• 1999–present (Ashanti region absolute monarchy national state within Ghana)
Osei Tutu II
Legislature
Asante Kotoko (Council of Kumasi)[1] and the Asantemanhyiamu (National Assembly)
History
• Established
1701
• Independence from Denkyira
1701
• Annexed to form a British colony named Ashanti
1901[2]
• Self-rule
1935
• State union as Ashanti Region with Ghana
1957
• State union
Present
Area
[3][4]
259,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi)
Population
• [3]
3,000,000
Currency
Gold dust[5]
Cowry shell (shell currency)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Denkyira
Bonoman
Ashanti (Crown Colony)
Ghana
Today part of
Ghana
Ivory Coast Togo
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: Asanteman), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana.[6] It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo.[7][8] Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of sub-Saharan Africa.[9][10]
Starting in the late 17th century, the Ashanti king Osei Tutu (c. 1695 – 1717) and his adviser Okomfo Anokye established the Ashanti Kingdom, with the Golden Stool of Asante as a sole unifying symbol.[6][11] Osei Tutu oversaw a massive Ashanti territorial expansion, building up the army by introducing new organisation and turning a disciplined royal and paramilitary army into an effective fighting machine.[9] In 1701, the Ashanti army conquered Denkyira, giving the Ashanti access to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean coastal trade with Europeans, notably the Dutch.[9] The economy of the Ashanti Empire was mainly based on the trade of gold and agricultural exports[12] as well as slave trading, craft work and trade with markets further north.[5]
The Ashanti Empire fought several wars with neighboring kingdoms and lesser organized groups such as the Fante. The Ashanti defeated the British Empire's invasions in the first two of the four Anglo-Ashanti Wars, killing British army general Sir Charles MacCarthy and keeping his skull as a gold-rimmed drinking cup in 1824. British forces later burnt and sacked the Ashanti capital of Kumasi, however, and following the final Ashanti defeat at the fifth Anglo-Ashanti War, the Ashanti empire became part of the Gold Coast colony on 1 January 1902. Today, the Ashanti Kingdom survives as a constitutionally protected, sub-national traditional state[13] in union with the Republic of Ghana. The current king of the Ashanti Kingdom is Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Asantehene. The Ashanti Kingdom is the home to Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana's only natural lake. The state's current economic revenue is derived mainly from trading in gold bars, cocoa, kola nuts and agriculture.[14]
^Edgerton, Robert B. Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred Year War for Africa's Gold Coast. Free Press, 1995.
^Ashanti Order in Council 1901.
^ abCite error: The named reference Obeng, J. Pashington page 20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Iliffe, John (1995). Africans: The History of a Continent. Cambridge University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780521484220.
^ abArhin, Kwame (1990). "Trade, Accumulation and the State in Asante in the Nineteenth Century". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. 60 (4): 524–537. doi:10.2307/1160206. JSTOR 1160206. S2CID 145522016.
^ ab"Osei Tutu | king of Asante empire". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
^Davidson, Basil (2014-10-29). West Africa before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-317-88265-7.
^Isichei, Elizabeth (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press. p. 346. ISBN 9780521455992.
^ abcCollins and Burns (2007), p. 140.
^McCaskie (2003), p. 2.
^"Asante Kingdom". Irie Magazine. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
^Green, Toby (31 January 2019). A fistful of shells : West Africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution (Kindle-Version ed.). London: Penguin Books Ltd. pp. 108, 247. ISBN 978-0-241-00328-2.
^Roeder, Philip (2007). Where Nation-States Come From: Institutional Change in the Age of Nationalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0691134673.
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: Asanteman), today commonly called the AshantiEmpire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day...
The AshantiEmpire was governed by an elected monarch with its political power centralised. The entire government was a federation. By the 19th century...
The Economy of the AshantiEmpire was largely a pre-industrial and agrarian economy. The Ashanti established different procedures for mobilizing state...
The AshantiEmpire was an Akan empire and kingdom from 1701 to 1957, in modern-day Ghana. The military of the AshantiEmpire first came into formation...
The political organization of the historical AshantiEmpire was characterized by stools which denoted "offices" that were associated with a particular...
Look up Ashanti in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Ashanti may refer to: Ashanti people, an ethnic group in West Africa AshantiEmpire, a pre-colonial...
language. The Asante people developed the AshantiEmpire, along the Lake Volta and Gulf of Guinea. The empire was founded in 1670, and the capital Kumase...
were built by the AshantiEmpire to connect the capital with cities north and south of the empire starting from the 18th century. Ashanti roads were supervised...
the commercial, industrial, and cultural capital of the historical AshantiEmpire. Kumasi is approximately 500 kilometres (300 mi) north of the Equator...
capital of the AshantiEmpire. Although various oral sources differ on the origin of Kumasi, majority agree it emerged as the capital of Ashanti under Osei...
– c. 1701 Independence of the AshantiEmpire 1701 Battle of Feyiase c. 1675 – c. 1701 Independence of the AshantiEmpire 1701 Battle of Feyiase 1652–1784...
the series of conflicts between the United Kingdom and the AshantiEmpire (later Ashanti Region), an autonomous state in West Africa that fractiously...
were centralized states, Non-centralized groups and Theocracies. The AshantiEmpire was created from a confederacy of several chiefdoms and united as a...
AshantiEmpire was built upon a sophisticated bureaucracy in Kumasi, with separate ministries which saw to the handling of state affairs. Ashanti's Foreign...
which the empire entered a period of prolonged decline, culminating in its collapse as a result of the Xinhai Revolution. The AshantiEmpire (or Confederacy)...
October 17, 1840 – October 17, 1921) was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the AshantiEmpire, now part of modern-day Ghana. She was appointed by her brother Nana...
Asante, also known as Ashanti, Ashante, or Asante Twi, is one of the principal members of the Akan dialect continuum. It is one of the three mutually...
the first priest (Okomfo) of the AshantiEmpire. Anokye is known for his participation in the expansion of the empire. He was also the codifier of the...
century. The AshantiEmpire and other Akan kingdoms in the south emerged over the centuries. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire, followed...
Coast. By the 20th century, the British Empire had colonized the entire region after annexing the AshantiEmpire in the War of the Golden Stool. The oldest...
of the AshantiEmpire and the Oyoko Abohyen Dynasty. King Prempeh I ruled from March 26, 1888 until his death in 1931, and fought an Ashanti war against...
resulted in the 1806 Ashanti-Fante War, as well as an ongoing struggle by the Empire of Ashanti against the British, the four Anglo-Ashanti Wars. The Danes...
Ouémé Valley. AshantiEmpire (1701–1894), a pre-colonial Akan West African state of what is now the Ashanti Region in Ghana. The empire stretched from...
over the figure of a god carried in procession. The exact date when the Ashanti began using umbrellas is uncertain. However, in the 1800s, the Amanhene...
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