Aʋadada (warlord) Axɔlu

It was during the reign of Aʋadada Axɔlu that the Asantes and Akwamus invited the Aŋlɔ-Ɛʋɛs into a battle that ended up as an attack on Ʋedome-Ɛʋɛs, leading to a betrayal of their brotherliness.

That invasion had happened soon after the victory of Aŋlɔs at the Datsutagba war. But considering how they ended up betrayed by their allies, Axɔlu did not trust the tripartite anymore. The incident had resulted in a lot of mistrust and doubt about what the Aŋlɔ people were really fighting for.

Axɔlu had gone into some sort of retirement after that war(I presume he was thinking about how events had turned out during the invasion of Ʋedome and how he had done such a terrible thing against his own brothers).

Soon, in 1873 the Glover war would break out. This time, the British assembled forces from anywhere they could. They needed just any fighter they could find and the goal was to conquer the Aŋlɔs, the asantes and akwamus who were the remaining groups yet to be annexed.

The Aŋlɔs were generally not willing to honour the terms of the tripartite agreement that they had with akwamus and the asantes, this time.

By this time also, the British had already formed an alliance with the Ʋedome (Peki,Ho, Kpando etc) to help them fight against asante and its allies whom they knew included Aŋlɔ.

Aʋadada Axɔlu was aware that the Ʋedome were now allies of the British and so he was not willing to fight against his Ʋedome brothers anymore. However, he equally did not love the British.

The British were imagining that when they start a war against asante, their Aŋlɔ allies might respond and attack the British forces from behind. Therefore to avoid this they assembled forces at Ada ready to attack Aŋlɔ once again so that Aŋlɔ will have their hands full and so would not be able to send forces to support their asante and akwamu allies.

The German missionaries who were saved from the asantes during the Ʋedome war on hearing the news that Aŋlɔ was about to engage the British in battle, tried to convince the Aŋlɔ warriors to sue for peace and not engage the British in another war.

The Aŋlɔs, already unhappy about the Ʋedome war, reluctantly agreed not to fight anymore. This information was sent to the British Captains in Ada who were leading the campaign to attack Aŋlɔ. However, these British captains wanted more than just that, they tabled the condition that if truly Aŋlɔ would not fight them this time then Aŋlɔ should join the British forces to fight Asante.

This condition was unacceptable to Aʋadada Axɔlu who immediately ordered his force to respond to the British fire. War ensued between the Aŋlɔs and the British again this time. The two British captains leading the campaign were severely wounded in this war referred to as the Gbedzeavudzi.

The war persisted with many lives lost. Eventually, the British withdrew their condition for Aŋlɔ to join them in the war against Asante and rather proposed business to some chiefs and warriors through these same German missionaries who had lived among the Aŋlɔs and knew some of the chiefs and warriors well, and also knew their involvement in business. It was at this point that some peace was restored.

And this was the time in 1874 that a so called peace treaty was signed between the British and some Aŋlɔ chiefs.