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Ghana The Asante Wars
Historically, the Asante, who are members of the Twi-speaking
branch of the Akan people, have exercised considerable influence.
The groups that constituted the core of the Asante confederacy
moved north and settled in the vicinity of Lake Bosumtwi. Prior to
the mid-seventeenth century, several Asante leaders, one of them
Oti Akenten (r. ca. 1630-60), embarked on a program of military
expansion that enabled the Asante to dominate surrounding tribes,
establish the most powerful state in the central forest zone, and
form an alliance with neighboring states known as the Asante
confederation.
In the late seventeenth century, Osei Tutu (d. 1712 or 1717)
became asantehen (king of Asante). During his reign, the
Asante confederation destroyed the influence of Dankyera, which had
been the strongest state in the coastal hinterland and which had
been exacting tribute from most of the other Akan groups in the
central forest. Asante authorities then moved the confederation's
capital to Kumasi and continued their policy of military expansion.
During one southern expedition, rebels ambushed and killed Osei
Tutu and most of his generals. The Asante confederation, which
allowed newly conquered territories to retain their customs and
chiefs, survived this catastrophe and continued to expand its
boundaries, in the process transforming itself into an empire.
Under succeeding leaders, Asante armies extended the empire's
frontier southward. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
Asante governed a territory as large as modern-day Ghana and were
challenging the Fante states for control of the coast, where
European traders had established a network of posts and
fortifications.
The rapid growth of the Asante empire aroused the suspicions of
the Fante, who believed that the Asante sought to subjugate the
coastal states. Asante-Fante relations, therefore, remained hostile
for most of the second half of the eighteenth century. Specific
problems between the two Akan states included the Fante refusal to
allow Asante traders direct access to the coast; a Fante law that
prohibited the sale of firearms and ammunition to the Asante
national army; Fante support of Dankyera, Akyem, and other states
in their revolts against Asante authority; and the Fante practice
of granting sanctuary to refugees from the Asante empire. To
resolve these problems, the Asante launched three successful
military expeditions (in 1807, 1811, and 1816) against the Fante
and by 1820 had become the strongest power in West Africa.
The Asante national army, which achieved these and numerous
other victories, relied on troops mobilized for specific campaigns
rather than on a standing, professional force. Evasion of military
service was punishable by death. The army, which lacked cavalry,
possessed superior infantry comprising musketeers, bowmen, and
spearsmen. The armed force also included scouts (akwansraf);
an advance guard (twaf); a main force (adonte); the
king's personal bodyguard (gyas); a rear guard
(kyido); and two wings, the left (benku) and the
right (nif). Additionally, the Asante army had a medical
corps (esumankwaf) that treated the army's wounded and
removed the dead from the battlefield.
The Asante army's success against the Fante, coupled with the
Asante's determination to preserve their empire, posed a threat to
the British, who also wanted to control Ghana's coast for
strategic, political, and economic reasons. Britain's commitment to
stopping the slave trade made it impossible for the British to
maintain good relations with the Asante, who, by 1820, had become
the main source of slaves on the coast. Many British policymakers
believed, moreover, that it was their duty to promote Christianity
and Western civilization. Some British merchants also believed that
if Asante power could be destroyed, a vast market would be opened
to them.
Given the differences between the British and the Asante, a
military clash between them was inevitable. After the Asante
executed a Fante soldier who served in a British garrison for
insulting their king, the British launched a military expedition
against a 10,000-member Asante force near the village of Bonsaso.
The Asante not only outnumbered the British but also used superior
tactics. The fighting, which began on January 22, 1824, initially
favored the Asante, who encircled the British force and killed
Governor Charles MacCarthy. Eventually, however, the British drove
the Asante back to Kumasi.
After reorganizing and reequipping, the Asante in 1826 again
invaded the coast, attacking the British and their allies. During
the fighting on the open plains of Accra, the British used Congreve
rockets, which frightened Asante warriors who believed the enemy
was using thunder and lightning against them. The Asante panicked
and fled to Kumasi. According to a peace treaty concluded in 1831,
the asantehen recognized the independence of the coastal
states and agreed to refer all future disputes to the British for
adjudication. In exchange, the coastal states promised to allow the
Asante to engage in legal trade on the coast and to respect the
asantehen. During much of the following two decades, Captain
George Maclean, president of a local council of British merchants,
used tact and diplomacy to enforce the peace treaty.
After the British government resumed responsibility for the
administration of the coastal forts in 1843, relations with the
Asante gradually deteriorated. In addition to assaults on Asante
traders, the asantehen believed that the British and their
Fante allies no longer treated him with respect. When British
Governor Richard Pine refused to return an Asante chief and a
runaway slave to the asantehen, the Asante prepared for war.
In April 1863 they invaded the coast and burned thirty villages.
Pine responded by deploying six companies along the Pra River, the
border between states allied with the British and the Asante. The
deployed force built a network of stockades and a bridge, but it
returned home without engaging the enemy after inexplicably having
lost its guns, ammunition, and supplies.
The Second Asante War (1873-74) began as a result of the
asantehene' attempt to preserve his empire's last trade
outlet to the sea at the old coastal fort of Elmina, which had come
into British possession in 1872. In early 1873, a 12,000-member
Asante army crossed the Pra River and invaded the coastal area but
suffered a defeat at Elmina. The British government then appointed
Major General Garnet Wolseley administrator and commander in chief
and ordered him to drive the Asante from the coastal region. In
December 1873, Wolseley's African levies were reinforced by the
arrival of several British units.
Approximately one month later, Wolseley sent an advance party
across the Pra, warning the asantehen that he intended to
begin hostilities. Wolseley, however, also offered an armistice.
When negotiations failed, both sides prepared for war.
The most significant battle of the Second Asante War occurred
at Amoafo, near the village of Bekwai. Although the Asante
performed admirably, superior weapons allowed the British to carry
the day. Asante losses were unknown; the British lost four men and
had 194 wounded. In the following days, Wolseley captured Bekwai
and then Kumasi. On March 14, 1874, the two sides signed the Treaty
of Fomena, which required the Asante to pay an indemnity of 50,000
ounces of gold, to renounce claims to Elmina and to all payments
from the British for the use of forts, and to terminate their
alliances with several other states, including Denkyera and Akyem.
Additionally, the asantehen agreed to withdraw his troops
from the coast, to keep the trade routes open, and to halt the
practice of human sacrifice.
The British victory and the Treaty of Fomena ended the Asante
dream of bringing the coastal states under their power. The
northern states of Brong, Gonja, and Dagomba also took advantage of
the Asante defeat by asserting their independence. The Asante
empire was near collapse. In 1896 the British declared a
protectorate over Asante and exiled the asantehen, Prempeh,
his immediate family, and several close advisers to the Seychelles
Islands.
The last Anglo-Asante war occurred in 1899-1900, when the
British twice tried to take possession of the asantehen's
Golden Stool, symbol of Asante power and independence. In April
1900, the Asante reacted to these attempts by launching an armed
rebellion and by laying siege to the Kumasi fort, where the British
governor and his party had sought refuge. The British eventually
defeated the Asante, both capturing and exiling the rebellion's
leader, Yaa Asantewaa, and fifteen of her closest advisers. The
conclusion of the last Anglo-Asante war resulted in the formal
annexation of the Asante empire as a British possession.
Data as of November 1994
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