Ashanti Akim Akwapim War
In the so-called Ashanti Akim Akwapim War , the Ashanti Federation under the leadership of the Asantehene (Ashanti King) Osei Bonsu defeated the united armies of the British-backed Akim and Akwapim in the south of what is now Ghana in 1811–1816 .
This war was part of a chain of revolts from the Ashanti-dependent territories that began in 1806 with the Ashanti-Fante War (1806-1807) and ended in 1824. In 1816 the Ashanti also invaded the land of the Fante, seized the Akim and Akwapim leaders who had fled there and killed them. As a result of this war, the Ashanti prevailed as masters of the entire Gold Coast . The local European (British, Danish and Dutch) authorities had to accept this suzerainty and come to terms with the Ashanti. In 1816 the African Company of Merchants signed a "friendship treaty" with the Ashanti, in which Ashanti rule over large parts of the coast and its inhabitants and the obligation of the British to pay rent for the British forts on the coast were recognized.
Militarily, the Ashanti had achieved a great victory. When they sacked the city of Accra in the course of the war instead of attacking the European fortresses there, they lost important allies for the future with the Ga people , who made up the majority of the city's residents. As recently as 1811, during the Ga Fante War , the Ga fought against Fante, Akim and Akwapim as allies of the Ashanti. Since the sacking of Accra, however, the Ga, like the Fante, relied on the protection of the British from the Ashanti attacks.
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- ^ Webster / Boahen: The Revolutionary Years. West Africa since 1800. Longman Group 1967, p. 90
- ^ Sanderson Beck: Asante, British and the Gold Coast