The Ashanti (also Asante) are a major ethnic group from Africa. Prior to European colonization, the Ashanti Confederacy was a major state, particularly during the period from 1570 to 1900. Ashanti wealth was based on the region's substantial deposits of gold.
Under successive paramount chiefs (called "Asantehenes") the kingdom also participated in the African slave trade. The Ashanti would sometimes capture people of surrounding nations and sell them to European slavers. This trade ceased in the early-to-middle 19th century.
Ashanti was one of the few African states able to offer serious resistance to the European invaders. Britain fought four wars against the Ashanti kings between 1826 and 1896 (the Anglo-Ashanti Wars ), one of which was notable as the first conflict in which the Maxim gun was used. In 1900, the British finally subdued the kingdom and named it the Gold Coast colony. A much-loved figure in Asante history is Yaa Asantewaa, a leader of the resistance against British colonialism in 1896.
The territory occupied by the Kingdom of Ashanti is now part of what is now known as Ghana. The hereditary Ashanti crown continues to be honoured by the Ashanti people, however, alongside the authority of the state.
See also