MAPS OF HISTORY

MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Ghana

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Ghana, on the map of history

What was Ghana before it was Ghana? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Ghana · The Great War, 1914–1918

NOV 1914Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position

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Ghana · The Cold War, 1945–1991

AUG 1945NATO & core Western allies — the opening position
OCT 1962Non-aligned & neutral

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Ghana (Gold Coast) · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

The Gold Coast became Ghana on 6 March 1957 — the first sub-Saharan colony to win independence, and the door through which the continent followed. Kwame Nkrumah’s mass party, his prison-to-premier rise and his pan-African vision made Accra the headquarters of African liberation. Cocoa wealth made independence look viable; a one-party drift and the 1966 coup showed how quickly the model could sour. The pioneer of both the triumph and the disappointment.

1945British-ruled — the opening position
MAR 1957Independent Africa

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