events - Ghana

2000, Jerry Rawlings stepped down from power. The oppoasition New Patriotic Party under John Kufuor gained power.

1996, Jerry Rawlings again won elections.

3 February 1994, Longstanding enmity between the Konkomba and the Nanumba peoples of northern Ghana erupted into violence. The Konkomba, who had originated in neighbouring Togo, demanded equal landowning righs to the indigenous Nanumba. Ghanian troops restored order but only after some 1,000 had been killed amnd 150,000 dosplaced. Hostilities broke out again in 1995 around Tamale.

1992, Jerry Rawlings won elections in Ghana.

1989, Attempted coup against Rawlings, failed.

31 December 1981. Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings seized power in Ghana, ousting President Limann whom he accused of ruining the economy.

1980, Jerry Rawlings allowed a democratic election in Ghana.

4 June 1979, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings led a military coup which deposed General Acheampong, who had ruled since 1972. Acheampong was then executed.

1978, Oil was discovered offshore from Ghana.

1977, Ghana extended its fishing limits from 30 miles to 200 miles.

13 January 1972, Kofi Busha, ruler of Ghana, was overthrown in a coup led by Ignatius Katu Acheampong (1931-79). Acheampong was himself overthrown (1978) and executed in 1979.

27 December 1971, Kofi Busia, Prime Minister of Ghana, signed an agreement with the IMF for economic aid on condition that he massively devalue the Ghanaian currency. Previously Busia had artificially manipulated prices in Ghana, keeping agricultural prices low so as to keep urbanites happy and boost Government revenue. However this resulted in a huge balance of payments deficit and foreign exchange shortage.

10 September 1966, Sir Seretse Khama became President of the Republic of Ghana.

Nkrumah Presidency 1957-72

27 April 1972, Kwame Nkrumah, former Ghanaian president and Prime Minister, died. Ousted in a military coup in 1966 whilst he was in China, he died in Bucharest, Hungary.

24 February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana since its independence in 1957, was overthrown by an army coup and went into exile in Guinea.

1964, Ghana became a One Party State.

23 January 1963, The Volta River Project, Ghana, to dam the River Volta, was inaugurated by Dr Nkrumah.

1 August 1962, President Nkrumah of Ghana escaped an assassination attempt.

16 December 1961, The USSR agreed to make a loan to Ghana for the construction of the Volta River Project, for generating hydroelectric power.

28 September 1961, In Ghana, President Kwame Nkrumah imprisoned leading members of the opposition, claiming a plot to assassinate him.

1 July 1960. Ghana became independent (formerly Gold Coast and British Togoland).� Kwame Nkrumah was its first President.

6 March 1957. Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, became independent; the first British colony in Africa to do so. It had been a British colony since 1874. Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first Prime Minsiter, in the capital, Accra. Nkrumah�s party had won the 1956 elections. The name Ghana was chosen by Nkrumah to inspire his people from the time when Africans had wealth and power. it was taken from the Islamic empire which ruled for centuries in Sudan during Europe�s Mediaeval times. On 7 March 1957 Ghana joined the United Nations.

1949, Nkrumah formed the Convention People�s Party (CPP).

22 June 1947, Jerry Rawlings, President of Ghana, was born.

18 September 1909, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana�s first Prime Minister, was born in Ankroful. He was President from independence in 1957 until an army coup sent him into exile in Guinea in 1966.

British colonisation of Ghana

25 September 1901. Britain annexed the Ashante Kingdom (Ghana) as part of the Gold Coast.

3 March 1901, Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen of the Ashante Empire (in what is now Ghana) was arrested by British troops, bringing to an end the War of the Golden Stool that had started on March 28 March 1900.

28 December 1900, Last rebel chiefs in Ashanti were captured by the British.

4 October 1900, Britain defeated 4,000 Ashanti in a final major confrontation in Ghana.

28 March 1900, The War of the Golden Stool started in the British Gold Coast colony (now Ghana) after Colonial Governor Frederick Mitchell Hodgson offended the chiefs of the Ashanti Empire. In Kumasi, by demanding the Golden Stool, the most sacred relic of the Asante nation. Governor Hodgson refused to sit at the chair provided and asked "Why did you not take the opportunity of my coming to Kumasi to bring the Golden Stool and give it to me to sit upon?" War broke out, and Hodgson and his party barely escaped with their lives.

14 November 1899, Britain concluded an agreement with Germany over the frontier between the Gold Coast and the German colony of Togo.

14 June 1898, At a convention in Paris, the boundaries of the British colony of the Gold Coast, (Ghana) were confirmed, as they stand now. Britain abandoned claims to Ouagadougou (present-day capital of Burkina Faso), further north.

1897, Lieutenants Henderson and Ferguson occupied Wa, in the far north-west of present day Ghana, where they were attacked by indigenous Senegalese peoples.

18 January 1896, British troops took Kumasi and took the Ashanti King prisoner in the Fourth Ashante (Ghana) War.

1889, An Anglo-French agreement confoirmed British control of Ghana, but only as far north as 9 degrees N (Ghana currently extends to 11 degrees N). See 14 June 1898.

Growing British political influence over Ghana

1882, Captain R la Trobe Lonsdale reached Yendi, north of Salaga, also Bontuku to the west.

1876, Monsieur MJ Bonnat,� travelling up the Volta River, reached Salaga.

4 February 1874, The Battle of Kumasi ended the Second Ashanti War. British control was consolidated in the inland regions of the Gold Coast. However British influence still did not extend into the �Northern Territories� of Ghana, see 1876, 1882, 1897.

31 January 1874, Battle of Amoaful, Second Ashanti War.

1871, Britain had by now purchased all Dutch forts and Dutch-controlled territory in Ghana.

6 March 1844, Britain concluded an agreement with the indigenous Chiefs of the Gold Coast, giving the UK control over the territory�s legal system and judicial punishments.

1843, The British Government (Colonial office) resumed control of the forts. Maclean continued to direct �native affairs� until his death in 1847.

1831, The administratorof the merchants (9/1828), a Mr George Maclean,� concluded a treaty woth the Ashanti, that was disadvantageous to the Fan. By this means Maclean extended control inland over the wholee of the Gold Coast. Allegations that he tacitly encouraged slavery were overlooked in favour of his having achieved stability in the territory.

9/1828, Britain was considering pulling out of the Gold Coast colony, demolishing all the forts as they wer abandoned, due to its perpetual state of unrest. However a company of British merchants protested this move, and were aloowed to take over these forts, along with a grant of �4,000 a year from the British Government.

7 August 1826, The British defeated the Ashanti at Dodowa, near Accra (Ghana).

1824, The British colonial Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Charles McCarthy, encouraged the Fan people, who had been subjugated by the Ashanti in 1811, to rise against them. This was a move to cause internal dissension within the indigenous inhabitants of Ghana, and facilitate British political control of the region.

21 January 1824, The Ashanti defeated the British at the battle of Nsamankow.

Royal African Company

1821, The African Company of Merchants was dissolved, and its forts taken over by the British Crown. The Company had been rendered unviable by the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

1814, The Ashanti people gained supremacy over the coastal Fan people; see 1824.

1750, The English-based African Company of Merchants, which now superseded the Royal African Company, was constituted this year by Act of Anglish Parliament. Besides gold, it had a considerable trade in slaves, with some 10,000 a year being exported from Ghana. Many of these slaves were in fact prisoners of war previously captured by the Ashanti people.

1700s, Peak of the Akwamu Empire, which was now subsumed by the Ashanti Kingdom.

1672, King Charles II of England granted permission to the Royal African Company to build forts and trade in the Gold Coast (Ghana).

Early-modern European economic and military ventures in Ghana

1651, The English fort of Kormantine was by now established in Ghana. The existence of this fort was a provocation to the Dutch, and a cause of war between the two countries in the 1660s. The Treaty of Breda confirmed Dutch supremacy over the former English forts/trading stations in Ghana, but the English simply built others.

1637, The Dutch drove the Portuguese out of the Gold Coast colony (now Ghana).

1553, English merchants were trading for gold with Ghana; this year they brought back 150 lbs (67 kg) of gold from there.

1481, The Portuguese established a trading post on the coast of Ghana, at Fort Elmina. Or, Elmina already existed in 1364(?).

1364, Norman merchants may have (?) traded for gold with the indigenous inhabitants at a place known as Elmina (La Mina)

1100s, Settlement of the northern forests by the Akan peoples.

1075, Kumbi, capital of Ghana, was plundered by the Almoravids, as they overran much of west Africa. Ghana never recovered from this, and continued overgrazing reduced the fertility of its territory.

800, The Kingdon of Ghana was becoming wealthy through its trade in gold and salt.

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