In 1817, a British mission visited the Ashanti capital of Kumasi and concluded with the Asantehene Osei Bonsu a treaty of "perpetual peace and harmony" which declared no "palavers" (an archaic word for disagreements) stood between the signatory powers.

[4] On 28 February 1820, another British mission headed by Joseph Dupuis arrived in Kumasi in an attempt to resolve the "palaver".

[5] Dupuis signed a treaty that was denounced at the time as "a complete sell-out" that recognised the Ashanti claim to collect tribute from the coastal peoples; renounced the British claim to protect the coastal peoples from Ashanti raids and recognised the right of the Asantehene to "eradicate from his dominions the seeds of disobedience and insubordination".

[5] A major change occurred when a report written Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo of the Royal Navy became public.

[6] Initially the Gold Coast was attached to the Crown colony of Sierre Leone with no thought for the 900 mile distance between the two.

[6] On 28 March 1821, Brigadier General Sir Charles MacCarthy arrived at Cape Coast Castle as the new governor with a mandate to shut down some of the more indefensible coastal forts; to ensure that the remaining forts followed the law by only trading with British ships; and to suppress the still flourishing slave trade.

[9] Sergeant Kujo Otetfo of the Royal African Colonial Corps became involved in a verbal dispute with an Ashanti trader, and in the words of a British doctor, Walton Claridge "grossly abused the King of Ashanti, and it was this insignificant event that provided the spark that set the whole country in a blaze of war".

MacCarthy returned from Sierra Leone when he learned of Otetfo's beheading and landed at Cape Coast Castle.

[12] MacCarthy wrote to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst his belief that the Ashanti were "blustering" and "they were not prepared for war, but depended solely upon the terror of their name to bring us to seek a compromise, and I suppose to extort from the native people under our fort...a contributions of six hundred ounces of gold".

[12] MacCarthy asked for and received permission to have the Royal African Corps redeployed from the Cape Colony (modern south-western South Africa) to the Gold Coast.

[15] The governor was in the first group of 500, which lost contact with the second column when they encountered the Ashanti army of around 10,000 on 22 January 1824, in the battle of Nsamankow.

During his captivity he was lodged under a thatched shed in the same rooms as the heads which, owing to some peculiar process, were in a perfect state of preservation.

The new governor of the Gold Coast, John Hope Smith, started to gather a new army, mainly comprising natives, including Denkyiras and many other traditional enemies of the Ashanti.

A defensive position was prepared on the open plain about 15 kilometres (10 mi) north of Accra and the 11,000 men waited.

[18] On 7 August, the Ashanti army appeared and attacked the centre of the British line where the best troops were held, which included some Royal Marines, the militia and a battery of Congreve rockets.

Their job was to expand the single file track that led to Kumasi, 160 miles (260 km) away, into a road that was suitable for troop movements.

At the end of each day's march, roughly every 10 miles (16 km) a fortified camp would be built with 70 feet (21 m) long huts inside a stockade in an area that had been cleared of trees and undergrowth to provide some protection against hostile natives.

[28] The first troops arrived in late December and on 1 January 1874 started marching along the road to the front, half a battalion at a time.

With the pipes playing "The Campbells Are Coming" the Black Watch charged with bayonets and the shocked Ashantis fled.

Among articles of the treaty between Queen Victoria and Kofi Karikari, King of Ashanti were that "The King of Ashanti promises to pay the sum of 50,000 ounces of approved gold as indemnity for the expenses he has occasioned to Her Majesty the Queen of England by the late war..." The treaty also required an end to human sacrifice[22] and stated that "There shall be freedom of trade between Ashanti and Her Majesty's forts on the [Gold Coast], all persons being at liberty to carry their merchandise from the Coast to Kumasi, or from that place to any of Her Majesty's possessions on the Coast."

Furthermore, the treaty stated: "The King of Ashanti guarantees that the road from Kumasi to the River Pra shall always be kept open..."[35] Wolseley completed the campaign in two months, and re-embarked for home before the unhealthy season began.

[40] Colonel Sir Francis Scott left Cape Coast with the main expeditionary force of British and West Indian troops, Maxim guns and 75mm artillery in December 1895, and travelling along the remnants of the 1874 road arrived in Kumasi in January 1896.

Baden-Powell published a diary of life giving the reasons, as he saw them, for the war: To put an end to human sacrifice.

Among the dead was Queen Victoria's son-in-law, Prince Henry of Battenberg,[3] who was taken ill before getting to Kumasi and died on 20 January on board ship, returning to England.

The British retreated to a small stockade, 50 yards (46 m) square with 12 feet (3.7 m) loopholed high stone walls and firing turrets at each corner,[44] where 8 Europeans, dozens of mixed-race colonial administrators, and 500 Nigerian Hausas with six small field guns and four Maxim guns defended themselves.

The healthier men escaped, including Hodgson and his wife and 100 Hausas, and meeting up with the rescue party, managed to avoid the 12,000 Ashanti warriors and make it back to the coast.

The remaining Ashanti court not exiled to the Seychelles had mounted the offensive against the British and Fanti troops resident at the Kumasi Fort, but were defeated.

The Ashanti territories became part of the Gold Coast colony on 1 January 1902, on the condition that the Golden Stool would not be violated by British or other non-Akan foreigners.

In September the British sent flying columns out to visit neighbouring peoples who had supported the rebellion, resulting in a number of skirmishes.

(See List of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign) An Ashanti Medal was created for those involved in the War of the Golden Stool.