Who Was When

You are looking at

Ashanti EmpireAsanteman

AfricaHeartland today: Ghana

Compare with…

Meanwhile…

An Akan state in what is now southern Ghana, ruled from Kumasi by the Asantehene, whose authority rested on the Golden Stool. It grew on gold and trade, including the sale of enslaved captives, fought Britain in wars from 1824 to 1900, and became a British colony in 1902.

Also alive at the same time

Key events

  1. – Asante supplies enslaved captives to British and Dutch coastal traders and receives firearms, which it uses to expand its territoryDisputed

    Britannica dates the coastal trade from the early 1700s. Historians differ on its weight: Wikipedia cites Wilks, who argues slaves mattered more to the Asante economy as domestic labour than as exports, and others who say the economy did not depend on the Atlantic trade.

    Also happening around

  2. Osei Tutu and the Asante states defeat Denkyera; Kumasi becomes the centre of the union, and the Golden Stool its symbolDisputed

    Dates differ. Britannica puts Osei Tutu's accession probably in the 1670s, the idea of union about 1680–90 and the war on Denkyera about 1698/99–1701; Wikipedia dates his reign from about 1695 and the victory at Feyiase to 1701. His death is given as 1712 or 1717. Asante tradition holds that the priest Okomfo Anokye brought the Golden Stool down from heaven; Britannica calls the Stool legendary.

    Also happening around

  3. An Asante army defeats a British force at Nsamankow and kills the governor, Sir Charles MacCarthy
  4. A British expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley takes Kumasi and burns it, then withdraws; northern provinces begin to break away
  5. British troops enter Kumasi, arrest the Asantehene Prempeh I and send him and other leaders into exile in the Seychelles
  6. After the British governor Frederick Hodgson demands the Golden Stool, the queen mother Yaa Asantewaa leads a rising that the British put down by SeptemberDisputed

    Accounts of what Hodgson did differ: BlackPast says he sat on the Stool, New World Encyclopedia says he demanded to sit on it, and Wikipedia reports a speech demanding it be handed over. All agree his actions set off the rising.

  7. On 1 January Britain declares Asante a crown colony and sets up the Northern Territories as a separate protectorateDisputed

    Britannica dates the formal declaration to 1 January 1902; Wikipedia's infobox dates the annexation to 1901.