Ashanti Wars

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The Ashanti Wars were four wars between the Ashanti Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the 19th century between 1824 and 1901 in the interior of what is now Ghana . The inhabitants of the coastal regions, such as the Fante and the inhabitants of Accra , who came mainly from the tribe of the Ga , called on the British to help against attacks by the Ashanti .

The First Ashanti War

Victory of the British troops under the command of Colonel Sutherland over the Ashantis on July 11, 1824

The British had already participated indirectly in wars in the area of ​​influence of the Ashanti - in the Ashanti-Fante War (1806-1807) , in the Ga-Fante War (1811) and in the Ashanti-Akim-Akwapim War (1814-1816) . In these cases, the British became involved in acts of war without any action of their own. In 1817 the British African Company of Merchants signed a friendship treaty with the Ashanti, in which extensive claims of the Ashanti to coastal areas were recognized.

In 1823, however, the governor of Sierra Leone Charles MacCarthy rejected claims of the Ashanti over Fante territories on the coast and refused to negotiate. MacCarthy led a force from Cape Coast against the Ashanti. In the battle of Nsamankow , in today's Wassa West District of Ghana, the British troops were defeated. MacCarthy and his secretary Ensign Wetherall were killed and their heads kept as trophies by the Ashanti.

The Ashanti then occupied the coast, but had to withdraw after the outbreak of diseases. In further battles, the Ashanti were victorious again and again moved to the coast in 1826. But after initial victories against outnumbered British troops, the Ashanti were forced to retreat using the previously unknown Congreve missiles . In 1831 a peace treaty established the river Pra as the border and there was peace between the British and Ashanti for 30 years.

The Second Ashanti War

The Second Ashanti War lasted from 1863 to 1864. There had been small border battles on the Pra in 1853 and 1854, but the peace was not endangered. In 1863, however, a large Ashanti unit crossed the river in pursuit of a refugee. Fighting broke out, which led to losses on the part of the British and the Ashanti. Requests for troops from England were denied. However, the troops on both sides were severely weakened by disease, and when the diseases caused more casualties than the fighting, the troops withdrew. The war ended in 1864 without a clear decision.

The Third Ashanti War

Garnet Wolseley as Men of the Day after the 3rd Ashanti War in Vanity Fair

The Third Ashanti War lasted from 1873 to 1874. In 1871 the British had acquired the Dutch Gold Coast from the Dutch. This new acquisition also included the town of Elmina , to which the Ashanti also made claims. The Ashanti then marched into the new British territory.

General Garnet Wolseley came to the Gold Coast and prepared for the arrival of his troops to follow in January 1874. Wolseley led the Battle of Amoaful on January 29, and five days later the fighting ended with the Battle of Ordashu . The British won both battles convincingly and the Ashanti fled their capital, Kumasi . The British occupied the city and were amazed by the size of the royal palace and its furnishings, but then they set the city on fire. Wolseley returned to England after two months in Africa before the start of the sick season. The Ashanti had to sign the hard peace of Fomena in July 1874. Wolseley left a power vacuum in the area of ​​the Ashanti, who could no longer control their vassal states , so that there was further fighting among the native tribes.

The British government refused to take action against arms dealers who supplied arms to both sides in this war.

The officers with whom General Wolseley led the campaign achieved as the Ashanti ring through mutual support a significant influence on the Victorian British Army and took over the leading positions by the end of the century.

The fourth Ashanti War

The Fourth Ashanti War lasted from 1894 to 1896. The Ashanti had turned down an unofficial offer to become a British protectorate , which was first made in 1891 and lasted until 1894. However, the British wanted to keep the French and German troops out of the Ashanti territory and from their gold and to end the conflict for good. The British started the war on the pretext that the Ashanti were in arrears with payments imposed on them in the Fomena Treaty.

Sir Francis Scott left Cape Coast with most of the troops in December 1895 and reached Kumasi in January 1896. The leader of the Ashanti Agyeman Prempeh ordered his subordinates not to offer any resistance; he was arrested and deposed. The British forced Agyeman Prempeh to sign a protection treaty and he and other leading Ashanti were exiled to the Seychelles .

The war for the golden chair

Lieutenant Colonel Colonel Arthur Forbes Montanaro (born 1862, died April 4, 1914), Royal Artillery, around 1901.

In the war for the Golden Chair , the members of the Ashanti court who had not been exiled tried to rise up against British and Fante troops at Fort Kumasi. The occasion of the uprising, which lasted from March 1900 to September 1900, was the claim of the British Governor Frederick Mitchell Hodgson to the throne , the golden chair, the Ashanti ruler . The British expedition to put down the uprising was led by Captain Cecil H. Armitage and Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Forbes Montanaro (1862-1914); both officers published their campaign memoirs in 1901 under the title The Ashanti Campaign of 1900 . The Ashanti hid the throne in the jungle; it was only discovered by the British in 1920. After the revolt was put down, the British sent more Ashanti into exile in the Seychelles .

The Ashanti territory formally became part of the British Gold Coast colony on January 1, 1902 .

literature

  • Francis Agbodeka: African Politics and British Policy in the Gold Coast, 1868-1900: A Study in the Forms and Force of Protest . Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971. ISBN 0810103680 .
  • Alan Lloyd: The Drums of Kumasi , Panther, London 1964.
  • Mary McCarthy: Social Change and the Growth of British Power in the Gold Coast: The Fante States, 1807-1874. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. , 1983. ISBN 0819131482 .
  • Ivor Wilks: Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order. London: Cambridge University Press , 1975. ISBN 0521204631 .