Year 00AD
500 The modernGhana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient kingdoms, including the Ga-Dagames on the eastern coast, The Ashanti are thought to originate from the Far East of Africa from the ancient Sudanic empires via the Ivory Coast, where they still inhabit. Other suggest that they travelled with the Ewes, Ga-Agdambes, Yoruba’s, Ibos and Hausas. The Ashantis inhabit the central and Southern Ghana. Ashanti in land, Fante along the coast and inland. Farming began earliest on the southern tips of the Sahara, eventually giving rise to village settlements.
790-1076 The ancient Empire of Ghana that once ruled territory in the area of Mauritania, Mali and Senegal.
10C Akan migrants moved southward then founded several nation-states including the first great Akan empire of the Bono which is now known as the Bron Ahafo region in Ghana.
10C The Guan are believed to have begun to migrate from the Mossi region of modern Burkina around A.D. 1000. Moving gradually through the Volta valley in a southerly direction, they created settlements along the Black Volta, throughout the Afram Plains, in the Volta Gorge, and in the Akwapim Hills before moving farther south onto the coastal plains.
13 C The Ga- Adagmes migrated from Nigeria through Benin and Togo, settling on the coast of Ghana around the 13th Century. They live along the coast of Ghana around the capital city Accra, towards the Togo border, as well as in the hills and mountains north of the Coast.Gas’ settled in Ghana.
The Dagombas. Thought to originate from the Far East of Africa from the ancient Sudanic empires via the Ivory Coast, where they still inhabit. Other suggest that they travelled with the Ewes, Ga-Agdambes, Yorabas, Ibos and Hausas. The Ashantis inhabit the central and Southern Ghana.
1481 the first Costal Fort was built at Elmina, to trade in gold, ivory and slaves.
15C Trade with European states flourished after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century,
15C Mid The Ewe occupy southeastern Ghana and the southern parts of neighboring Togo and Benin. On the west, the Volta separates the Ewe from the Ga-Adangbe, Ga, and Akan. Subdivisions of the Ewe include the Anglo (Anlo), Bey (Be), and Gen on the coast, and the Peki, Ho, Kpando, Tori, and Ave in the interior. Oral tradition suggests that the Ewe immigrated into Ghana before the midfifteenth century. Although the Ewe have been described as a single language group, there is considerable dialectic variation. Some of these dialects are mutually intelligible, but only
with difficulty.
1598 Dutch had joined them, and built forts at Komenda and Kormantsi.
1637 Dutch captured Elmina Castle from the Portuguese and Axim in 1642
16C Ashanti Empire First as a loose network and eventually as a centralized kingdom with an advanced, highly-specialized bureaucracy centred in Kumasi.
17C English, Danes and Swedes joined in by the mid, largely British merchants named the area the Gold Coast, later the name given to the English colony, while French merchants, impressed with the trinkets worn by the coastal people, named the area to the west “Côte d’Ivoire,” or Ivory Coast. The Gold Coast became the highest concentration of European military architecture outside of Europe.
17C Asante Confederacy
State formation in the pre-colonial period. Competition to acquire land for cultivation, to control trade routes, or to form alliances for protection also promoted group solidarity and state formation. The creation of the union that became the Asante confederacy in the late seventeenth century is a good example of such processes at work in Ghana’s past.
18 & 19C The Ashanti Empire which was one of the most advanced states in sub-Sahara Africa in the 18-19th centuries. It is said that at its peak, the King of Ashanti could field 500,000 troops.
19C Late 19C Dutch and the British were the only traders left.
1874 Dutch withdrew and Britain made the Gold Coast a protectorate.
1896 Ghana was organized as the Gold Coast, under British colonial rule.
1957 March the 6th Ghanas’ Independence from United Kingdom. The First Sub-Saharan nation to achieve independence. Gold Coast become Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah became the first president of Ghana. He merged the dreams of both Marcus Garvey and the celebrated African-American scholar Du Bois, into the formation of the modern day Ghana. Ghana’s principles of freedom and justice, equity and free education for all, irrespective of ethnic background, religion or creed, borrow from Kwame Nkrumah’s implementation of Pan-Africanism.
1966 Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown by a military coup.
1981 Jerry Rawlings military coup, suspending the constitution and the banning over political parties.
1992 A new constitution, restoring multi-party politics. Rawlings was elected as president in the free and fair elections of that year and again won the elections 1996 to serve his second term.
2007 Ghana’s Golden Jubilee, celebrating fifty years of independence since 6/3/57.
2009 Atta Mills took office as president, the second time power in the country has been transferred from one legitimately elected leader to another, securing Ghana’s status as a stable democracy.