Ashanti (Crown Colony)


Ashanti was a British Crown Colony in West Africa from 1901 until its independence as part of the dominion named Ghana in 1957. After several prior wars with British troops, Ashanti was once again occupied by British troops in January 1896. In 1900 the Ashanti Uprising took place. The British suppressed the violence and captured of the city of Kumasi. Ashanti's traditional king, the Asanthene, and his counselors were deported. The final outcome was the annexation of Ashanti by the British so that it became part of His Majesty's dominions and a British Crown Colony with its administration undertaken by a Chief Commissioner under the authority of the Governor of the Gold Coast. Ashanti was classed as a colony by conquest. The legislation by which this annexation was effected and the administration constituted was the Ashanti Order in Council 1901 made on 26 September 1901.
The Ashanti lost their sovereignty but not the essential integrity of their socio-political system. In 1935, limited self-determination for the Ashanti was officially regularized in the formal establishment of the Ashanti Confederacy. The Crown Colony of Ashanti continue to be administered in a scheme with the greater Gold Coast but remained, nonetheless, a separate Crown Colony until it became united as part the new dominion named Ghana under the Ghana Independence Act 1957.