History of the Gambia 🇬🇲

The first written records of the region come from Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries. In medieval times, the region was dominated by the Trans-Saharan trade and was ruled by the Mali Empire. In the 16th century, the region came to be ruled by the Songhai Empire. The first Europeans to visit the Gambia River were the Portuguese in the  century, in , who attempted to settle on the river banks, but no settlement of significant size was established. Descendants of the Portuguese settlers remained until the 18th century. In the late 16th century, English merchants attempted to begin a trade with the Gambia, reporting that it was “a river of secret trade and riches concealed by the Portuguese.”

The Gambia gained independence in 1965 as a constitutional monarchy that remained part of the Commonwealth as Sir Firamang Singhateh as the first Gambian governor from to many agrue that Gambia did not attain full independence as the country was still under the British control, but in 1970 became a presidential republic. Dawda Jawara was elected the first president and remained in this position until 1994. A coup, led by Kukoi Sanyang, was attempted in 1981 but failed after Senegalese intervention. From 1981 to 1989, the Gambia entered into the Senegambia Confederation, which collapsed. In 1994, Jawara was overthrown in a coup d’état led by Yahya Jammeh, who ruled as a military dictator for two years through the AFPRC. He was elected president in 1996 and continued in this role until 2017. During this time, Jammeh’s party, the dominated Gambian politics. the Gambia left the Commonwealth of Nations in 2013 and suffered an unsuccessful coup attempt in 2014. In the 2016 election, Adama Barrow was elected president, backed by a coalition of opposition parties. Jammeh’s refusal to step down led to a constitutional crisis and the intervention of ECOWAS forces.