Chronography of Ghana
Page last modified 21 July 2023
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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 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.