History of the Gambia
Gambian soldiers fought in World War I, and in the 1920s Edward Francis Small led the push for emancipation, founding the Bathurst Trade Union and the Ratepayers' Association.
Following the war, the pace of reform increased, with an economic focus on the production of peanuts and a failed programme called the Gambia Poultry Scheme by the Colonial Development Corporation.
The Mali Empire, most renowned for the Mandinka ruler Mansa Kankan Musa, brought worldwide recognition to the region due to its enormous wealth, scholarship, and civility.
The North African scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta visited the area in 1352 and said about its inhabitants: The people of the region possess many admirable qualities.
In 1588, António, Prior of Crato, who had a claim to the throne of Portugal, sold to London and Devon merchants the exclusive right to trade between the Rivers Senegal and Gambia.
[6] In the meantime, a relief expedition had departed from England under the command of Richard Jobson, who seized some Portuguese shipping as a reprisal for the massacre at Gassan.
[6] During this, Jacob Kettler, the Duke of Courland, had in 1651 obtained from several native chiefs the cession of St Andrew's Island and land at Banyon Point (also known as Half-Die), Juffure and Gassan.
They erected a fort built out of local sandstone, appointed a Lutheran pastor, and positioned the cannons on the island so as to command both of the channels to the north and the south.
On 17 November 1664, after negotiations over the future of the territories, he relinquished in favour of Charles II all claims to his African possessions and in return was granted the island of Tobago and the right for himself to personally trade in the River Gambia.
From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, "English, Dutch, French and Baltic mechant adventurers shared and fought over trading rights from the restricted, neighbouring bases of Fort James Island and Albreda.
In the following year, it was reported that the garrison at James Fort had been reduced through sickness from around 30 men to between five and eight, and that, with all the officers being dead, a common soldier had succeeded to the command.
It was hoped that this would prevent the monopolistic tendencies of rule by a joint stock company and at the same time to save the government the expense entailed by the creation of a colonial civil service.
The government headquarters were at St Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River and a Lieutenant Governor was appointed to take charge of James Fort and the settlements in the Gambia.
In 1780, the French privateer Senegal captured four vessels which had been part of the British garrison at Goree sent to the Bintang Creek under the command of Major Houghton to obtain building material.
With the help of the Royal Navy, the Goree garrison made efforts to suppress the slave traders operating in the River Gambia, who were primarily Spanish and American.
The British government continued to extend its territorial acquisitions beyond St Mary's Island by concluding treaties with a number of native chiefs.
[13] In 1840 and 1853, considerable areas of the mainland adjoining St Mary's Island were obtained from the King of Kombo for the settlement of discharged soldiers of the West India Regiments and liberated Africans.
The colony assumed an importance to the French as a possible trade route, proposed cession of the Gambia for some other part of West Africa was first mooted in 1861.
[6][14] However, the proposal aroused such opposition in Parliament and among various mercantile bodies in England, as well as among the native inhabitants of the Gambia, that the British government was unable to press ahead with the scheme.
[6][14] During this time, despite a number of small wars with the natives, the Gambian government was able to conclude a series of treaties with the chiefs living along the banks of the river.
A 1906 ordinance abolished slavery.During World War I, the Gambia Company served alongside other British troops in the Kamerun campaign, under the command of Captain V. B. Thurston of the Dorsetshire Regiment, and a number of its soldiers received gallantry medals for their conduct.
In 1920, the National Congress of British West Africa was formed, an organisation working towards African emancipation, with Edward Francis Small as the sole delegate.
In 1932, Small founded the Rate Payers' Association (RPA) to oppose the unpopular policies of Richmond Palmer, the Governor, and of the conservative elements of Gambian politics, led by Forster and his nephew W. D. Carrol.
Dawda Jawara of the People's Progressive Party resigned as Minister of Education, triggering a Constitutional Conference arranged by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
On 18 February, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, on behalf of the Queen, formally granted the country independence with Prime Minister Jawara representing the Gambia.
The referendum failed to obtain the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution, but the results received widespread attention abroad as testimony to the Gambia's observance of secret balloting, honest elections, and civil rights and liberties.
The AFPRC announced a transition plan for a return to democratic civilian rule, establishing the Provisional Independent Electoral Commission (PIEC) in 1996 to conduct national elections.
On 2 October 2013, the Gambian interior minister announced that the Gambia would leave the Commonwealth of Nations with immediate effect, stating that they would "never again be part of a neo-colonial organization"[26] In December 2014, an attempted coup was launched to overthrow President Jammeh.
[28] On the same day ECOWAS launched a military intervention in Gambia in order to forcefully remove Jammeh from power (Operation Restore Democracy); the move was authorized by United Nations Security Council with UNSC Resolution 2337.
[32] To ensure justice for persecution of political opponents and dissidents during the Jammeh era, authorities establish the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission in 2018, though significant problems remained in regards to its proper functioning.
