II. British Policy in West Africa: The Ashanti Expedition of 1873–4

Abstract

The Ashanti expedition of 1873–4 provides a remarkable illustration of the use of military power in colonial policy. At a moment when the whole basis of Britain's West African policy was being questioned at home an Ashanti invasion of the states on the Gold Coast in 1873 brought about a calamitous decline in British prestige in the region. The tiny neglected British settlement on the Gold Coast, and the so-called ‘protectorate’, which even experts did not understand, suddenly received unwelcome publicity, which led finally to a reluctant exercise of military power. Sir Garnet Wolseley's march to Kumasi was one of the military dramas of the Victorian age.