Gold Coast, section of the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, in Africa. It extends approximately from Axim, Ghana, or nearby Cape Three Points, in the west to the Volta River in the east and is so called because it was an important source of gold. An area of intense colonial rivalry from the 17th century, it was acquired by the British in the 19th century. The Gold Coast colony (known today as Ghana) became a dominion of the British Commonwealth (March 6, 1957) and achieved independence as the Republic of Ghana in 1960.
The Gold Coast was the name for a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa that was rich in gold, petroleum, sweet crude oil and natural gas. This former region is now known as the country Ghana.
When the phrase “Gold Coast” was first used, it only referred to the coast and not the interior. The phrase was not used to describe regions distant from the coast until the 19th century. To the west of the Slave Coast and east of the Ivory Coast lay the Gold Coast.
In the transatlantic slave trade era, Europeans identified the region as the Gold Coast because of the large supplies of and market for gold that existed there.
Portuguese traders built the fort of Elmina in 1482 within ten years of their arrival on the coast. Many other Europeans followed with forts and markets of their own, including Danish, Dutch, Swedes, and English. Eventually, the British rose to dominance and established the Gold Coast colony in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1957, the Republic of Ghana became the first of Britain’s African colonies to gain independence.
European commerce in the region began with a focus on gold, which explorers found to be abundant there. As was the case in many other African regions, Europeans soon began to demand African captives in the trade to the coast. As the kingdoms of the region—especially the Ashanti (or Asante)—began to expand and consolidate their power, a significant part of the regional commerce turned to supplying slaves instead of gold.
