Author: H. I. Ricketts
Publisher: Leonaur Limited
ISBN: 9781782823582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 140
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Book Description
The British Empire's open West African sore As the 19th century progressed the inexorable expansion of the British Empire gained momentum across the globe. Imperial ambitions invariably resulted in British naval and military forces coming into conflict with indigenous peoples, who understandably resented intrusions into their territories and traditional ways of life. How problematic the resulting conflict proved to be for the British depended on two factors-the martial abilities of their opponents and the difficulty of the terrain for military operations. The more troublesome these factors were, particularly when combined, then the more likely it was that there would be no easy final outcome. It is significant that the first hostile engagements against the Ashanti tribe, of the West African Gold Coast region, broke out in 1806 and conflict with the British continued throughout the century-in at least five wars-until the final Ashanti defeat in 1900 and the incorporation of Ashanti territories into the Gold Coast colony in 1902. This book concentrates on the First Anglo-Ashanti War of 1823-31. It followed a pattern for British imperial wars with captured officers beheaded, bitter fighting in dense jungle with no favourable outcome guaranteed, and tropical diseases which reduced British numbers far more effectively than open battle ever could. The initial part in this Leonaur book is a first hand account of the conflict based on personal experience, and this is followed by a brief overview of the campaign, that adds perspective, by the eminent historian of the British Army, Sir John Fortescue. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.
Author: Stephen Manning
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526786036
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
This authoritative military history chronicles the significant but overlooked colonial wars between the British and the Asante of West Africa. Throughout the nineteenth century, Britain fought three major wars, and two minor ones, with the Asante people of West Africa. Like the Zulus, the Asante were a warrior nation who offered a tough adversary for the British regulars. And yet these wars are rarely studied and little understood. In this insightful and vividly detailed volume, Stephen Manning sheds much-needed light on the history of this neglected colonial conflict. In the war of 1823–6, the British endured a defeat so absolute that the British governor’s head was severed and taken to the Asante king. Fifty years later, Sir Garnet Wolseley overcame many of the challenges British expeditionary forces faced in the jungle region known as ‘The White Man’s Grave’. Finally, the 1900 campaign culminated in the epic defeat of the Asante at the British fort in Kumasi. Stephen Manning’s account, which is based on Asante as well as British sources, offers a fascinating view from both sides of one of the most remarkable and protracted struggles of the colonial era.
Author: H. I. Ricketts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ashanti War, 1822-1831
Languages : en
Pages : 246
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Book Description
Author: Captain Henry Brackenbury
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1781508992
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444
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Book Description
Henry Brackenbury was a brilliant staff officer - one of the “Garnet Ring” that surrounded the famous General Sir Garnet Wolsey. This is a very serious and detailed two-volume account of the brief but bloody Ashanti campaign - containing a lot of background and logistics. The Ashanti War came about after the armies of the ambitious Ashanti Empire moved south, attacking coastal tribes in the Gold Coast under British protection. After naval forces had failed to deter them, a military expedition was mounted under Wolseley, including soldiers from the Rifle Brigade, the Black Watch and the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Garnet moved against the Ashanti early in 1874, twice defeated them, and occupied their capital Kumasi. In the wake of the defeat, other small tribes asserted their independence and eventually Britain, after restoring oirder, was compelled to add the Gold Coast to the dominions fo the British Empire. Losses in the war were an estimated 1,000 British and 2,000 Ashantis.
Author: Robert B. Edgerton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9781451603736
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
For the first time, anthropologist Robert Edgerton tells the story of the Hundred-Year War—from 1807 to 1900, between the British Empire and the Asante Kingdom—from the Asante point of view. In 1817, the first British envoy to meet the king of the Asante of West Africa was dazzled by his reception. A group of 5,000 Asante soldiers, many wearing immense caps topped with three foot eagle feathers and gold ram's horns, engulfed him with a "zeal bordering on phrensy," shooting muskets into the air. The envoy was escorted, as no fewer than 100 bands played, to the Asante king's palace and greeted by a tremendous throng of 30,000 noblemen and soldiers, bedecked with so much gold that his party had to avert their eyes to avoid the blinding glare. Some Asante elders wore gold ornaments so massive they had to be supported by attendants. But a criminal being lead to his execution - hands tied, ears severed, knives thrust through his cheeks and shoulder blades - was also paraded before them as a warning of what would befall malefactors. This first encounter set the stage for one of the longest and fiercest wars in all the European conquest of Africa. At its height, the Asante empire, on the Gold Coast of Africa in present-day Ghana, comprised three million people and had its own highly sophisticated social, political, and military institutions. Armed with European firearms, the tenacious and disciplined Asante army inflicted heavy casualties on advancing British troops, in some cases defeating them. They won the respect and admiration of British commanders, and displayed a unique willingness to adapt their traditional military tactics to counter superior British technology. Even well after a British fort had been established in Kumase, the Asante capital, the indigenous culture stubbornly resisted Europeanization, as long as the "golden stool," the sacred repository of royal power, remained in Asante hands. It was only after an entire century of fighting that resistance ultimately ceased.
Author: Gerald Gliddon
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750957654
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 446
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Book Description
The thirteenth and final volume of the VCs of the First World War series features the lives and careers of forty-six servicemen who won the coveted Victoria Cross in theatres of war – or ' Sideshows', as they became known – beyond the Western Front and Gallipoli. Opening with the stories of four VC winners who took part in the prolonged struggle to drive the German Army out of East Africa, VCs of the First World War: The Sideshows goes on to tell the stories of the two Indian Army winners of the VC defending the North-West Frontier. Finally, it covers the campaigns against the Austro–German forces in Italy; securing the oil wells in Mesopotamia (later Iraq); defending the Suez Canal and attacking the Ottoman Army in Palestine and lastly serving in Salonika in the Balkans. Each VC winner's act of bravery is recorded here in intricate detail, together with the background of the men and their lives after the war – if they survived.
Author: H. I. Ricketts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781104885052
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Author: Stephen M. Miller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108803490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
This is a new history of Britain's imperial wars during the nineteenth century. Including chapters on wars fought in the hills, on the veldt, in the dense forests, and along the coast, it discusses wars waged in China, Burma, Afghanistan, and India/Pakistan; New Zealand; and, West, East, and South Africa. Leading military historians from around the world situate the individual conflict in the larger context of British domestic history and British foreign policy/grand strategy and examine the background of the conflict, the war aims, the outbreak of the war, the forces and technology employed, a narrative of the war, details about one specific battle, and the aftermath of the war. Beginning with the Indian Rebellion and ending with the South African War, it enables readers to see the global impact of British imperialism, the function of the army in the service of British political goals, and the evolution of military technology.
Author: Sir Charles Edward Callwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592
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Book Description
Author: Edward Spiers
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719061219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874-1902. It uses using a range of sources, such as letters and diaries, to allow soldiers to 'speak form themselves' about their experience of colonial.
