Ahyiamu-‘A Place of Meeting’: an Essay on Process and Event in the History of the Asante State

1984 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. McCaskie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Historic Control ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Republic

The present paper is one in a series of essays on the political economy of the West African forest kingdom of Asante (Ashanti), now located in the Republic of Ghana. In general terms it surveys and explores aspects of the crucial issue of control over subjects and land within the Asante social formation. At the broadest level, it seeks to offer a description of fluctuations in the ability of central government in Kumase to mediate and to preside over the distribution of these resources between the foundation of the state in the early eighteenth century and the present day. It is argued that until approximately the middle of the nineteenth century the history of Asante is the history of the embedding, expansion and triumph of central government control. Thereafter, for a number of reasons that are discussed, matters changed. In terms of these changes the crucial decade was the 1880s, and the paper demonstrates how, in the closing stages and the immediate aftermath of the civil war (1883–8), a revolutionary reversal was effected in the general developmental thrust of Asante history. That is, at a meeting in Kumase in 1888, and at an oath-taking ceremony at Ahyiamu in the following year, the historic control of central government over subjects and land was challenged and substantially liquidated. That the implications of this revolutionary change were distorted in a number of ways was due to the imposition of British colonial rule at the close of the nineteenth century. The remainder of the paper attempts briefly to demonstrate how, in the twentieth century, and in the context of changing socio-political conditions, the battle over resources between central government in Kumase and its opponents remains a live and complex issue.

Early European Influences on Tswana Law

1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Schapera
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Intensive Study ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Inaugural Lecture ◽  
Western Law ◽  
Local Courts ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

In the closing paragraph of his inaugural lecture Law and Language, Professor Allott referred to what he termed “a daunting obstacle” to the intensive study of African legal systems.That obstacle is the rapid disappearance, before our very eyes, of the traditional systems that we have proposed to study. A generation ago there would not have been that difficulty; but today the traditional tribunals have vanished in many African countries where their place has been taken by statutory local courts. Even where the traditional courts appear to have survived, at least in name, they are usually affected by the impact of western law and institutions and of central government control.Those words were written in 1965. How true and necessary they were is shown by the fact that more than fifty years previously—even more than “a generation ago”—the impact of “western” influences upon the Tswana peoples of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now the Republic of Botswana) had already led to many changes in the indigenous legal system, although, at that time, the “traditional courts” still survived virtually intact and not merely “in name”.The nature and extent of those changes can be readily ascertained by the fortunate chance that, there are still available the records of approximately 470 cases tried, over a period of six and a half years, in the highest traditional court of the Ngwaketse, a major Tswana chiefdom.

Indigenous Written Sources for the History of Bonny

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 185-196
Author(s):  
Susan M. Hargreaves
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Additional Material ◽  
Court Records ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
History Of ◽  
Similar Character ◽  
Written Sources

It is well known that indigenous contemporary written documentation exists for the precolonial and early colonial history of some of the coastal societies of South-Eastern Nigeria. The best known example is Old Calabar, for which there exists most notably the diary of Antera Duke, covering the years 1785-88, a document brought from Old Calabar to Britain already during the nineteenth century. More recently John Latham has discovered additional material of a similar character still preserved locally in Old Calabar, principally the Black Davis House Book (containing material dating from the 1830s onwards), the papers of Coco Bassey (including diaries covering the years 1878-89), and the papers of E. O. Offiong (comprising trade ledgers, court records, and letter books relating to the period 1885-1907). In the Niger Delta S. J. S. Cookey, for his biography of King Jaja of Opobo, was able to use contemporary documents in Jaja's own papers, including correspondence from the late 1860s onwards. In the case of the neighboring community of Bonny (from which Jaja seceded to found Opobo after a civil war in 1869), while earlier historians have alluded to the existence of indigenous written documentation, they have done so only in very general terms and without any indication of the quantity or nature of this material.

III. Prophecy and Pragmatism: Gobineau's Confrontation with Tocqueville

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Biddiss
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Previous Treatment ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Present Discussion ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
History Of

The history of social and political ideas is often brilliantly illuminated by personal intellectual confrontations. Our understanding of the concept of progress is enhanced by consideration of the divergences between Diderot and Rousseau; our attitudes to revolutionary change cannot fail to be influenced by the debate between Burke and Paine; our appreciation of communist and anarchist ideals is refined by contemplating the dispute between Marx and Bakunin. Similarly our view of certain questions important to mid-nineteenth-century social philosophy may be sharpened by an examination of another confrontation, less famous though scarcely less revealing than the foregoing, embodied in the exchange of letters between Alexis de Tocqueville and Arthur de Gobineau. The present discussion of some aspects of their correspondence makes no attempt at a full-scale comparison of the two figures. Rather, it places an emphasis upon him who is now the lesser known—a stress which is all the more defensible in view of much of the debate's previous treatment at the hands of historians. Into such historiographical questions there is no need to venture—at least, not beyond stating the two broad considerations which seem to justify an essay in reinterpretation along the lines suggested here.

5 Evolution and Gestalt of the Austrian State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiederin Ewald
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Administrative State ◽  
World War ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Different Levels

This chapter presents an overview and history of the Austrian administrative state. It shows how the traditional form of the Austrian administration evolved in the second half of the nineteenth century. After defeat in World War I, the Republic of Austria succeeded the extinct Danube Monarchy; it took over the Viennese central administrative departments and their personnel and remained a ‘typical administrative state’. In the early modern period, the fundamental elements of Austria's administration developed on three different levels that still exist and to this day continue to characterize the administration's structure. Most notably, the state's dominant administrative feature is expressed by the equality of the judiciary and the administrative branch in both standing and rights.

“… It Was Highly Desirable They Should Be Illustrated”

Nuncius ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Valdés ◽  
Magdalena Montalbán
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
Panoramic Vision ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Prestige

Abstract The purpose of this article is to study the images included in the report made by the U.S. Navy Astronomical Expedition in the Southern Hemisphere between 1849 and 1852, directed by Navy lieutenant and astronomer James Melville Gilliss (1881–1865). Together with astronomical studies, the expedition addressed different aspects of the natural and social history of the Republic of Chile setting down in six volumes a pioneering panoramic vision of the young nation. Considering the different aspects of the culture of printing as it developed in the main cities of the United States in the mid nineteenth century, this article proposes general reflections concerning the impetus given in this field by scientific expeditions. In the specific case of Gilliss’s Naval Astronomical Expedition, this impulse manifests itself in terms of the technological renewal and the prestige of the lithographers taking part in the publication. This contrasts with the subsequent scarce success of Gilliss’s volumes – the books came close to being ignored – both in the United States and in Chile.

Background to Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
James F. Goode
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
General Terms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arms Embargo ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter discusses in general terms the origins of the arms embargo imposed on Turkey in 1974, emphasizing both the controversy over opium and the invasion of Cyprus. It also briefly relates the history of US-Turkey relations from the arrival of American missionaries and traders in the early nineteenth century to the advent of the Cold War. It explains the significance of the infamous Johnson letter of 1964. It concludes with the author’s reflections on a visit to a tense Cyprus in the summer of 1969.

The Serbian Army. 1804–1918

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalibor Denda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Great War ◽  
General Reader ◽  
Research Fellow ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Comprehensive Study

This book by Colonel Dalibor Denda, Dr. Sc., research fellow of the Institute of Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, is a comprehensive study on the history of the Serbian military system from the nineteenth century to 1918. It consists of seven chronologically and thematically arranged chapters which embrace the period from the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) to the wars of 1912–1918. The structure corresponds to the key tuning points of the making and development of the armed forces, which evolved from a rebel militia into the best minor army of the Great War. Special attention is paid to the selection and education of the army command staff, and determination of military doctrine and system of command. Furthermore, the author considers Russia’s influence on the evolution of the Serbian army and Russian-Serbian military interaction. The book is intended for the general reader.

Municipalization as Debureaucratization: Municipal Reform Movement in Nineteenth Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Diego Barría Traverso
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Initial Design ◽  
Municipal Reform ◽  
Role Of The State

This article the efforts made by certain political actors to change Chilean municipal institutionality between 1854 and 1891. It shows that the initial design guaranteed central government control over the municipalities. This led political actors that are against an active role of the state, to seek to modify its design by giving municipalities greater autonomy. This study shows two issues that are relevant to the theoretical debate. First, bureaucratization generate conflicts, and even antibureaucratic reactions. Secondly, municipalization is not always a univocal concept, but rather that its content depends on the administrative characteristics and traditions of each territory.

The Myth of Racial Strife and Merina Kinglists: The Transformation of Texts

1977 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
African History ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Vision

Early history of the central highlands of Madagascar, called Imerina, must be written from oral literature. The first European account dates only to the late eighteenth century, long after the Merina monarchy arose, and it is not until the nineteenth century with the establishment of the London Missionary Society that detailed written sources appear. Moreover, unlike his colleagues in African history, the historian of Imerina cannot refer to archeology to test conclusions derived from oral sources since archeology in Imerina has only a few years of work behind it. Thus oral literature alone holds the key to questions about the foundations and growth of the Merina monarchy which by the mid-nineteenth century ruled all of Madagascar.In one respect, however, the historian of ancient Imerina is more fortunate. The Merina have produced perhaps the largest corpus of historical literature in any part of Africa. I intend first to describe this literature and to point out in very general terms the problems of using it. I will focus not only on the Malagasy milieu which gave rise to historical material, but also on two related aspects of European influence. First, I will show how European ideas of social evolution penetrated Merina thinking. Second, and perhaps more important because it has received such scant attention, is the effect of the introduction of writing and printing on Malagasy texts. I consider this the outstanding historiographical problem: how did writing, editing, and redacting change the Merina's own view of their distant past. Finally, to illustrate general points raised in the first section of this study, I will examine a particular historical problem, the founding of monarchy, and show how the transformation of Merina kinglists through years of editing created a new vision of the past. I see this transformation of Malagasy texts by writing as the most important European influence on the development of a Merina history.

Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history: I. To the close of the nineteenth century

Africa ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. McCaskie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
West African ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe present article is intended as the first of two contributions to the economic and social– but above all to the intellectual– history of the West African forest kingdom of Asante or Ashanti (now located in the Republic of Ghana). Both papers will attempt to pull together and to situate in a ‘mentalist’ framework a number of recent and confessedly disparate research findings concerning a cluster of concepts, ideas and beliefs that, merely for the sake of brevity at this point, I will assign simply to the embracing ‘neutral’ rubric of general transformations in the ideology (or ideologies) of wealth. The first article will be concerned with developments in Asante society up to the close of the nineteenth century (defined here interpretatively rather than in strictly chronological terms); its successor will concentrate on a highly detailed examination of a sequence of crucially telling events in the early colonial period, and upon selected developments thereafter in the twentieth century. The articles are designed and intended to be read sequentially; the first, it is hoped, will assist in making sense of the significantly denser context (and more detailed content) of the second.

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