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History
Chapter 2 Background
There is evidence of human habitation in Ghana dating back at least 10,000 years.
However, the people of Ghana today can claim their ancestry to immigrants who came
from the north and east of present day Ghana. These early immigrants established
distinct and separate states by the end of the sixteenth century. The most well known
state is the Ashanti Empire, located in central forests of Ghana. The Ashanti Empire
gained their wealth through monopolizing gold mining and trade. In the north of Ghana,
the Mole-Dagbane states of Gonja, Mamprusi, Dagomba, and Mossi states of Yatenga
and Wagadugu, were among the earliest kingdoms to dominate in pre-colonial Ghana.
Although many states were establishing themselves, a number of peoples lived outside of
these loosely organized states and were primarily agriculturalists, living in societies based
on kinship ties and ruled by the heads of their clans (Library of Congress 2002).
Europeans were lured to this region of Africa for gold and slaves. The first
Europeans to arrive were the French who sailed to the coast in the fourteenth century and
established a post at Elmina. The Portuguese built the first coastal fort at Elmina by the
late fifteenth century. Other Europeans soon followed including Danish and Swedish
traders as well as the British who came for the gold trade, hence the name “Gold Coast”
(Naylor 2000).
The need for labor in the rapidly developing plantations in the Americas resulted
in the trans-Atlantic slave trade that soon became more lucrative and profitable than gold
trading. Between the years of 1701 and 1810, an estimated 6.3 million slaves were
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