Ashanti, or Ashantee, a negro kingdom of Western Africa, included since 1896 in the British protectorate, and attached to the Gold Coast colony, behind which it lies. It is a hilly country; its rivers are the Volta, Prah, and Assinee. Population estimated at from 1,000,000 to 3,000,000, of whom a fifth are warriors. The country proper is one continuous forest; the land in the neighbourhood of the towns is carefully cultivated, and extremely fertile, producing maize, millet, rice, yams, tobacco, sugar, cocoa, the pine-apple, gums, dye-woods, and timber. The principal exports are gold-dust and palm-oil. The capital is Coomassie (q.v.); Kpando, near the Volte, is an important centre of trade, and so is Salaga or Paraha. In 1700 Coomassie was made the capital by Osai Tutu, who conquered various neighbouring states, and became a sort of feudal sovereign over a large district. In their course of conquest over the Fan tees, the Ashautis became involved in war with the British (1807-26), and were finally driven from the sea-coast; and in 1S73-74 an army under Wolseley took Coomassie. King Prempeh, after a spell of raiding, was forced in 1896 to accept the British protectorate; and a rebellion was suppressed after a third expedition to Coomassie, which is now connected by rail with the Gold Coast ports. See works by Bowdich (1819; new ed. 1873), Brackenbury (1874), Reade (1874), Stanley (1874), Weitbrecht (1875), Reindorf (1895), and Freeman (1898).