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MacCarthy Island
MacCarthy Island, originally known as Lemain Island and officially named Janjanbureh Island, is an island located approximately 170 miles (272 km) upriver from the mouth of the Gambia River, in eastern Gambia, in the Janjanbureh District. Located on the island is the second-largest town in the country, Janjanbureh, but on many maps it still appears by its European name of Georgetown. In addition to being a destination for some wildlife tourists, the island is also the home of Gambia's largest prison. History The island was first settled by Western traders in the 15th century, although by the 19th century it was no longer a viable trading post due to frequent wars between the states of Wuli and Niani. The island was subsequently purchased by the British to use initially as a prison colony after the loss of most North American colonies and later as a military garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambia River
The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra, French language, French: ''Fleuve Gambie'', Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Rio Gâmbia'') is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigability, navigable for about half that length. The river is strongly associated with The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa, which occupies the downstream half of the river and its two banks. Geography The Gambia River runs a total length of . From the Fouta Djallon, it runs northwest into the Tambacounda Region of Senegal, where it flows through the Parc National du Niokolo Koba, then is joined by the Nieri Ko and and passing through the Barrakunda Falls before entering the Gambia at Koina. At this point, the river runs generally west, but in a meandering course with a number of Oxbow lake, oxbows, and about from its mouth it gradually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the English overseas possessions, overseas possessions and trading posts established by Kingdom of England, England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and colonisation attempts by Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland during the 17th century. At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the List of largest empires, largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, Westminster system, its constitutional, Common law, legal, English language, linguistic, and Culture of the United Kingdom, cultural legacy is widespread. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creole Peoples
Creole peoples may refer to various ethnic groups around the world. The term's meaning exhibits regional variations, often sparking debate. Creole peoples represent a diverse array of ethnicities, each possessing a distinct cultural identity that has been shaped over time. The emergence of creole languages, frequently associated with Creole ethnicity, is a separate phenomenon. In specific historical contexts, particularly during the Early modern period, European colonial era, the term ''Creole'' applies to ethnicities formed through Human migration, large-scale population movements. These movements involved people from diverse linguistics, linguistic and culture, cultural backgrounds who converged upon newly established colony, colonial territories. Often involuntarily separated from their ancestral homelands, these populations were forced to adapt and create a new way of life. Through a process of cultural amalgamation, they selectively adopted and merged desirable elements fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British West African Territories
British West Africa was the collective name for British settlements in West Africa during the colonial period, either in the general geographical sense or the formal colonial administrative entity. British West Africa as a colonial entity was originally officially known as Colony of Sierra Leone and its Dependencies, then British West African Territories and finally British West African Settlements. The United Kingdom held varying parts of these territories or the whole throughout the 19th century. From west to east, the colonies became the independent countries of The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. Until independence, Ghana was referred to as the Gold Coast. Historical jurisdiction British West Africa constituted during two periods (17 October 1821, until its first dissolution on 13 January 1850, and again 19 February 1866, until its final demise on 28 November 1888) as an administrative entity under a governor-in-chief (comparable in rank to a governor-genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles MacCarthy (British Army Officer)
Sir Charles MacCarthy, KCMG (born Charles Guérault; 15 February 1764 – 21 January 1824) was an Irish soldier of French and Irish descent, who later was appointed as British military governor to territories in West Africa, including Sierra Leone. His family had continued ties to France through the Irish Brigade. MacCarthy followed a maternal uncle into serving with royal French forces, Charles with units under émigré direction. He also served in the Dutch and British armies. MacCarthy was appointed in 1812 by the British as military governor of former French territories Senegal and Gorée, after Napoleon was defeated in Russia and retreated with high losses. When the Napoleonic Wars ended, the United Kingdom returned these colonies to France in the Treaty of Paris in 1814, and MacCarthy was appointed governor of Sierra Leone. He was killed by Ashanti forces in the battle of Nsamankow, with his skull used as a trophy of war. Early and personal life Charles Guérault w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cession
The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdiction by a board in favor of another agency." In contrast with annexation, where property is forcibly seized, cession is voluntary or at least apparently so. Examples In 1790, the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia both ceded land to create the District of Columbia, as specified in the U.S. Constitution of the previous year. The Virginia portion was given back in 1847, a process known as "retrocession". Following the First Opium War (1839–1842) and Second Opium War (1856–1860), Hong Kong (Treaty of Nanking) and Kowloon ( Convention of Peking) were ceded by the Qing dynasty government of China to the United Kingdom; and following defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. Territory can a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garrison
A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle, ship, or similar site. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby. The term garrison comes from the French language, French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip". "Garrison towns" () were used during the Early Muslim conquests, Arab Islamic conquests of Middle Eastern lands by Arabs, Arab-Muslim armies to increase their dominance over indigenous populations. In order to occupy non-Arab, non-Islamic areas, nomadic Arab tribesmen were taken from the desert by the ruling Arab elite, conscripted into Islamic armies, and settled into garrison towns as well as given a share in the Jizya, spoils of war. The primary utility of the Arab-Islamic garrisons was to cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American Revolutionary War, which was launched on April 19, 1775, in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Leaders of the American Revolution were Founding Fathers of the United States, colonial separatist leaders who, as British subjects, initially Olive Branch Petition, sought incremental levels of autonomy but came to embrace the cause of full independence and the necessity of prevailing in the Revolutionary War to obtain it. The Second Continental Congress, which represented the colonies and convened in present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia, formed the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in June 1775, and unanimously adopted the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Colony
A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to a correctional facility located in a remote location, it is more commonly used to refer to communities of prisoners overseen by wardens or governors having absolute authority. Historically, penal colonies have often been used for penal labour in an economically underdeveloped part of a state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than a prison farm. British Empire With the passage of the ''Transportation Act 1717'', the British government initiated the penal transportation of indentured servants to Britain's colonies in the Americas, although none of the North American colonies were solely penal colonies. British merchants would be in charge of transporting the convicts across the Atlantic to the colonies w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Niani
Niani was a Mandinka kingdom located on the north bank of the Gambia River from approximately the 14th to the late 19th century in what is now The Gambia and Senegal. History Founding Oral histories relate that, during the 14th century, many members of the Kamara clan left the town of Niani in the Mali Empire after a failed rebellion against the '' Mansa''. They initially settled in Kaabu, then crossed the Gambia river. At the time the area was a part of the Kingdom of Wuli, but some sources claim that the Kamara were given the land by the ''Buurba'' of the Jolof Empire. Two brothers, Cansia and Mansaly Kamara, established separate branches of the family in Niani, with Cansia founding Koumpentoum as the capital of his new kingdom, named after the homeland they had left behind. The Kamara would rule the state until its incorporation into the French colony of Senegal in the late 19th century. The capital was later moved to Diambour, and eventually to Ndougousine in the 19th cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janjanbureh
Janjanbureh or Jangjangbureh is a town, founded in 1823, on Janjanbureh Island, also known as MacCarthy Island, in the Gambia River in eastern Gambia. Until 1995, it was known as Georgetown and was the second largest town in the country. It is the capital of Janjanbureh Local Government Area (formerly the Central River Division), and the Janjanbureh district. The population of the Janjanbureh LGA was 127,333 at the 2013 population census. History MacCarthy Island, then known as Lemain Island, was purchased by the British captain Alexander Grant in 1823 in exchange for annual payments to Kolli Camara, the king of Lower Niani. It was intended as a settlement for freed slaves. A dispute ensued when the colonists demanded labor from Niani, but the ruling Kamara clan sent an army instead, forcing the British to take refuge in their new fort. A counterattack on the Niani capital of Ndougousine failed, with the Mandinka capturing two cannons, but the island remained in British hands. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Wuli
Wuli was a Mandinka kingdom located on the north bank of the Gambia River in what is now the eastern portion of The Gambia and the Tambacounda region of Senegal. Ruled as an independent polity by the Wali family from the early 16th century until European colonialism in the late 19th, it controlled an important crossroads for trading routes linking the upper Niger river valley with the coast. History Pre-Mandinka Before the Mandinka arrived, the area that became Wuli was inhabited by the Konyagui people, the Bainuks and a few Wolofs. The earliest Mandinka immigrants, presumably jula traders, came before the founding of the Mali Empire. Founding of the state According to oral tradition, the first large scale Mandinka migration came from Mali in the 14th century, led by Tiramakhan Traore, one of Sundiata's top generals. The first ''Wulimansa'' was Mbari Kajo Wali, who came with Traore, learned magic from the Jolas of the lower Gambia, and used his power to establish lordship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
