Asante Empire · 1701-1874

Asante and the Golden Stool

Around 1701 Osei Tutu united Akan chiefdoms into the Asante kingdom, bound together by the sacred Golden Stool. Students explore a forest empire of gold, roads and brass weights that defeated a British army in 1824.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1715 to AD 1815
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Around 1701 Osei Tutu united Akan chiefdoms into the Asante kingdom, bound together by the sacred Golden Stool. Students explore a forest empire of gold, roads and brass weights that defeated a British army in 1824.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Kumasi and the Asante heartland in the forest of today's Ghana.
  • Explain the meaning of the Golden Stool and how it united the Asante.
  • Describe the Asante economy, from gold dust and kola nuts to the slave trade, and its wars with Britain.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1715

A kingdom of gold

Open the map in 1715 and find the label Asante in the forest of today's Ghana. Which other labels lie between Asante and the coast?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1815

Asante and the coast

Move to 1815. Find Fante on the coast between Asante and the sea. Why would Asante want to control the coast and its European trading forts?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1815

Roads to Kumasi

Zoom in on the area around Kumasi. Great roads ran from the capital in all directions. What would roads do for an empire in the forest?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Golden Stool is believed to hold the soul of the Asante nation. Why is a shared symbol so powerful for uniting people?
  2. Asante used gold dust as money and weighed it with small brass weights. What problems does weighing money solve?
  3. Asante grew rich from gold and also from selling captives. How should historians describe a state that was both impressive and involved in the slave trade?
  4. In 1824 Asante defeated a British army; in 1874 the British burned Kumasi. What had changed in fifty years?
  5. The Asante kingdom still exists today inside Ghana, with its own king. What role can an old kingdom play in a modern country?
4

Game round

9 min

No Asante ruler is in Rule History. Play one round as Peter the Great, who ruled in the same years as Osei Tutu. Compare: both built a much stronger state around 1700 through war and new symbols of unity. Which tools did each use?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.