GOLD COAST

GOLD COAST (British colony, now Ghana).

Fragmentary map of West Africa with the location of the Gold Coast colony
and other British colonies. With a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
First stamp in a set of 12, issued in 1952.
Face value: 1/2 penny.
Design: C. Gomez.
Printing: Engraved.
Printed by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. Ltd, London.
Size: 34 x 25 mm.

Catalogues
- Scott No. 148.
- StampWorld No. 142.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 153.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 146.

In 1483 the Portuguese, who had already set foot on the lands of present-day Ghana in 1471, established the first European settlement and acquired slaves and gold in exchange for goods brought from Europe. Successively British, Dutch, Danish, Prussian and Swedish merchants arrived there. The Europeans called the region the Gold Coast, a precious metal that was found there in great quantity. The slave trade became for many years one of the main bases of the economy.

In 1752 the British Crown established the Royal Trading Company there, to be replaced by the African Company of Merchants, which led British trading efforts until the early 19th century. In 1821 Great Britain seized private lands along the coast and established the Gold Coast colony, and from 1882 it was spreading it by invading and subjugating local kingdoms, particularly the Ashanti and Fante confederations. In 1900 they violently repressed the so-called Ashanti Uprising, and on January 1, 1902, the Ashanti territory became a British protectorate.

In 1945 the nationalists of the protectorate assumed a leadership role in the demand for more autonomy. Between 1951 and 1955 they shared power with Great Britain. In 1956, British Togoland, the Ashanti protectorate, and the Fante protectorate merged with the Gold Coast to create a colony, which became known as the Gold Coast, and in 1957 the country gained full independence under the name Ghana.