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The Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War For Africa'S Gold Coast Paperback – January 15, 2002

by Robert B. Edgerton (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
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In 1817, the first British envoy to meet the king of the Asante of West Africa was dazzled by his reception. A group of 5,000 Asante soldiers, many wearing immense caps topped with three foot eagle feathers and gold ram's horns, engulfed him with a "zeal bordering on phrensy," shooting muskets into the air. The envoy was escorted, as no fewer than 100 bands played, to the Asante king's palace and greeted by a tremendous throng of 30,000 noblemen and soldiers, bedecked with so much gold that his party had to avert their eyes to avoid the blinding glare. Some Asante elders wore gold ornaments so massive they had to be supported by attendants. But a criminal being lead to his execution - hands tied, ears severed, knives thrust through his cheeks and shoulder blades - was also paraded before them as a warning of what would befall malefactors. This first encounter set the stage for one of the longest and fiercest wars in all the European conquest of Africa. At its height, the Asante empire, on the Gold Coast of Africa in present-day Ghana, comprised three million people and had its own highly sophisticated social, political, and military institutions. Armed with European firearms, the tenacious and disciplined Asante army inflicted heavy casualties on advancing British troops, in some cases defeating them. They won the respect and admiration of British commanders, and displayed a unique willingness to adapt their traditional military tactics to counter superior British technology. Even well after a British fort had been established in Kumase, the Asante capital, the indigenous culture stubbornly resisted Europeanization, as long as the "golden stool," the sacred repository of royal power, remained in Asante hands. It was only after an entire century of fighting that resistance ultimately ceased.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Free Press
  4. Publication date
    January 15, 2002
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.78 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0743236386
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0743236386
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Edgerton, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of the department of anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles and the author of several books, including Like Lions They Fought, Sick Societies, and Warriors of the Rising Sun.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press (January 15, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743236386
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743236386
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.78 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

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Robert B. Edgerton

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
27 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lawrence A. Strid
5.0 out of 5 stars Little Known Subject of British Colonial Wars
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2005
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Many students or afficianados of 19th century British colonial wars in Africa are only familiar with the more well-known episodes of same, such as the Anglo-Zulu War, the Boer Wars or the travails of Gordon and Kitchener in the Sudan. This book is fascinating for its very readable study of the Asante (formerly Ashanti) tribe of modern day Ghana, which actually had a standing army armed with muskets and organized along neo-European tactics, who dominated their tribal neighbors and gave the British army and its African conscripts a real run for their money over an approximate 100 year period. The author treats both sides of the conflict fairly, and it is apparent that the Asante wanted peace with the British in order to enhance their own prestige and trading opportunities in the area, but the British, under the guise of stamping out oppression to their coastal tribe allies and to stop human sacrifice, took it upon themselves to march inland and crush Asante dominance on several occasions, although not without being bloodied in the process. This is one of those works of history that opens the door to a little known chapter of British military history, and which reads like a novel. Highly recommended, and contains some interesting illustrations and photographs as well.
10 people found this helpful
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Medraut
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2014
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Excellent work here by the author, who writes with no bias, as we come to understand it in the modern text. Both sides are described for better and worse, warts and all. Slavery it seems practiced by the great African kingdoms all over Africa, is not something I remember being taught in school here in the US.
2 people found this helpful
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Kwaku Osei-Opoku
4.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Artwork on Cover of book
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022
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Well research and opens to the door to deep and interesting picture of the Asante Empire. However, the cover artwork depitch the British and the zulu in one of their wars. Not the Asante. I think the publishers should replace the cover book picture
3 people found this helpful
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Jan A. Volkman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2019
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The story of a very slow motion invasion and colonization
One person found this helpful
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Justin
4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Introduction to Ashanti History
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2018
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I've seen quite a few reviews declaring that the book gives a utopian view of Ashanti society, which I personally strongly disagree with. This book goes out of its way to show both the good and bad of Ashanti society, which I respect, though I do think that it falls prey to two common misconceptions surrounding the Ashanti. Generally though, good read. I definitely recommend it.
2 people found this helpful
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water50
5.0 out of 5 stars Fall of ashanty empire
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2013
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Interesting Information about the ashanty tribe and additionally
better understanding about the colonialism in and of africa.
The term gold coast is also better understood.
One person found this helpful
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Ray
5.0 out of 5 stars Military history with important anthropological insight
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2021
Mr. Edgerton has written a conventional military history of Britain’s wars against the Asante, but with a twist that sets it apart from others. As an anthropologist, the author spends more time than most focusing on the political and military dynamics of Asante culture rather than focusing purely on conventional military issues. This leads to a greater understanding of the more conventional factors such as organization, tactics, and strategy.

For example, Mr. Edgerton goes into the importance of slavery to Asante culture; not the normal sale of slaves to the coast for the European slave trade, but how slaves formed the backbone to the Asante economy and their Army. The Asante empire was built on the use of slaves in their mines and agriculture, and they provided a significant part of their army.

He also reviews the cultural/political aspects of their empire such as the selection of the king, the interplay between the central government and subordinate chiefs and generals, and the belief system. He reviews how all this impacted their decision-making process for whether or not to go to war, general officer selection, and the importance of the Golden Stool the literal seat of the king. (Like a throne, but with a more religious and cultural importance.)

Mr. Edgerton also goes into the tribal dynamics between the Asante and their neighboring tribes, particularly the coastal Fante tribe who, by default, became British de facto allies as the British were drawn into the Fante’s own long-term conflict with the Asante.

Of course, Mr. Edgerton also recounts the normal military campaigns and battles that were fought between the British and the Asante over an 80-year period. There were five wars or expeditions between the British and the Asante during this period. The British came out on the losing sides in the earlier wars, to include on in which the British governor was beheaded, and his skull encrusted with gold. With difficulty, the British won the wars in the later 1800s with the final war fought in 1900. The author also discusses the impact of the brutal jungle terrain, and the more brutal significance of disease on the battles and, importantly, logistics.

If I have one quibble about the book, and it is a quibble, is the publisher put a picture of an action during the Zulu wars on the cover. How the publisher could have made this mistake, I can’t imagine. But this is a publisher’s error not the author's and it does not affect the history itself.

I would definitely recommend this book. It provides a great overview of this period’s wars, British governance in the region, and how Asante culture affected the battles.
2 people found this helpful
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Decolliber
4.0 out of 5 stars fascinating history
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2017
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Perhaps because I lived in the Gold Coast as a child, I found the book an interesting and well written history. Perhaps a bit too politically correct in the way that the author presents the pre-British society of the Asante to be quite idyllic (apart from the constant human sacrifices!), in the tradition of the "noble savage" view of pre-colonial societies as peaceful utopias.
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