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European colonization on the people of sub-saharan africa
Ghana history essay
Ghana history essay
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Tim Combley
BA 475 Country Study
Ghana
We cannot start talking about modern Ghana without first acknowledging the history of this republic. During medieval times, kings named Ghana ruled the Wagadugu Empire of West Africa. This Empire thrived until the end of the twelfth century when droughts and decline in the gold mine industry brought hardships too great to overcome. The different tribes that make up modern Ghana settled into their current location near the end of the 16th century. The Portuguese first colonized this location, formerly known as the Gold Coast for its abundance of the mineral, in the late 1400’s. During the next few centuries, war and disputes between European nations caused control over Ghana to shift to the Dutch, English, Danish, and Swedish, until ultimately coming under British rule during the late 19th century. The Gold Coast ultimately gained its independence from Britain in 1957 and changed its name to the Republic of Ghana in 1960.
Moving onto modern Ghana, it is fitting to first talk about the infrastructure of this country as it is one of the most developed of all the countries in Africa. One of the most important forms of transportation to the economy in Ghana is road transportation. It is estimated that road transport accounts for 96% of passenger and freight traffic in Ghana and about 97% of passenger miles in the country(citation). Large buses that can hold more than 30 passengers has become one of the defining trends in transportation in Ghana’s large cities, this is also important because auto-manufacturing is one of the largest industries in Ghana. According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, the intention of the government is to toll many of the existing highways and have more priva...
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...a is the second largest producer of cocoa beans in the world and the country earns nearly 1 billion dollars annually from the global market for chocolate,”(Our-Africa). Something that I found interesting about Ghana’s newly found oil reserves off the coast is that the government is making plans to ensure that the profits from the oil go to the state and not into the pockets of the oil companies. They are unselfishly spreading the wealth throughout the country, a model that may prove to be an example for other countries to follow in the future.
Although Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa, when the rainfall is not good in certain years the villages that rely on the cocoa plants suffer the greatest. Basic needs such as clean drinking water, hospitals, education, and proper sanitation are the main problems that the rural areas of Ghana are facing. However,
Throughout the twentieth century, Rhodesia from 1960’s to the late 1970’s have always been in a struggle to fight for their independence. They had to deal with the British colonist that settled into their land and had taken over control of the country for the past couple of years. Due to the decolonisation of African countries after the second world war it gave many influences and reasons for Rhodesia to search to become an independent country. That all changed when they fully receive their independence in 1980 and during that time they fought for the control of their country, Rhodesia. The name was later changed to Zimbabwe due to a revolutionary struggle they had in their country. The battle to govern Rhodesia and also by the agreement of the Internal Settlement between the fighting forces to find and create peace
Imperialism in Africa took root in the late 19th century when European nations divided up the continent for their own benefit. Each nation practiced a certain type of rule over the Africans of which they conquered. For example, the Germans, the Dutch, and the French used the practice of Direct Rule over their colonies in Africa. This system is characterized by the colonizers need for the colonized to become assimilated into their culture. The purpose of this was to make the African people “civilized” and act like Europeans. The governing administrations forced on the native inhabitants by the colonial power were meant to undermine those institutions set in place by the indigenous people. By taking over the community’s government on all levels,
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
oil in Nigeria. Nigeria’s large supply of high quality crude oil helped Shell climb to the top,
There was also a Kingdom called Mali that broke off from the Ghana Empire. At this time they had embraced the religion of Islam and had been under the great rule of Mansa Musa. This empire had the job of protecting the caravans or shipments carrying the goods, so that they can trade. They helped towards the function of trade so that both the importer and exporter gained something. In document 3 it explains how their wealth was great because of their trade. The document also talks about the fact that they had exhibited the characteristics of an advanced divination like sufficient food to feed its people, a strong army equipped with advanced weapons and income derived from taxes. Even though the Mali Empire had wealth there was very little corruption if there was with the ruler. He did not go mad with power but he was generous. In document four it states they there was no person who did not receive a sum of gold from him.
Overall Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty among the region. Poverty will not subside unless these issues are dealt with and improved.
Ghana’s government was a monarchy government with local kings that paid thanks to the Ghana’s king. Moreover, Ghana had a king to rule/control them and they were thanked from local kings. 300 CE. was the beginning of Ghana, this was also when they gained the control of salt and gold! Later on, in 300 CE, they made the discovery of iron. In 610 CE. the Muslims took over Ancient Ghana. Not long after, in 800 CE. Ghana was officially founded, but many stories/documentations say it was founded in 300 CE. Around 200 years later Ghana captured Aoudaghost and was the height of the Ghanaian
The largest petroleum-producing nation in Africa is Nigeria. The petroleum company is the main contributing factor of the GDP in the West African nation, which is also the continents, most noticeable and populous reserves. Since Nigeria was under British control it has suffered socio-economic and political adversities for decades. Corrupt domestic militias and complicity of multinational corporations have rid the nation of its natural resources. The same corporations that are ridding the land and exploring the resources have hypocritically identified Nigeria as a major concern with regard to human rights and environmental degradation. The petroleum business in Nigeria dynamically impacts its economy so much that “oil and gas exports accounted for more than 98% of export earnings and about 83% of federal government revenue, as well as generating more than 40% of its GDP.” Just to be reminiscent on this fact, the petroleum business accounts for almost the entire exporting business of a country so it raises the question of, where is the income going and how is it bring redistributed?
According to Samuels in Case Studies in Comparative Politics, Nigeria began as a group of states and empires, which were conquered by the British Empire who ruled Nigeria through indirect rule with varying degrees of rule in North and South Nigeria (Samuels, 323-326). Since they were granted independence in 1960, three republics have been created and each has ended by military rule, which led to the creation of the fourth, and current republic in Nigeria. In the current regime Nigeria’s GDP is ranked 108 of 156 and has been decreasing, lower than some of the non oil-producing nations in Africa (“Nigeria”).
At the end of WWII is when decolonization was brought up as a serious topic of discussion. Over 200,000 Africans had fought in Europe and Asia for the Allies’ freedom and democracy which showed quite the contradiction. They were fighting for something that wasn’t even going to truly benefit them. In 1945 is when the 5th Pan African Conference met to go over the possibility of granting back independence to the colonized areas. Ghana played a significant role during the decolonization process in Africa because Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African majority government to gain independence in 1957. Not only did Ghana gain independence, but they did this by acting nonviolently. For years following th...
What is the impact of colonialism on the economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa (Africa) or more generally the colonized countries? This is a question which has reiterated itself through the social sciences for over a century. Colonialism refers to the establishment of political and economic control by one state over another. The colonial experience began in the late 1400s, when Europeans arrived and set up trading posts in Africa. They became interested in Africa as a whole. Europeans were impressed with the abundance of natural resources. It reached a peak in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when European powers dominated many parts of the continent. Colonialism in Africa created nations and shaped their political, economic, and cultural
(a) Africans and Europeans have relations that date all the way back to the origins of humans and human migrations. Scholars have hypothesized that Homo erectus found in Europe about 800,000 years ago originated and migrated from Africa Europeans and Africans also had religious relations; which is evident from the spread of Christianity, introduced by the Byzantines, throughout Africa specifically in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Horn of Africa. Aside from religious relations, Africans and Europeans also had economic and political relations as a result of European colonization and conquest of the African regions. Economic relations were a result of Europeans coming into Africa and taking natural resources to benefit from in the production of goods and trade. Another specific example of economic relations between Europeans and Africans is the practice of mercantilism, in which European nations were the mother countries and countries of Africa were the colonies. As the mother country, Europeans, would take natural resources from the colony, African regions, to produce goods, which would then be sold back to the colony. This also attributed to the political relations between Africans and Europeans because the economic desires of the Europeans often led to them controlling the Africans to maximize profit and their own personal benefits; which is directly related to slavery, one of the biggest relations between Africans and Europeans. Slavery and the slave trade in turn created social relations because slaves were considered to be a class of their own. Another social relation that resulted from slavery was the creation a “new race” known as the...
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving
Ghana: The Gold Coast of Africa The Gold Coast, now known as Ghana, is one of many civilizations of Africa. It was a British Colony until March 6, 1957, when it became independent as the State of Ghana. In 1471, the Portuguese invaded this area and became involved in gold trade, giving the region the name, The Gold Coast.
The widespread use of children in cocoa production is controversial, not only for the concerns about child labor and exploitation, but also because, as of 2015, up to 19,000 children working in Côte d'Ivoire, the world's biggest producer of cocoa, may have been victims of trafficking or slavery. Most attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69 percent of the world's cocoa, and Côte d'Ivoire in particular, which supplies 35 percent of the world's cocoa. It is estimated that more than 1.8 million children in West Africa are involved in growing cocoa. Major chocolate producers, such as Nestle, buy cocoa at commodities exchanges where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with other cocoa. In 2013-2014, an estimated 1.4 million children aged 5 years old to 11 years old worked in agriculture in cocoa-growing areas, approximately 800,000 of them engaged in hazardous work, including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads.