USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Portuguese were the first to arrive. By 1471, under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator, they had reached the area that was to become known as the Gold Coast because Europeans knew the area as the source of gold that reached Muslim North Africa by way of trade routes across the Sahara.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1471, Portuguese explorers encountered fishing villages rich with ivory and gold along the Atlantic coast of modern-day Ghana, which the Portuguese called the Gold Coast.

Detailed explanation-3: -The earliest Europeans to set foot on the land were the Portuguese in the 15th century (1471). On their arrival, they found so much gold between the rivers Ankobra and the Volta that they named the area “da Mina”, meaning “The Mine”.

Detailed explanation-4: -Access to commodities such as fabrics, spices, and gold motivated a European quest for a faster means to reach South Asia. It was this search that led the Portuguese down the coast of West Africa to Sierra Leone in 1460.

Detailed explanation-5: -It began with the Portuguese, who went to West Africa in search of gold. The first Europeans to come to Africa’s West Coast to trade were funded by Prince Henry, the famous Portuguese patron, who hoped to bring riches to Portugal.