The Republic of Ghana is named after the medieval Ghana Empire of West Africa. The actual name of the Empire was Wagadugu. Ghana was the title of the kings who ruled the kingdom. They reigned until the 13th century. The Akans established the next major civilization. Then, the Ashanti empire flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Called the Gold Coast, the area was first seen by Portuguese traders in 1470. They were followed by the English in 1553, the Dutch in 1595, and the Swedes in 1640. British rule over the Gold Coast began in 1820, but was not firmly established until quelling the resistance of the Ashanti in 1901. British Togoland was incorporated into Ghana by referendum in 1956. Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence on March 6, 1957. Ghana became a republic on July 1, 1960.

Premier Kwame Nkrumah attempted to take leadership of the Pan-African Movement, holding the All-African People's Congress in the capital, Accra, in 1958 and organizing the Union of African States with Guinea and Mali in 1961. In February 1966, while Nkrumah was visiting Beijing and Hanoi, he was deposed by a military coup led by Gen. Emmanuel K. Kotoka. A series of military coups followed.

On June 4, 1979, Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings overthrew the military rule of Lt. Gen. Frederick Akuffo. Rawlings permitted the election of a civilian president to go ahead as scheduled and Hilla Limann, candidate of the People's National Party, took office. Rawlings' three-month rule was one of Ghana's bloodiest periods, with executions of numerous government officials and business leaders.

Rawlings staged another coup in 1981, charging the civilian government with corruption. As chairman of the Provisional National Defense Council, Rawlings scrapped the constitution and banned political parties. He later returned the country to civilian rule, approved a new constitution, and won the presidency in multi-party elections in 1992. He won again in 1996, but was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term in 2000.

In January 2001, John Agyekum Kufuor was elected president. In 2002, he set up a National Reconciliation Commission to review human rights abuses during the country's military rule. He was re-elected in December 2004.

In presidential elections in December 2008, Nana Akufo-Addo, of the governing New Patriotic Party, won just over 49% of the vote, and John Atta Mills, of the National Democratic Congress, took almost 48%. In the runoff election, Atta Mills won by a narrow margin. It was the closest election in Ghana's history. John Atta Mills took over as head of state in January 2009.

President Atta died in July 2012. Vice President John Dramani Mahama was sworn in after Atta's death, and subsequently won a special presidential election in December 2012.