de Nkrumah dans la politique étrangère américaine : les États-Unis découvrent l'Afrique, 1945–1966|date=1997|publisher=[s.n.]|oclc=490457889}}

• Anglo-Ashanti wars
• Gold Coast ackey
• Gold Coast in World War II
• Gold Coast Influenza Epidemic
• List of governors of the Gold Coast
• Slave Coast of West Africa

{{notelist|40em}}

{{reflist}}

• Bourret, Florence Mabel. Gold Coast: A survey of the Gold Coast and British Togoland, 1919–1946. (Stanford University Press, 1949). [https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10973/36011/GIPE-023967.pdf?sequence=3 online]
• Buah, F. K. A History of Ghana (London: Macmillan, 1998)
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Gold Coast | volume= 12 |last= Cana |first= Frank Richardson |author-link= | pages = 203–207 |short= 1}}
• Claridge, W. W. A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti (1915)
• Davidson, Basil. Black Star: a view of the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah (1990)
• Gocking, Roger S. The History of Ghana (2005). [https://archive.org/details/historyofghana00gock online free to borrow]
• Graham, Charles Kwesi. The History of Education in Ghana: From the Earliest Times to the Declaration of Independence (Routledge, 2013)
• {{cite book |last=Kimble |first=David |author-link=David Kimble|title=A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850–1928 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1963 }}
• McLaughlin, James L., and David Owusu-Ansah. "Historical Setting" (and sub-chapters). In [https://web.archive.org/web/20100107074647/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ghtoc.html A Country Study: Ghana] (La Verle Berry, ed.). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (November 1994). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Owusu-Ansah, David. Historical Dictionary of Ghana (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
• {{cite book |last=Quartey |first=Seth |title=Missionary Practices on the Gold Coast, 1832–1895: Discourse, Gaze and Gender in the Basel Mission in Pre-Colonial West Africa |location=Youngstown, New York |publisher=Cambria Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-62499-043-4 }}
• Szereszewski, R. Structural Changes in the Economy of Ghana, 1891-1911 (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965)
• Ward, W. E. F. A History of Ghana (Allen & Unwin, 1966) [https://archive.org/details/historyofghana0000ward online free to borrow]
• Gyasi, Yaa (2016). Homegoing. New York, NY: Knopf.
• Great Britain. Colonial Office. Annual Report on the Gold Coast (annual 1931–1953) [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28annual%20%22gold%20coast%22%29 online free]

{{Commons}}

• [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28%22gold+coast%22%29&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&sort=-date books on Gold Coast free copies (many of the books are about places outside Africa)]
• [http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-Y-30448-K/1 Collection of photographs of life in the Gold Coast (Ghana)] taken by George Cansdale

{{Gold Coast}}

{{Ghana topics}}

{{British overseas territories}}

{{Authority control}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold Coast (British Colony)}}

Category:British West Africa

Category:Ghana and the Commonwealth of Nations

Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in Africa

Category:19th century in Ghana

Category:20th century in Ghana

Category:States and territories established in 1821

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1957

Category:1821 establishments in Gold Coast (British colony)

Category:1957 disestablishments in Ghana