colony · West Africa
Gambia Colony and Protectorate
Origins
In 1816 Captain Alexander Grant founded Bathurst on St Mary's Island at the mouth of the Gambia river, to suppress the slave trade and secure British trade after the loss of Goree. From 1821 the settlement was governed from Sierra Leone as part of British West Africa, becoming a separate colony in 1843.
Rule and society
The Gambia was again placed under Sierra Leone in 1866 and became separate for good in 1888. An Anglo-French agreement of 1889 fixed its borders as a strip a few kilometres wide on either side of the river, enclosed by French Senegal, and a protectorate over the interior followed in 1894. Groundnuts were the main export, and most people were Muslim Mandinka, Fula and Wolof.
Decline and legacy
Constitutional reforms in the 1950s and early 1960s brought Dawda Jawara and his People's Progressive Party to power. The Gambia became independent on 18 February 1965, and Bathurst was renamed Banjul in 1973.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Gambia Colony and Protectorate was a colony of British Empire1821 CE – 1965 CE
- Gambia Colony and Protectorate was part of British West Africa1821 CE – 1888 CE
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Gambia Colony and Protectorate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/gambia-colony-and-protectorate
- MLA
- “Gambia Colony and Protectorate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/gambia-colony-and-protectorate. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Gambia Colony and Protectorate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/gambia-colony-and-protectorate.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Gambia Colony and Protectorate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/gambia-colony-and-protectorate (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻