Could the Ashanti Kingdom survive.

The Ashanti were a people of west Africa that formed a centralised and highly organised kingdom with a population of ~3 million, so what if they had resisted the British expedition could they do an Ethiopia or would they end up as a protectorate.
 
I think stepping up the infrastructure outside of the capital and probably picking up the pace of integration and centralization would have helped them out a lot more.
 
The Ashanti were a people of west Africa that formed a centralised and highly organised kingdom with a population of ~3 million, so what if they had resisted the British expedition could they do an Ethiopia or would they end up as a protectorate.
Britain sends a bigger expedition.
 
That depends on how bad their defeat is. How much is controlling Ashanti worth to the British?

The British seems to have a habit similar to the Romans when fighting what they considered to be the uncivilised--send a bigger army.The public seems to be indignant towards the notion of defeat against those they deemed inferior.
 
Asantehene Prempeh I decides to accept the British's offer to become a protectorate in 1891, becoming convinced (for some reason) that they are bound to lose and the best bet for the Asanteman's survival. Noting the British have a deep belief that the Germans should be kept out of the region, agrees to sign a treaty accepting a British Resident Commissioner (who would also be the Governor of the Gold Coast), in return for weapons, mining advisors, and official recognition as the Paramount Ruler of the Asante. That he should receive a 21-gun salute was a particular sticking point. In return, the Asante proceed to "secure" suzerainty over most of the remaining neighbouring native states (namely the kingdom of Dagomba), thus keeping out the Germans and keeping the British happy.

Prempeh-124-palaver-and-submission.jpg

Prempeh I negotiates with the British over the formation of protectorate over the Asante kingdom.

The start of gold production begins to enrich the Asanteman, and the Asantehene launches administrative reforms, organizing his now-clearly delineated realm into districts that hem in the authority of the local stools in favour of the centre, and helps keep the Germans out thus satisfying the British. He opens an administrative college in the late 1890s to modernise and rejuvenate the already substantial Asante bureaucracy.

This was following the establishment of a British-style secondary school to educate these future bureaucrats, the Asokwa College (now Asokwa Collegiate School). At the same time, certain individuals seen as having command potential—usually sons of military figures—are also sent to Asokwa, and, having joined the cadet unit there, will pursue a military career. Corps Most will be sent on for further education in the United Kingdom or India, and a lucky few at Cambridge or Oxford. Those on a military path will, if lucky, go to Britain and join the Officers' Training Corps at university, and a slim few—at most one or two per year—will be allowed selection to Sandhurst.

220-164a_zpso1cciirs.jpg

Troops of the Ashanti Frontier Rangers on campaign in Togoland, 1915

The Asante military was reorganized into the Ashanti Volunteer Forces (AVF), under British command, but by 1908, under pressure from the three-dozen or so native commissioned officers, it was again reorganized into the Ashanti Defence Force (ADF), which comprised a light infantry regiment, a frontier infantry regiment, a mounted regiment, the guards regiment, an artillery corps, medical corps, engineer corps, and the cadets, totalling to just over 6,000 troops. The ADF is a shadow of the former strength of the Asante army, under the control of the General Officer Commanding, Gold Coast, and run mainly by British officers, but an army nonetheless.

In the First World War several Asante units were sent to fight in Europe and East Africa, which raised the status of the Asante in the eyes of the British, limiting further expansionist tendencies, and leading to the expansion of the ADF and its native officer corps. They also managed to conquer much of German Togoland, and thus effect a 50/50 split of the territory between "Britain" (i.e., the Asante) and the French (rather than the 1/3 and 2/3 division of OTL).

Successive land reform acts, encouraged by the growing class Western-educated of civil servants- one in the early 1900s limiting stool land rights over towns, and a later act providing for freehold tenure for the increasingly significant plantations of cocoa and other cash crops- which increase unrest amongst the local chiefs, thus forcing the Asantehene to return to the more of the traditional power-sharing structure that had previously prevailed, while the more northern and less traditionally Asante regions did not receive this benefit. The emergence of the ADF, however, limited the degree to which central authority could back slide.

7336723806_9b927235a1_z_zps5lhiccpo.jpg

Palace of the Asantehene at Kumasi, now the seat of the Paramount Council of State ("Kwasafomanhyiamu"), c. 1914.

A railway was built to connect Kumasi with the Gold Coast's capital and port of Accra by 1910. A plan was laid out for Kumasi and a few other towns, and a few more schools along the British model are opened for the education of the sons of the chiefs and the military and civilian elites alike. The Asantehene had embraced Anglicanism, and missionary schools are opened across the country to spread the faith- and also educate the common people.

By 1920, all of the OTL Gold Coast (less some land in the north and with some land to the east) short of the coastal strip held by the British in 1890, is recognized as part of a burgeoning Ashantiland Protectorate. The economy is growing thanks to growing gold and diamond revenues (even if the British are assuming a large portion thereof), plantations of cocoa and other cash crops, some owned by foreign interests but most in the hands of local grandees, and a rising class of urban merchants. More railways are built, connecting Kumasi to the port of Takoradi, several important mines, and the important northern town of Tamale.

In 1922 the Ashanti Administrative College (as it is by then known) was promoted to the status of a University College affiliated with the University of London, but the Kumasi-based chiefs balk at what they see as strengthening the hand of this new elite, and prevail upon Prempeh to "banish" the new University College to Kuntanase, near the shores of Lake Bosumtwi south of Kumasi. It is joined by a number of other faculties, most notably those of engineering, medicine (with a teaching hospital in Kumasi), and law (although those wishing to practice law must go to the Inns of Court).

In this new period, the country continues to grow, and by 1930 Kumasi is a city of 72,000 residents- far larger than Accra- with several banking houses, markets, schools, a large and imposing palace (on par with that of a middle-rank Indian prince, perhaps), and several lighted streets. Even the houses of the poor are laid out in an organized grid- the neatness of the town surprising foreign visitors used to cities divided between "native" and "colonial" districts of varying quality.

StanleyAvenueeastSalisbury1952.jpg

Central Kumasi in the late 1940s.

(this post was longer than I thought, felt I needed the pictures to break it up- there is a second part, that I only need to find pictures for!)
 
Last edited:
Oh, forgot about this!

Asantehene Prempeh dies in 1928, having in his time accumulated a considerable but not massive fortune- for the multi-nodal nature of Asante rule prevents such a thing- and is succeeded by a distant relation, who is elected Asantehene and enstooled as Prempeh II. The new Asantehene, educated at Harrow, where he was a cadet, Cambridge, and Sandhurst, is strongly sympathetic to the new civil and military elite, and coming from a family that owns several plantations and is thus independently wealthy, has ties to the nascent business class, and is quick to establish himself as a reformist.

In 1930 the University College at Kuntanase is elevated as the independent University of Kuntanase, on the collegiate structure, and that same year the Opoku Ware Military Academy was established to train the country's (small) officer corps. Correspondingly a Cadet College at Praso was organized under that name to prepare students for a future as officers.

540px-Sheeju_iisc.jpg

Main Building of the University of Kuntanase

In 1932, following the lead of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia and the demands of the rising bureaucrats, Prempeh II convenes the leading chiefs and civil servants and lawyers to draw up a formal constitution, which mixes the well-established traditional Asante leadership structure with the Westminster system. This greatly alarms the British, who fear that it shall inspire similar ideas amongst the natives in other colonies. The Colonial Office, however, realises that Ashantiland has been allowed to grow into a robust entity in its own right, and cannot be easily quieted. After much negotiation- the Asante going through great pains to remind the British that they are not a colony but a protectorate- the British allow a significantly watered-down series of Fundamental Laws, namely organizing the civil administration, and allowing for a Great Council of State as a cross between the Privy Council and the traditional stool council, and a bicameral Legislative Assembly comprising a Council of Chiefs and a Legislative Council, whose members are chosen by the appointed district heads and small urban electorates.

By 1934 this is completed, and the first Legislative Assembly sits that year. Prempeh II travels to London to conclude the agreement, meeting, among others, the Duke of York, with whom he strikes up a friendship. Also agreed to by the British was the reduction of certain tributes and payments imposed on the Ashanti (particularly benefiting the Asantehene himself), and the removal of all duties goods travelling between Ashantiland and the Gold Coast. In return the Asante are to assume greater responsibility for their own defence, and contribute to the British Army when needed. To this end, the Ashanti Defence Force Aviation Corps (ADFAC) is established in 1935, consisting however of no more than a few biplanes.

The wealth of the Asantehene rises substantially after this agreement; this is augmented by his wresting of much of Prempeh's I's wealth as "Crown property". With global demand for goods flailing, Prempeh II launches a large building campaign to bolster demand and lower unemployment- a plan had been drawn up by Herbert Baker in 1932 for the remodelling of Kumasi, including a vast new palace, library, legislative houses, avenues, railroad stations, and the like. The University and Military academy are expanded, as are several public schools and state schools. A cadre of rural doctors are trained to work in clinics. Large sums are spent outfitting the reformed military and purchasing equipment for the air force. A great deal is also spent to win over the favour of the chiefs of the British Gold Coast, something pointing to broader ambitions.


At the start of the Second World War the Ashanti declare their armed forces at the disposal of the British West Africa Command. By 1941 two divisions amounting to 22,000 soldiers have been raised, although much to the chagrin of the Ashanti anything larger than a battalion is commanded by British and not Ashanti officers, and much of the Ashanti Army Staff languishes at West African Command at Achimota. By the end of the war, with four divisions of over 48,000 troops- including an armoured regiment and two artillery unit- having seen action in East Africa, Burma, Malaya, and Italy, the Ashanti Army has burnished its reputation for bravery and skilful conduct. The Ashanti Military Academy was able to churn out an increasing number of officers to meet demand, and by the end of the war a handful of the Sandhurst-educated officers have reached senior officer ranks in the West Africa Command, and in a few, general officer rank.

After the war there is mass agitation across society for greater autonomy from London and the integration of the Gold Coast Colony. In 1949 Prempeh II leads a large delegation of notables, including several highly decorated officers, to London to lobby for such an arrangement. By this time something of a myth of the "noble Ashanti" has emerged, and many in the Attlee government are inclined to listen. The Asantehene visits King George VI, who makes him a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (already holding a GCMG and a GCVO) and also bestows upon him the Royal Victorian Chain, he is sympathetic to their cause. Thus, over the protests of the Colonial Office, Parliament passes the Union of Ashanti Act 1949, integrating the Gold Coast Colony with the Ashantiland Protectorate into a new, self-governing Union of Ashanti, and sanctioning a new Ashanti Constitution allowing for a Prime Minister. The High Commissioner's tasks are curtailed- dealing mainly with external defence and foreign relations, and the Asante gain the right to appoint their own High Commissioner to Britain, the construction of Ashanti House in London begins accordingly. Thus starts a new age.

And I'll stop here, since this is long, and the possibilities from here (well, from proper independence in a few years) are many- the kingdom could persist, or it could be overthrown like so many former protectorates were. I could carry on, maybe, we'll see...
 
Top