The Ashanti (also spelled Asante) Empire (1701–1957) was an Akan empire and kingdom in what is now often called the Ashanti Region. The Ashanti Empire expanded from Ashanti to include the Brong-Ahafo, Central region, Eastern region, Greater Accra region, and Western region, of present-day Ghana. The Ashanti ethnic group inhabit the  exclave Ghana . Ashanti people used military power due to effective strategy and early firearm adoption to create an empire that stretched from central Ghana to the present-day Ivory Coast. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti empire was extensively studied and has more historiographies by European, primarily British, authors than almost any other indigenous culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.