HISTORY OF THE GAMBIA. CONTINUES

During the late 17th and throughout the 18th century, England and later Great Britain constantly struggled with France for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal and Gambia Rivers. The 1783 Peace of Paris gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia, but the French retained a tiny enclave at Albreda on the north bank of the river, which was ceded to the British in 1857.

As many as three million slaves may have been taken from the region during the three centuries that the Atlantic slave trade operated. It is not known how many slaves were taken by Arab traders before and during the transatlantic slave trade. Most of those taken were sold to Europeans by other Africans; some were prisoners of intertribal wars; some were sold because of unpaid debts, while others were kidnapped. Slaves were initially sent to Europe to work as servants until the market for labor expanded in the West Indies and North America in the 18th century. In 1807, slave trading was abolished throughout the British Empire, and the British tried unsuccessfully to end the slave trade in the Gambia. They established the military post of Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1816. In the ensuing years, Bathurst was at times under the jurisdiction of the British Governor General in Sierra Leone. In 1888, the Gambia became aseparate colonial entity.

An 1889 agreement with France established the present boundaries, and the Gambia became a British Crown Colony, divided for administrative purposes into the colony (city of Banjul and the surrounding area) and the protectorate (remainder of the territory).