Ashanti Empire: A Visual History

The Ashanti (Asante) Empire was founded around 1701 when Osei Tutu, with the priest Okomfo Anokye and the Golden Stool that descended from the sky, united the Akan states around Kumasi and threw off the overlordship of Denkyira. Ashanti grew rich on gold, kola and slaves sold to European forts on the coast, and by 1800 ruled most of modern Ghana with a bureaucracy, roads and a large army. Five Anglo-Ashanti wars followed: the Ashanti killed a British governor in 1824, Britain sacked Kumasi in 1874, exiled King Prempeh I in 1896, and crushed the War of the Golden Stool in 1900, annexing the empire in 1902.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ashanti Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Ashanti territory

Timeline of the Ashanti Empire

1. 1701
   FeyiaseDenkyira defeated; empire founded.
2. 1717
   Osei Tutu killed
3. 1750
   Opoku Ware's conquests
4. 1824
   MacCarthy killed at Nsamankow
5. 1874
   Wolseley burns Kumasi
6. 1896
   Prempeh I exiled
7. 1900
   War of the Golden Stool
8. 1902
   Ashanti annexed

The Golden Stool

Akan clans in the forest paid tribute to Denkyira. Osei Tutu, chief of Kumasi, and the priest Anokye forged an alliance; tradition says Anokye called the Golden Stool down from heaven onto Osei Tutu's knees as the soul of the nation. The union defeated Denkyira at Feyiase in 1701. Osei Tutu died in battle in 1717 and Opoku Ware I expanded the empire north to the savanna states.

The empire

Ashanti's Asantehene ruled through a council, provincial governors and a network of roads radiating from Kumasi, with a treasury run by Muslim scribes. Gold from the forest and slaves from the north were traded to Dutch, Danish and British forts for guns and cloth. Kumasi impressed visitors with its broad streets and the palace; Osei Bonsu (1804-1823) fought the Fante of the coast and the British who protected them.

The Anglo-Ashanti wars

Governor Charles MacCarthy was killed and his skull used as a cup in 1824; the Ashanti were checked at Dodowa in 1826. Wolseley's expedition burned Kumasi in 1874 and the coastal states became the Gold Coast colony. Britain deposed and exiled Prempeh I in 1896; in 1900 the governor's demand to sit on the Golden Stool provoked a rising led by Yaa Asantewaa, queen mother of Ejisu. After its defeat Ashanti was annexed in 1902; Prempeh returned in 1924 and the Asantehene's stool remains central to Ghanaian life.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Oyo Empire (1300 to 1836)
• Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)
• Danish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)
• Sokoto Caliphate (1804 to 1903)
• First Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)

Wars of the same era and region

• Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763)
• World War I (1914 to 1918)

8 surprising things about the Ashanti Empire

1. The Golden Stool is never sat upon and never touches the ground; the 1900 war began when a British governor demanded to sit on it.
2. The Ashanti hid the real Golden Stool from the British; a fake was surrendered. The real one surfaced in 1920 when road workers found it.
3. Ghana's flag has a black star and its national football team is the Black Stars; the Ashanti kente cloth is a national symbol.
4. Kumasi's Bantama mausoleum held the skeletons of dead kings, dressed and seated at an annual feast.
5. Governor MacCarthy's skull was reportedly used as a drinking cup by Ashanti kings for decades.
6. Yaa Asantewaa, who led the 1900 rising, is Ghana's national heroine; a museum and girls' school bear her name.
7. The Ashanti army in the nineteenth century could field 80,000 men and had a corps of musketeers.
8. The Asantehene still reigns in Kumasi; the current one, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, was enthroned in 1999.

Sources

• Asante empire Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ashanti Empire Wikipedia
• Ashanti Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century (1975) Cambridge University Press

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