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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

W. D. McIntyre
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Extract

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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

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32 Ibid. Minute by Kimberley (after 20 March) and draft for Harley. This can be regarded as Kimberley's Gold Coast policy had the Ashanti war not intervened. Its main points were: (1) definition of responsibilities; (2) defence—Britain to defend the coast, Africans to defend the interior; (3) revenue from customs, stipends for the Chiefs; (4) expenditure on vernacular education, roads, and the development of administration with Africans in subordinate posts.

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35 Report on Invasion. Capt. Brett, 19 April 1873, W.O. 32/826, file 076/233. When Kuhne was released from captivity in 1874 he confirmed that Dunkwa was the peak of the Ashanti attack. Shortly after the victory he met Kofi Karikari in the street and saw him dance with joy. After the reports of sickness and defeats there was no more dancing (Reade, , Ashantee Campaign, 103).Google Scholar

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44 Ibid. Capt. Brett to W.O., 21 April 1873, 076/233.

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47 Minute by Knatchbull-Hugessen, , 27 05 1873Google Scholar, on W.O. to C.O., 22 May 1873, C.O. 96/107.

48 Ibid.Minute by Kimberley, 28 05 1873.Google Scholar

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50 The Times, 10 Jul 1873, 10. A correspondent's report dated Freetown, , 29 05 1873.Google Scholar

51 Drus, , Kimberley's Journal, 39.Google Scholar

52 The Marines from England who arrived on 9 June, made Elmina their base, but they found the part of the town occupied by the ‘King's party’ was pro-Ashanti. The Legislative Council decided on 12 June to make this party surrender its arms and the operation was planned for dawn on 13 June. When no arms were forthcoming at the appointed hour, Festing gave another half-hour, and then opened fire. At this point the Ashantis appeared (Festing to W.O., 18 June 1873, W.O. 32/826, file 076/320). Reade viewed this incident as the turning-point of the war. The Ashantis failed to achieve their objective Elmina and after the battle were only awaiting permission to return (Ashantee Campaign, 225).

53 Drus, , Kimberley's Journal, 40Google Scholar; 3 Hansard, , CCXVII, cols. 267–8, 308.Google Scholar

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55 For other talk at a journalistic level of sending ‘Chinese’ Gordon to the Gold Coast, see Elton, Lord, General Gordon (1954), 144–5Google Scholar; Reade, , Ashantee Campaign, 145.Google Scholar

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57 Kimberley, to Cardwell, , 26 07 1873Google Scholar, Cardwell Papers, Public Record Office Gifts and Deposits: P.R.O. 30/48/5/33, 48–51.

58 Minutes by Herbert, and Kimberley, , 28 07 1873Google Scholar, on Harley, to Kimberley, , 30 06 1873Google Scholar and Memorandum by Hales, 28 July 1873, C.O. 96/100.

59 Kimberley, to Cardwell, , 30 07 1873Google Scholar, P.R.O. 30/48/5/33, 54.

60 See above, p. 24, n. 19.

61 Kimberley said of Glover: ‘he is one of those exceptional boasters who have proved that boasting and solid qualities sometimes go together’. Earlier in the year Glover had tried to get the job of the Governor-in-Chief in West Africa (Glover, to Kimberley, , 15 04 1873Google Scholar, Sierra Leone correspondence: C.O. 267/325).

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63 Cabinet Minute, 2 08 1873Google Scholar, Gladstone Papers, 44641/189. An attempt to get a debate on the war before Parliament adjourned on 5 August failed (3 Hansard, CCXVII, col. 1526).

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67 Clarke had been grateful to Glover in 1864, when, by making sure that he got to sea in a bout of fever, Glover probably saved Clarke's life. Vetch, R. H., Life of Sir Lieut.-General Andrew Clarke (1905), 82Google Scholar, and Glover, Lady E., Life of Sir John Hatoley Glover (1897), 118–20Google Scholar, disagree as to whether this took place on the Gold Coast or at Lagos.

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71 Glover was appointed ‘Special Commissioner to the Native Chiefs of the Eastern District’, and was instructed to raise an African force in the Accra and Volta region, to create a diversion in the flank and rear of Ashanti, and so to force them to retire from the Protectorate.

72 This memorandum has not been found and therefore can only be roughly dated. In May 1873, when there was growing publicity in Britain, Lieut.-Col. Evelyn Wood found Wolseley poring over Dutch maps of Ashanti and was told ‘there was a king there who required a lesson to bring him to a sense of the power of England’ (Wood, E., From Midshipman to Field Marshal (1906), 1, 254–5Google Scholar). Wolseley's biographers say ‘As soon as difficulties arose on the Gold Coast, Sir Garnet prepared for Mr Cardwell a memo, on the situation’ (Maurice, F. and Arthur, G., The Life of Lord Wolseley, 61–2Google Scholar). Wolseley himself wrote: ‘Mr Cardwell had in confidence already informed me that he would like me to go there should it be determined to undertake active operations against the invading Ashanti.… I submitted privately to Mr Cardwell a rough outline of a military scheme…’ (A Soldier's Life, 11, 262).

73 Ibid. 362–3. This plan was carried out.

74 Cardwell, to Kimberley, , 1 08 1873 (copy)Google Scholar, Cardwell Papers, P.R.O. 30/48/5/33, p. 60.

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80 Information from Vetch, , Life of Clarke, 115Google Scholar. Like Wolseley's memorandum Clarke's cannot be found. However, there is in the Glover Papers (Royal Commonwealth Soc.) a memorandum written on Singapore Government note-paper signed by Clarke dated, 11 Aug. 1873, initialled by Cardwell: ‘written by Sir A. Clarke at my request’. In this Clarke says if an attack upon Rumasi is decided on regular troops would be needed, but he is convinced that sufficient forces could be raised in the protectorate.

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85 Ironically the one person who seems to have been ‘out’ of the decision was Knatchbull-Hugessen, the very man who had insistently criticized the 1865 policy and urged a strong line with Ashanti. But he was going through a period of disillusion over his prospects of Cabinet office under Gladstone and had hinted at resignation (see Brabourne Diary, IV (1870–1873), 639 for a letter from Kimberley dated 10 Aug. 1873: ‘I trust you are not serious in talking of making your bow. You would not I am sure turn your “backside”…to Coffee Calicalli’).

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88 Gladstone, to Kimberley, , 4 09 1873Google Scholar, Kimberley Papers, A/52: Kimberley, to Ponsonby, , 9 09 1873Google Scholar (copy), ibid. A/40; Kimberley, to Gladstone, , 9 09 1873Google Scholar, Gladstone Papers, 44225/99.

89 Kimberley, to Wolseley, , 10 09 1873 (draft), C.O. 96/108Google Scholar. This draft has the same date as the draft of Kimberley's famous instruction to Sir Andrew Clarke suggesting the appointment of Residents in the Malay States.

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101 Wolseley, to Kimberley, , 5 10 1873Google Scholar, ibid. p. 209; Wolseley, to War Office, 7 10 1873Google Scholar, W.O. 32/826, file 076/1235. At this ‘palaver’ Wolseley and his staff wore full dress (Henty, , March to Coomassie, 62).Google Scholar

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103 Ibid. loc. cit. In A Soldier's Life, 11, 276, he wrote: ‘The term “slave” jars upon the ear, and yet the more one sees the negro the more one realises that he was intended to the the white man's servant. ‘Wolseley ako told Reade on the voyage that he was sure he would want English troops (Ashantee Campaign, 163).

104 ‘Measures taken at home’, Wolseley Papers, W.13, p. 14. Maurice, who quotes the dispatch to the War Office (Ashantee War, 90–105), specially jiotes that it was dated the day before Wolseley's first operations. The dispatch was apparently delayed in the mail office until 27 Oct. (Melville, C. H., Life of General the Right Hon. Sir Redvers Buller (1923), 1, 61).Google Scholar

105 Cabinet Minute dated Nov. 1873, Gladstone Papers, 44641/209. The third battalion had been requested by Wolseley, who specified he wanted volunteers commanded by Col. Colley.

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109 Ponsonby, to Kimberley, , 23 11 1873Google Scholar, Kimberley Papers, A/40.

110 Minute by Kimberley, , 25 12 1873Google Scholar, on Wolseley, to Cardwell, , 2 11 1873Google Scholar, C.O. 96/107. Herbert said, however, ‘The truth is that Capt. Glover has succeeded in a business with which he is familiar and the officers who had no African experience have naturally been less successful’. Wolseley complained that Glover's recruiting jeopardized his own. Gladstone intervened when he heard Glover was purchasing Hausa slaves for £5 each for his force (Gladstone, to Kimberley, , 16 12 1873Google Scholar, Kimberley Papers, A/52). The journalists, who usually admired Glover, were all agreed that the flank expedition was a mistake: Reade, , Ashantee Campaign, 378–81Google Scholar; Maurice, , Ashantee War, 390Google Scholar; Henty, , March to Coomassie, 218.Google Scholar

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114 See my article on ‘Disraeli's Election Blunder: The Straits of Malacca Issue in the 1874 Election’, Renaissance and Modern Studies, V (1961).

115 Undated Memorandum in Carnarvon Papers, Public Record Office, Gifts and Deposits: P.R.O. 30/6/85. Reade was also very critical of Wolseley, (Ashantee Campaign, 187–8, 229, 231, 289, 291, 338, 353)Google Scholar, and Stanley criticized Wolseley's conduct in Kumasi, (Coomassie and Magdala, 229).Google Scholar

116 Carnarvon, to Disraeli, , 6 03 1874 (copy)Google Scholar, Carnarvon Papers, P.R.O. 30/6/11, 3.

117 The ‘ring’ included such notable figures in the late nineteenth-century British Army as Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, Gen. Sir Redvers Buller, Maj.-Gen. Sir George Colley, Gen. Sir John McNeil, Gen. Sir George Greaves, Gen. Sir Baker Russell, Gen. Sir Thomas Baker, Maj.-Gen. Sir Frederick Maurice, Lieut.-Gen. Sir William Butler, Gen. Sir Henry Brackenbury.

118 Wolseley, to Gen. Biddulph, , 26 10 1873Google Scholar, extract in Kimberley Papers, A/22. Reade's theory was that Wolseley hoped he would not have to fight for Kumasi and wanted to build up a reputation as a diplomatist (Ashantee Campaign, 288).

119 Wolseley, to Cardwell, , 11 12 1873Google Scholar, copy in Kimberley Papers, A/22.

120 Wolseley, to Karikari, Kofi, 2 01 1874, C.O. 806/2, p. 103Google Scholar. His terms were: the return of all captives; an indemnity of 50,000 oz. of gold dust; and a new treaty to be signed by Wolseley in Kumasi.

121 Karikari, Kofi to Wolseley, , 9 01 1874, C.O. 806/4, p. 6Google Scholar, and Wolseley, to Karikari, Kofi, 24 01 1874Google Scholar, ibid. pp. 12–13. The new terms required as hostages the king's heir, the Queen Mother, and the heirs of the four leading Ashanti kings. Ward, , History of the Gold Coast, 273Google Scholar, says it was impossible for the Asantehene to accept such humiliating terms. Reade, , Ashantee Campaign, 290–2Google Scholar, considered that Kofi Karikari outwitted Wolseley in diplomacy and forced the general to fight for Kumasi in order to save his reputation at home.

122 C.O. 806/6, p. 12.

123 Text in Crooks, , Records of the Gold Coast, 521–3.Google Scholar

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137 Parliamentary criticism of the preparations for sending equipment for a railway to the Gold Coast caused Cardwell to complain to Gladstone about ‘our form of government, which seldom very clearly defines responsibilities…’ (Cardwell, to Gladstone, , 19 09 1873Google Scholar, Gladstone Papers, 44120/135).

138 Carnarvon, to Strahan, , 2 07 1874 (secret), C.O. 806/19, p. 8.Google Scholar

139 Rev. Penrose to General Secretaries, 26 April 1875, Methodist Missionary Society, Gold Coast incoming letters, file for 1875–6; ‘already the more decisive measures of British rule are making themselves felt’.

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141 Ward, , History of the Gold Coast, 282–3Google Scholar: ‘The policy…towards Ashanti from 1874 to 1890 was utterly timorous and vacillating, and the fruits of the campaign of 1874 were completely lost in an incredibly short time.… The Government…wanted the Asantehene to be strong enough to keep all Ashanti in order, but to be weak enough not to be a danger to the Colony. Two contradictory aims naturally led to chaos.’

142 It still existed in 1915, when Claridge wrote. See Gold Coast and Ashanti, 11, 183–4, for his view of the effect of the 1874 policy.