War of the Golden Stool

War of the Golden Stool or Yaa Asantewaa War
Part of the Anglo-Ashanti Wars

Typical fight in the forest, Anglo-Ashanti War of 1900 (Battles of the nineteenth century, 1901)
DateMarch – September 1900
Location
Ashanti
(present-day Ghana)
Result

Inconclusive

  • De facto independent Ashanti state under British protectorate
  • Ashanti retained control of the Golden Stool
Belligerents
 British Empire  Ashanti Empire
Commanders and leaders
Frederick Mitchell Hodgson
James Willcocks		 Yaa Asantewaa
Prempeh I
Casualties and losses
1,007 casualties 2,000 casualties

The War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, the Third Ashanti Expedition, the Ashanti Uprising, or variations thereof, was a campaign in 1900 during the series of conflicts between the United Kingdom and the Ashanti Empire (later Ashanti Region), an autonomous state in West Africa that fractiously co-existed with the British and its vassal coastal tribes.

After several prior wars with British troops, Ashanti was once again occupied by British troops in January 1896.[1] In 1900 the Ashanti staged an uprising. The British suppressed the revolt and captured the city of Kumasi. Ashanti's traditional king, the Asantehene, and his counselors were deported.[1] The outcome was the annexation of Ashanti by the British so that it became part of His Majesty's dominions and a British Crown Colony with its administration undertaken by a Chief Commissioner under the authority of the Governor of the Gold Coast.[2] Ashanti was classed as a colony by conquest.[3][4][5][2] The Ashanti lost their sovereignty but not the essential integrity of their socio-political system. In 1935, limited self-determination for the Ashanti was officially regularized in the formal establishment of the Ashanti Confederacy.[6] The Crown Colony of Ashanti continued to be administered in a scheme with the greater Gold Coast but remained, nonetheless, a separate Crown Colony until it became united as part of the new dominion named Ghana under the Ghana Independence Act 1957.[7]

  1. ^ a b 'The Location of Administrative Capitals in Ashanti, Ghana, 1896-1911' by R. B. Bening in The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1979) pg. 210
  2. ^ a b 'The Map of Africa by Treaty' by Sir E. Hertslet pg. 77
  3. ^ Historical Dictionary of the British Empire' by James E Olson (Editor), ISBN 978-0313293665, 1996 Pg 104
  4. ^ Ashanti Order in Council 1901 made on 26 September 1901.
  5. ^ HL Deb 16 January 1902 vol 101 c57
  6. ^ 'The Law of Primitive Man: A Study in Comparative Legal Dynamics' by E. Adamson Hoebel, pg. 212
  7. ^ Historical Dictionary of the British Empire' by James E Olson (Editor), ISBN 978-0313293665, 1996