Abstract
Stone circles thought to have been constructed by ancestors of the Jola people are estimated to date from AD 600. Kingdoms of Mandinka-speaking people were established near the Gambia River from around 1100. State-building by the Jolof and Serer groups gathered pace from around 1400. Portuguese mariners entered the Gambia River in 1455 but the first permanent European settlement was founded by traders from the Baltic Duchy of Courland (Latvia) in 1651. English and French merchants subsequently vied for control of the region (Senegambia). The British Captain, Alexander Grant, established Bathurst (Banjul) as a garrison in 1816 and it was controlled from the Freetown Colony (Sierra Leone). The Gambia became an independent member of the British Commonwealth on 18 Feb. 1965 and an independent republic on 24 April 1970.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Further Reading
Gailey, Harry A., Historical Dictionary of the Gambia. 1999
Hughes, A. and Perfect, D., A Political History of The Gambia, 1816–1994. 2006
National Statistical Office: The Gambia Bureau of Statistics, Kanifing Institutional Layout, Serekunda, P. O. Box 3504, Serekunda.
Website: http://www.gambia.gm/Statistics/index.htm
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2014 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Turner, B. (2014). The Gambia. In: Turner, B. (eds) The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-67278-3_225
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-67278-3_225
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-32324-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-67278-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)