Asante Empire
The Asante Empire, also known as the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Asante 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.
Starting in the late 17th century, the Asante king Osei Tutu and his adviser Okomfo Anokye established the Asante Kingdom, with the Golden Stool of Asante as a sole unifying symbol. Osei Tutu oversaw a massive Asante territorial expansion, building up the army by introducing new organisation and turning a disciplined royal and paramilitary army into an effective fighting machine. In 1701, the Asante army conquered Denkyira, giving the Asante access to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean coastal trade with Europeans, notably the Dutch. The economy of the Asante Empire was mainly based on the trade of gold and agricultural exports as well as slave trading, craft work and trade with markets further north.
The Asante Empire fought several wars with neighboring kingdoms and lesser organized groups such as the Fante. The Asante held their own against the British in the first two of the five 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 Asante capital of Kumasi, however, and following the final Asante defeat at the fifth Anglo-Ashanti War, the Asante empire became part of the Gold Coast colony on 1 January 1902. Today, the Asante Kingdom survives as a constitutionally protected, sub-national traditional state in union with the Republic of Ghana. The current king of the Asante kingdom is Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. The Asante 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.
Etymology
Meaning of the name ''Asante''
The name Asante means "because of war". The word derives from the Twi words ɔsa meaning "war" and nti meaning "because of". This name comes from the Asante's origin as a kingdom created to fight the Denkyira kingdom.The variant name "Ashanti" comes from British reports transcribing "Asante" as the British heard it pronounced, as-hanti. The hyphenation was subsequently dropped and the name Ashanti remained, with various spellings including Ashantee common into the early 20th century.
History
Amansie and Asantemanso
In Asante oral traditions, Amansie, also referred to as Asumennya–Santenmanso, is described as the primordial homeland of the Akan people, particularly the Aduana and Oyoko clans, and is said to mean the "Origin of the Nations" or the settlement of the "Aborigines". From this place, a large portion of the population separated and migrated eastward to Adanse, where they began to build permanent dwellings, marking the transition from nomadic life to settled habitation and organized kingship. Excavations at Asantemanso, near present-day Essumeja, have revealed continuous occupation from at least the 9th century CE, with traces of earlier habitation possibly dating as far back as 700 BCE. The site shows evidence of iron smelting, pottery manufacture, and domestic structures, indicating that it functioned as a permanent and organized settlement rather than solely a sacred site.During the first millennium CE, Asantemanso emerged as part of a broader network of early towns across the forest–savanna transition zone, including Begho, Bono Manso, and Ahwene Koko. These settlements formed an interconnected commercial system linked to Wangara and Middle Niger Valley trade networks, which supplied gold, kola, and other commodities to the trans-Saharan markets. Archaeological findings at Begho, which flourished between the 8th and 17th centuries, reveal distinct residential quarters, brass casting, and imported items such as glass beads, copper, and Chinese porcelain, confirming that Akan societies were integrated into regional and long-distance trade well before European contact.
By the 10th century, Asantemanso had developed into a substantial urban complex. Its ceramics closely resemble those of the Birim Valley zone, suggesting shared technological traditions within a forest-based metallurgical economy. Historians interpret Asantemanso as a proto-urban polity—a "technology of power" organizing production, labor, and ritual authority across the forest zone. Its spatial and social organization reflected a form of early statehood, in which ruling elites coordinated gold production, craft specialization, and ceremonial life. Between 1200 and 1700, Asantemanso flourished as it served as both an industrial center and a ritual-political hub that mediated trade between the Pra–Ofin goldfields and northern routes leading to the savanna. From this base, a proto-Asante population expanded northward during the 15th century, founding new towns such as Kumase, Dwaben, Kokofu, and Kumawu. These towns inherited Asantemanso's administrative and religious institutions, extending its influence into the heart of the forest region.
By the late 16th century, Asantemanso had declined in size and political significance, though it remained a major cultural landmark. Oral traditions remember it as the original settlement of the Akan people and the birthplace of the Aduana clan, who are said to have first emerged from the ground there, a belief still commemorated through annual rituals.
Early Adanse and the formation of Akan civilization
A contemporary with Asantemanso, Adanse developed as a major early center of Akan civilization in the forest region and is regarded as the ancestral homeland from which many of the southern Akan trace their origins. The site of Adansemanso, located about 30 kilometers south of Kumasi, served as the first political and ritual capital of the state in the Adanse–Amansie region and is associated with the formation of early Akan states.Archaeological investigations revealed continuous occupation from at least the 9th century CE, with evidence suggesting even earlier phases of settlement beginning around 393 CE, and the site reached its peak in architectural and socio-economic development between the 13th and 15th centuries CE.During this period functioned as one of the earliest Akan city-states, where elites organized production, trade, and ritual authority through a hierarchical political structure. According to Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II, the Adanse were the most enlightened and powerful of the early tribes, remembered for their role in establishing the first organized kingship in the region. Oral traditions identify it as both a spiritual and cultural origin for the Akan, remembered as the first of the five great Akan states, together with Akyem, Assin, Denkyira, and Asante. In Akan cosmology, it is said to be the place where Odomankoma began creation and where institutions such as kingship and clan identity first took root.
By the 15th and 16th centuries, Adanse region had become the ancestral homeland of many Akan ruling lineages. The Agona of Denkyira originally occupied the region stretching from Asokwa westward of Obuase and Akrofuom to the confluence of the Oda and the Ofe rivers. The Asona, who later founded Ejisu and Offinso in Asante and also Akyem Abuakwa, traced descent from Kokobiante. The Assin Atandasu, the Asona of Kingdom of Assin, the Afutuakwa of Fosu, and the Aboabo of Assin Nyankomase traced their origins to the Pra–Kusa range. The Bretuo of Mampon and Kwahu, the Oyoko of Abadwum and Edubiase, and the Ekouna of Fomena also claimed Adanse as their homeland.
The kingdoms of Arcania and the Accanists
In the early 1500s, a reference to the Akan peoples appears in the work of Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who listed the Haccanys among the principal gold-trading groups of the Guinea coast, alongside the Bremus, Atis, Boroes, and Madinguas. By Portuguese sources mentioned envoys and rulers identified as "Kings of Akan", and by 1548 referred to internal wars among them, indicating that "Akan" already described a politically and economically organized region rather than a single state.Historians interpret the names Accany, Akani, and Arcania found in Portuguese, Dutch, and English records as geo-political designations for the Akan heartland, encompassing the principal Twi-speaking regions of the Gold Coast. This area lay north of Fante, Agona, and Etsi, west of Kwahu and Akwamu, and south of Bono and Wenchi, corresponding broadly to the Ofin–Pra–Birim basin of present-day Asante, Asante Akyem, and Akyem Abuakwa. From this region—rich in gold deposits and densely settled by Akan-speaking communities—traders known to Europeans as Accanists exported gold and other commodities to coastal markets such as Elmina and Kormantine. By the 16th century, the Akani merchants controlled the bulk of the Gold Coast's gold trade, selling about two-thirds of all gold exported annually by Europeans.
K.Y. Daaku describe Akani as a confederation of Akan polities bound by kinship and trade, centered around Adanse, which formed the political and commercial core of Arcania. It referred broadly to the ancestors of Akyem, Kwahu, Asante, Denkyira, and the Assin states of Apemanim and Attandansu, who served as intermediaries between the inland goldfields and coastal markets. J.K. Fynn saw it as a centralized kingdom which comprised all of Adanse, extending to Assin in the south, parts of Akyem to the east and Denkyira to the west, while Ray Kea, viewed it as a trading society organized around merchant guilds, whose merchants dominated the gold routes.