Ashanti War, Fourth (1895–1896)

Ashanti War, Fourth (1895–1896)

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: The Ashanti Union vs. Great
Britain

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Present-day Ghana

DECLARATION: No formal declaration

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: When the Ashanti refused
to abide by the terms that ended the Third Ashanti War,
war broke out with Great Britain once again.

OUTCOME: The Ashanti were defeated, their capital taken,
their leaders exiled, and their union dissolved.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS:
Unknown

CASUALTIES: Unknown

TREATIES: None

Nana Prempeh I (1871–1931), the Ashanti king, loathed
the British protectorate imposed on the Ashanti Union
after the Third ASHANTI WAR. He refused both to respect
the rights of British colonials along the Gold Coast and to
pay the indemnity the British had demanded at the close
of the war. Within a year war had broken out again. This
time, the British pushed inland and took Kumasi, the
Ashanti capital they had captured and razed once before in
1874 during the Second ASHANTIWAR. They also captured
and deported Prempeh and the other principal Ashanti
leaders to the Seychelles Islands, dissolved the Ashanti
Union, and firmly established their protectorate.

See also ASHANTI, RISE OF THE; ASHANTI UPRISING;
ASHANTI WAR, FIRST.

Further reading: Robert S. Baden-Powell, Downfall
of the Prempeh: A Diary of Life with the Native Levy in
Ashanti, 1895–96 (New York: Ayer, 1972); Robert B.
Edgerton, The Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year
War for Africa’s Gold Coast (New York: Free Press, 1995);
Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage,
1994).