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szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
The First Anglo-Ashanti War
    2020-10-12  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet

Empires existed on the African continent before and during the time of the first European contacts. One of these, the Ashanti Empire, was located in what is now Ghana and lasted from 1701 to 1957.

The Ashanti king Osei Tutu (who lived from around 1695 to 1717) expanded his power by conquering neighboring Denkyira, which had dominated the trade with Europeans by controling access to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. But in 1701, what had been the landlocked Ashanti (or Asante) Kingdom beat Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase. Osei Tutu had allowed the Denkyira leader Ntim Gyakari to win several previous battles; Ntim Gyakari subsequently over-reached himself and fell into an ambush at Feyiase, thereby becoming tributary to Ashanti.

After over a century of hegemony, the Ashanti Empire came into conflict with Great Britain and its allies, fighting five “Anglo-Ashanti Wars” from 1824 to 1900. Coastal peoples, such as the Fante and the Ga, sided with the British, so that they could hold onto the lands that the Ashanti were trying to control.

The fifth and last of these was the “War of the Golden Stool” that lasted from March to September 1900, which we discussed last year.

It should be noted that the area was already in turmoil before the British began to get involved. They had in fact interfered in three local conflicts — in 1806-07, 1811, and 1814-16 — before the Anglo-Ashanti Wars started.

But it was in 1824 that open conflict between the Europeans and the Ashanti broke out. Its immediate cause was the Ashanti kidnapping and murder of an African member of the Royal (British) African Corps. After suffering a deadly ambush, the British attacked in force with about 500 men, encountering an Ashanti army of around 10,000 in January 1824.

The British ran out of ammunition; reports claim that a supply officer was partly responsible for this, sending barrels of pasta to the front line instead of powder! Almost the entire British force was killed; only 20 men managed to escape. The British leader, Sir Charles McCarthy, was decapitated, and his gold-rimmed skull used as a drinking cup by Ashanti rulers.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. having no access to the sea

2. surprise attack

3. living near the sea

4. Italian noodles

5. predominance of one nation over another

6. extended beyond abilities

7. one of the globe’s main landmasses

8. coming after

9. paying tribute

10. upheaval, disturbance

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