Machine Guns vs Spears
The Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War turned out to be a brief and largely lopsided conflict that lasted from December, 1895, to February, 1896. It was decided by a massive British firepower advantage, in which Maxim machine guns and the latest in field artillery were pitted against Ashanti spears and obsolescent muzzle-loading firearms. The victorious British exiled the Ashanti monarch, Prempeh I, to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, along with his chief supporters. Yaa Asantewaa’s grandson, for whom she had secured the rule of Edweso, was among those exiled.
Asantewaa had to step into her grandson’s shoes, assume his place, and rule as regent. She demonstrated her badass chops and maintained order amongst her subjects. None too fond of the British to begin with – as few Ashanti were – the exile of her grandson further alienated and soured Edweso’s regent and old Queen Mother against the colonial power. Then in March, 1900, the pot boiled over when Governor Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, accompanied by his wife, travelled with a military escort to Kumasi, chief city of the Ashanti.