Asante Empire , Asante also spelled Ashanti , West African state that occupied what is now southern Ghana in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Asante rich from Comoé Flow in the west to the Togo Mountains in the east, was in the 18th century in slave trade and unsuccessfully resisted British penetration in the 19th century.
Britannica Quiz Destination Africa:Fact or Fiction? Is Africa's northernmost point further north than Europe's southernmost point? See if your geographical knowledge points north or south on this journey through Africa. In their fight against the overstate of Denkyera and smaller neighboring states made the Asante little progress until accession, probably in the 1670s Osei Tutu . After a series of campaigns that crushed all opposition, it was installed as Asantehene or king of the new Asante state whose capital was named Kumasi . His authority was symbolized by the Golden Stool on which all subsequent kings were enthroned.
From the beginning of the 18th century, the Asante provided slaves British and Dutch coast trader; in return, they received firearms with which to enforce their territorial expansion. After the death by Osei Tutu in 1712 or 1717 became a period of interior Chaos and the faction dispute ended with the joining of Opoku Ware (ruled c. 1720-1750), under the Asante fully reached into the interior of Country . Kings Osei Kwadwo (r. c. 1764–77), Osei Kwame (1777–1801) and Osei Bonsu (c. 1801–24) established a highly centralized state with an efficient, merit-based Bureaucracy and a good communication system.
In 1807 Osei Bonsu occupied southern Fante- area - an enclave British Cape Coast Headquarters; that same year, Britain outlawed the slave trade. Declining trade relations and disputes over the Fante region caused friction in the following decade and led to wars in the 1820s. The Asante defeated a British force in 1824 but made peace in 1831 and avoided conflict for the next 30 years.
In 1863 at Kwaku Dua (r. 1834–67), the Asante again challenged the British by sending forces to to occupy the coastal provinces. In 1869 the British took possession of Elmina (over which Asante claimed jurisdiction) and in 1874 an expeditionary force under Sir Garnet Wolseley marched on Kumasi. Although Wolseley managed to occupy the Asante capital for just one day, the Asante were shocked to realize the inferiority of their military and communications systems. The invasion also sparked numerous secessionist revolts in the northern provinces. The old southern provinces became formal constitutes the Gold Coast later colonized by the British in 1874. Asante of King Kofi Karikari was then deposed and Mensa Bonsu (r. 1874–83) took power. He tried to adapt the authorities of the Asante government to the changed situation. Although he reorganized the army, appointed some Europeans to senior positions, and increased Asante's resources, he was swayed by British political agents representing Northern secessionist leaders and opponents of the central government in Supported Kumasi, prevented from restoring Asante's imperial power. The empire continued to decline under his successor Prempeh I (accession 1888), during whose reign Asante was officially declared a British Crown Colony on 1 January 1902, with the former northern provinces on the same day separately formed the Protectorate of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast.
An Asante Confederacy Council was formed under British rule in the 1930s, and the Asantehene was placed as a figurehead Sovereign . See also Akan States .