1918-1939 History of West Africa Ghana
since 1957






Stamps issued by the British Postal Administration for the Gold Coast
featuring Christiansborg Castle at Accra



Gold Coast, 1939-1957



World War II was fought 1939-1945. After the war, the world was a different place. The United Nations, successor to the League of Nations, pushed for democratization of the colonies and transition toward self-government. TOGOLAND was declared a UN territory under British trusteeship.
In 1946 a CONSTITUTION had been passed, which provided Africans with a majority of seats in the ASSEMBLY; yet it still favoured the whites and stopped well short of the principle one person - one vote. In 1948, riots broke out in the major towns. KWAME NKRUMAH advocated self-government now; the British administration held negotiations with him. In 1951 a new constitution was passed. In 1956 the population of Togoland in a plebiscite opted to integrate their territory into the Gold Coast, whicj in 1957, under the name of GHANA, became independent.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Ghana, History of, from Infoplease
Ghana : The Party System in 1950-1956 and 1957-1962, in : Kenneth Janda, Political Parties : A Cross-National Survey
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Chapter 36 : Introduction to British West Africa, pp.735-745; 40 : Prime Minister Nkrumah of the Gold Coast, pp.790-806; 41 : House of Commons in Black Miniature, pp.807-818; 42 : The Gold Coast and the Golden Stool, pp.819-842, in : John Gunther, Inside Africa, NY : Harper & Bros. (1953) 1955 [G]
W.E.F. Ward, The Colonial Phase in British West Africa, pp.405-439 in : JF. Ade Ajayi and Ian Espie (ed.), A Thousand Years in West African History, Ibadan UP (1965) 1967 [G]
Article : British West Africa, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1944 pp.131-132, 1945 pp.129-130, 1946 pp.151-152, 1947 pp.154-155, 1948 pp.142-143, 1949 pp.126-128, 1950 pp.130-131, 1951 pp.126-127, 1952 pp.125-126, 1953 pp.125-126, 1954 pp.125-127, 1955 pp.184-185, 1956 pp.123-124 [G]
Article : Gold Coast, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1957 pp.364-365 [G]
Article : West Africa : Gold Coast, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1943 pp.246-249 [G]
Article : West Africa : Ashanti, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1943 p.249 [G]
Article : West Africa : Northern Territories, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1943 pp.249-250 [G]
Article : Gold Coast, in : Americana Annual 1943 p.321, 1944 p.305 [G]
Article : British West Africa, in : Americana Annual 1945 pp.117-119, 1946 pp.126-129, 1947 pp.103-104 [G]
Article : British West Africa - Gold Coast, in : Americana Annual 1957 pp.105-108 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 28th 2007

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