Ashanti War, Third (1893–1894)

Ashanti War, Third (1893–1894)

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: The Ashanti Union vs. Great
Britain

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Africa’s Gold Coast (present-day
Ghana)

DECLARATION: No formal declaration

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: When a new Ashanti
leader renewed the raids on British holdings along
Africa’s Gold Coast, the British tried to force a
protectorate on the Ashanti Union.

OUTCOME: After the Ashanti were defeated in the field,
they were forced to pay an indemnity and accept the
British protectorate.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS:
Unknown

CASUALTIES: Unknown

TREATIES: Acceptance of British protectorate, 1894

About 20 years after the Second ASHANTIWAR, a new ruler,
King Prempeh I (1871–1931), had taken power in the West
African confederacy and began, once again, to send raiding
parties into the British-controlled territory along Africa’s
Gold Coast. Bloody skirmishes took place between Prempeh’s
forces and British regulars beginning in 1893, the
same year Prempeh refused to sign a new treaty the British
tried to force on him, thus rejecting outright the proposed
British protectorate over the Ashanti Union’s tribal lands. As
the tide of war turned against them in 1894, the Ashanti
reluctantly accepted a British protectorate in the region and
agreed to pay an indemnity for their raiding.

See also ASHANTI, RISE OF THE; ASHANTI UPRISING;
ASHANTIWAR, FIRST; ASHANTIWAR, FOURTH.

Further reading: 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).