Chronography of Ghana
Page last modified 14/12/2021
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East
2000,
Jerry
Rawlings stepped down from power. The oppoasition New Patriotic
Party under John Kufuor gained power.
1996,
Jerry
Rawlings again won elections.
3/2/1994, 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.
31/12/1981. 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.
4/6/1979, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings led a military coup which
deposed General
Acheampong, who had ruled since 1972. Acheampong was then executed.
13/1/1972, 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.
27/12/1971, 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.
10/9/1966, Sir
Seretse Khama became President of the Republic of Ghana.
Nkrumah Presidency 1957-72
27/4/1972, 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.
24/2/1966, 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.
23/1/1963, The Volta River
Project, Ghana, to dam the River Volta, was inaugurated by Dr Nkrumah.
1/8/1962, President Nkrumah of Ghana escaped an assassination
attempt.
16/12/1961, The USSR agreed to make a loan to Ghana for the
construction of the Volta River Project,
for generating hydroelectric power.
28/9/1961, In Ghana, President Kwame
Nkrumah imprisoned
leading members of the opposition, claiming a plot to assassinate him.
1/7/1960. Ghana became
independent (formerly Gold Coast and British Togoland).� Kwame Nkrumah was its first President.
6/3/1957. 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 7/3/1957 Ghana joined the United
Nations.
1949, Nkrumah formed the Convention People�s Party (CPP).
22/6/1947, Jerry Rawlings,
President of Ghana, was born.
18/9/1909, 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
25/9/1901. Britain annexed the Ashante Kingdom (Ghana) as part of the Gold Coast.
3/3/1901, 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 28/3/1900.
14/11/1899, Britain concluded an agreement with Germany over the frontier between
the Gold Coast and the German colony of Togo.
14/6/1898, 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.
18/1/1896, 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 14/6/1898.
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.
4/2/1874, 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.
31/1/1874, Battle of Amoaful,
Second Ashanti War.
1871, Britain had by now purchased all
Dutch forts and Dutch-controlled territory in Ghana.
6/3/1844, 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.
7/8/1826, 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.
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.