Anglo-Ashanti wars
The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. Despite initial Ashanti victories, the British ultimately prevailed in the conflicts, resulting in the complete annexation of the Ashanti Empire by 1900.
Earlier wars
The British fought three earlier wars in the Gold Coast:In the Ashanti–Fante War of 1806–07, the British refused to hand over two rebels pursued by the Ashanti, but eventually handed one over.
In the Ga–Fante War of 1811, the Ashanti sought to aid their Ga allies in a war against the Fante and their British allies. The Ashanti army won the initial battles but was forced back by guerrilla fighting from the Fante. The Ashanti captured a British fort at Tantamkweri.
In the Ashanti–Akim–Akwapim War of 1814–16 the Ashanti defeated the Akim-Akwapim alliance. Local British, Dutch and Danish authorities all had to come to terms with the Ashanti. By 1817, the Ashanti were expanding with an army of about 20,000, so the African Company of Merchants signed a treaty of friendship that recognized Ashanti claims to sovereignty over much of the coast. The African Company of Merchants was dissolved in 1821 and the British government assumed control of the trading forts on the Gold Coast from the merchants.
First Anglo-Ashanti War (1823–1831)
In 1817, a British mission visited the Ashanti capital of Kumasi and concluded with the Asantehene Osei Bonsu a treaty of "perpetual peace and harmony" which declared no "palavers" stood between the signatory powers. However, despite the treaty a major "palaver" still remained, namely the Ashanti claim to be the overlords of the entire Gold Coast and that the British should pay them "notes" in exchange for being allowed to occupy forts on the coast. The British refused to pay rent to the Asantehene for their forts, which led to tensions. On 28 February 1820, another British mission headed by Joseph Dupuis arrived in Kumasi in an attempt to resolve the "palaver". Dupuis signed a treaty that was denounced at the time as "a complete sell-out" that recognised the Ashanti claim to collect tribute from the coastal peoples; renounced the British claim to protect the coastal peoples from Ashanti raids and recognised the right of the Asantehene to "eradicate from his dominions the seeds of disobedience and insubordination". When John Hope Smith, the governor of the Gold Coast, learned in April 1820 of the treaty that Dupuis had signed when he returned from Kumasi, he repudiated the treaty. The repudiation of the treaty led to Ashanti complaints that the British were dealing in bad faith.A major change occurred when a report written Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo of the Royal Navy became public. Yeo as the commander of the West Africa squadron visited the forts of the African Company of Merchants and reported to London that the forts were poorly maintained. Yeo also reported more damagingly that the despite the fact that the slave trade had been abolished within the British empire in 1807, the African Company of Merchants was illegally still engaged in the slave trade. In response to Yeo's report, on 7 May 1821 an act of parliament was passed that changed the status of the Gold Coast from a proprietary colony ruled by the African Company of Merchants to a Crown colony to be ruled directly by the British government. Initially the Gold Coast was attached to the Crown colony of Sierre Leone with no thought for the 900 mile distance between the two. On 28 March 1821, Brigadier General Sir Charles MacCarthy arrived at Cape Coast Castle as the new governor with a mandate to shut down some of the more indefensible coastal forts; to ensure that the remaining forts followed the law by only trading with British ships; and to suppress the still flourishing slave trade. MacCarthy was new to the Gold Coast, and the unwillingness of the merchants to co-operate with the man who had been sent to replace their rule left him isolated and thus very ignorant of the affairs of the Gold Coast. MacCarthy during his tenure as a governor was more interested in seeking to have the British government buy out the remaining Dutch and Danish forts on the Gold Coast and trying to stop the traders of the forts from doing business with American ships than in relations with the Ashanti. By the 1820s, the British had decided to support the Fante against Ashanti raids from inland. Economic and social friction played their part in the causes for the outbreak of violence.
The immediate cause of the war happened when a group of Ashanti kidnapped and murdered an African serviceman of the Royal African Corps on 1 February 1823. Freeman writes that there is no evidence the King of Ashanti was responsible for the attack as it was caused by a dispute between the Sergeant and the Ashanti perpetrators. Sergeant Kujo Otetfo of the Royal African Colonial Corps became involved in a verbal dispute with an Ashanti trader, and in the words of a British doctor, Walton Claridge "grossly abused the King of Ashanti, and it was this insignificant event that provided the spark that set the whole country in a blaze of war". Otetfo taunted the Ashanti by saying "Cormantine and Saturday", referring to the Battle of Cormantine in 1731 that saw the Ashanti king slain, a defeat that was considered so humiliating for the Ashanti that it was a capital offense to even mention the battle within their kingdom. Otetfo was kidnapped by an Ashanti war party a few weeks later, and was beheaded on 2 February 1823. Historian Wilks adds that the attack was carried out under the commands of the War Party and not Asantehene Osei Bonsu as they executed the Sergent for insulting the Asantehene. A small British group was led into a trap which resulted in 10 killed, 39 wounded and a British retreat. The Ashanti tried to negotiate but the British governor, Sir Charles MacCarthy, rejected Ashanti claims to Fanti areas of the coast and resisted their overtures.
MacCarthy returned from Sierra Leone when he learned of Otetfo's beheading and landed at Cape Coast Castle. Dr. Clardige wrote: "His journey was a triumphal progress. The Anamabos and the people of the other villages through which he passed hailed him with enthusiasm". Despite the way that the force that he sent inland had been annihilated, MacCarthy reported the battle to London as a victory. MacCarthy wrote to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst his belief that the Ashanti were "blustering" and "they were not prepared for war, but depended solely upon the terror of their name to bring us to seek a compromise, and I suppose to extort from the native people under our fort...a contributions of six hundred ounces of gold". MacCarthy asked for and received permission to have the Royal African Corps redeployed from the Cape Colony to the Gold Coast. The Royal African Corps, made up of six companies of white soldiers and three companies of black soldiers, was a "disciplinary corps" of the British Army meant to punish soldiers of "bad character" who had been convicted of criminal offenses. It was not regarded as a high-quality unit, but it was the only British Army unit available for operations in Africa.
MacCarthy led an invading force from the Cape Coast in two columns. Moving out to confront the British were an Ashanti force of 10,000 men armed with their "Long Dane" muskets. The Ashanti force were well disciplined as the American anthropologist Robert B. Edgerton noted that they: "marched in perfect order, their guns carried at exactly the same angle, before they turned toward the enemy and fired volleys on command, the only African army that was known to do so". The Ashanti generally did not have bullets for their "Long Dane" muskets and used nails instead, which proved to be an effective substitute. Upon hearing that the Ashanti army was on the march, MacCarthy unwisely divided his forces. MacCarthy failed to understand until it was too late for him that the Ashanti force that he was facing was the main Ashanti army instead of an advance-guard as he assumed. The governor was in the first group of 500, which lost contact with the second column when they encountered the Ashanti army of around 10,000 on 22 January 1824, in the battle of Nsamankow. The British ran out of ammunition, suffered losses and were overrun. Almost all the British force were killed immediately while 20 managed to escape. MacCarthy, Ensign Wetherell, and his secretary Williams attempted to fall back. MacCarthy was wounded, however, and killed by a second shot shortly thereafter. Ensign Wetherell was killed while defending MacCarthy's body. Williams was taken prisoner. He was spared death when an Ashanti sub-chief recognised him due to a favour Williams had shown him previously. Williams was held prisoner for several months in a hut that also held the severed heads of MacCarthy and Wetherell.
MacCarthy's skull was rimmed with gold and was purportedly used as a drinking-cup by Ashanti rulers. An eye-witness stated that he "saw ensign Wetherell, who appeared also to have been wounded, lying close to MacCarthy. Some of the Ashantis were attempting to cut off his head, and had already inflicted one gash on the back of his neck; luckily at this crisis an Ashanti of authority came up and recognising Williams, from whom he had received some kindness, withheld the hand of the assailant. On Williams's recovering his senses, he saw the headless trunks of MacCarthy, Buckle, and Wetherell. During his captivity he was lodged under a thatched shed in the same rooms as the heads which, owing to some peculiar process, were in a perfect state of preservation."
Some weeks later, a larger British force made up of White and Native troops came to a standstill with the same Ashanti army that had defeated MacCarthy's force. The British army withdrew back to the coast with 176 dead and 677 men wounded.
Major Alexander Gordon Laing returned to Britain with news of the defeat. The Ashanti swept down to the coast, but disease forced them back. The new governor of the Gold Coast, John Hope Smith, started to gather a new army, mainly comprising natives, including Denkyiras and many other traditional enemies of the Ashanti. In August 1826, the governor heard that the Ashanti were planning on attacking Accra. A defensive position was prepared on the open plain about north of Accra and the 11,000 men waited.
On 7 August, the Ashanti army appeared and attacked the centre of the British line where the best troops were held, which included some Royal Marines, the militia and a battery of Congreve rockets. The battle dissolved into hand-to-hand fighting but the Ashanti force were not doing well on their flanks whilst they looked like winning in the centre. Then the rockets were fired. The novelty of the weapons, the explosions, rocket trails, and grievous wounds caused by flying metal shards caused the Ashanti to fall back. Soon they fled leaving thousands of casualties on the field. In 1831, the Pra River was accepted as the border in a treaty.