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Ashanti: Ashanti Kingdom
built 647 days ago
The Ashanti first came under the notice of Europeans early in the 18th century, through their successful wars with the kingdoms bordering the maritime territory. Osai Tutu Early relations may be considered as the real founder of the Ashanti with the power. He either built or greatly extended Kumasi; British. he subdued the neighbouring state of Denkera (1719) and the Mahommedan countries of Gaman (Jaman) and Banna, and extended the empire by conquests both on the east and west. At last he was defeated and slain (1731); but his successor, Osai Apoko, made further acquisitions towards the coast. In 1800, Osai Tutu Quamina, an enterprising and ambitious man, who appears early to have formed the desire of opening a communication with white nations, became king.
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The Ashanti went from being a tributary state, to a confederation of states, and ultimately a centralized hierarchical kingdom. Beginning as a tributary state of Denkyira, the foremost Akan power during the 16th century, the Ashanti Kingdom or Asante grew out of a confederation of Akan-speaking states led by Osei Tutu, the first Asantehene. Osei Tutu, military leader and head of the Oyoko clan, founded the Ashanti kingdom in the 1670s. [2] He obtained the support of other clan chiefs and using Kumasi as the central base, subdued surrounding Akan states. He challenged and eventually defeated Denkyira in 1701.
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During the 19th century, the Ashanti fought several wars with the British, who sought to eliminate the slave trade and expand their control in the region. A series of defeats at the hands of the British gradually weakened and reduced the territory of the Ashanti kingdom. After nearly a century of resistance to British power, the Ashanti kingdom was finally declared a Crown Colony in 1902 following the uprising known as the Yaa Asantewa War.
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Osei Tutu therefore declared himself the first asantehene (king) of a new, united Ashanti kingdom, with its capital at Kumasi. All of his successors have belonged to the dynasty he founded. Like all Akan peoples, the Ashanti are matrilineal, meaning that a man’s heirs are not his sons but his sisters’ sons. No asantehene, therefore, has been a son of a previous one, but all asantehenes descend, in the female line, from Osei Tutu’s mother, Nana Maanu. A senior woman in this royal line always carries the title of asantehemaa (queen mother). She might or might not be the biological mother of the asantehene, but in any case she commands immense respect and traditionally exercises much influence.
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Ashanti Kingdom