Domination of Indigenous Peoples^849

British forces receiving supplies in 1874 during the Ashanti War, which led to the

establishment of Ghana as a colony that same year.

old, at the same time to be friendly with all white men.” Five years later,

British troops occupied the Ashanti capital and deported the king when he

could not come up with a huge sum in gold to buy continued independence.

In a bloody sequel in 1900-1901, British troops crushed an uprising when

the Ashanti refused to surrender the golden stool they treasured as the

symbol of their people. In 1901, the Ashanti kingdom became a British

colony.

African imperial ventures often began with the directors and principal
shareholders of trading companies forging out territories from the under­
brush and jungle. Following frenetic lobbying, the Royal Niger Company,
with a charter from Parliament conveying administrative powers in 1886,
began to develop what became Nigeria. To counter French moves in East
Africa, the British government had authorized the Royal Niger Company to
launch an expedition through the rain forests to reach Sudan. When Ger­
man merchants, newcomers to Africa, began to establish trading posts to
the east in the future Cameroons, the British government declared a pro­
tectorate over the Niger Delta.
The French government and the Royal Niger Company settled their
respective claims through conventions. But when the Royal Niger Com­
pany went bankrupt in 1899, the British government took over administra­
tion of the territories. This scenario was common to the colonial experiences
of France, the Netherlands, and Germany: merchant companies that had