<P> The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa from 1867 to its independence as the nation of Ghana in 1957 . </P> <P> The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471 . They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial deposits of gold in the soil . The kingdoms had a tradition of enslaving captives taken in warfare . Some were sold to Arab traders from North Africa and transported to Islamic Mediterranean civilizations . </P> <P> In 1482, the Portuguese came to the continent for increased trade . They built the Castle of Elmina, the first European settlement on the Gold Coast . From here they acquired slaves and gold in trade for European goods, such as metal knives, beads, mirrors, rum, and guns . News of the successful trading spread quickly, and eventually British, Dutch, Danish, Prussian and Swedish traders arrived as well . The European traders built several forts along the coastline . The Gold Coast had long been a name for the region used by Europeans because of the large gold resources found in the area . The slave trade was the principal exchange and major part of the economy for many years . In this period, European nations began to explore and colonize the Americas . Soon the Portuguese and Spanish began to export African slaves to the Caribbean, and North and South America . The Dutch and British also entered the slave trade, at first supplying markets in the Caribbean and on the Caribbean coast of South America . </P> <P> The Royal Trading Company was established by the Crown in 1752 to lead its trading in Africa . It was replaced by the African Company of Merchants, which led the British trading efforts into the early nineteenth century . In 1821 the British government withdrew their charter and seized privately held lands along the coast . In 1867 the government formed the British Gold Coast colony, after having taken over the remaining interests of other European countries . They purchased and incorporated the Danish Gold Coast in 1850 and the Dutch Gold Coast, including Fort Elmina, in 1872 . Britain steadily expanded its colony through the invasion and subjection of local kingdoms as well, particularly the Ashanti and Fante confederacies . </P>

Why was ghana known as the gold coast