Ashanti Empire Research Paper

Other Views on the Ashanti Kingdom/Asante Territorial Expansion

Ashanti Empire, 1450-1750

The Ashanti kingdom, or Asante, dominated much of the present-day state of Ghana during the period between the late 17th and early 20th centuries. It was ruled by an ethnic group called the Akan, which in turn was composed of up to 38 subgroups, such as the Bekwai, Adansi Juabin, Kokofu, Kumasi, Mampon, Nsuta, Offinsu, and others. In the late 1500s, there were at least small states, which corresponded to the subsections of the Akan people. By 1650, these groups had been reduced to nine, and by 1700, they united. Ultimately the groups formed a confederation headed by the chief of the Kumasi group.

The kingdom, formed by its legendary warrior Osei Tutu in 1691, was in fact a confederacy of both Akan and non-Akan people. The king’s symbol was the golden stool; equivalent to the throne, the stool became the symbol of kingship, so that a ruler was said to be enstooled or destooled. The Asantehene, or King, had authority when he was raised three times over the stool.

The Ashanti kingdom, though

It had fertile soil, forests, and mineral resources, most notably gold. The future state of Ashanti had two ecological zones. In the southern forest belt there were forests and fertile soil. Original subsistence crops included yams, onions, and maize and, in the 19th century as farming became commercial, cola nuts and cocoa. In the southern savanna belt, there were yams and Guinea corn. The state was advantageously located for the importation of slaves from both the north and the west. In this period, beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries and lasting until the 1830s when slavery was abolished, the Ashanti still used slave labor to plant more crops such as plantain, yams, rice, and new crops such as maize and cassava brought from the Americas. This led to an increase in population and a movement of the Akan people to the forest