This work is a study of three interrelated themes: international trade, state formation and warfare. These themes are examined within the framework of select littoral states on the Gold Coast and the inland Akany polities of Akany, Akwamu and Asante. The production and export of gold were the bases'for international trade with the trading centres ot the Central and Western Sudan and with the various European trading stations that were established on the Gold Coast littoral I between the late 15th and late 17th centuries. The development of trade centres and trade routes, urbanization, demographic expansion and growing socio-economic differentiation within the coastal and inland states contributed in the late 16th and 17th centuries to the emergence ot new forms of political administration (e.g. bureaucracy) as well as new forms of military organization (e.g. urban-based militia units) and warfare le.g. the employment of ployed and, later, deployed battle tactics). It is suggested that the coastal polities Le.g. the Accra and Fetu Kingdoms) and the Akany confederation represent an early phase of this developmental process,while Akwamu and Asante, building on these earlier achievements, represent a later one; specifically, Akwamu and Asante were imperial state systems, which distinguished them sharply from Akany. The various coastal and inland states are examined in the light of the aforementioned economic, political, military changes. With respect to Asante an attempt has been made to examine in detail the means by which the south-east Gold Coast and the Western Slave Coast were incorporated into Greater Asante.