Dahomey
Benin, 1600–1894. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Kingdom of Dahomey was a West African kingdom located within the present-day Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was established around 1600 as an offshoot of the royal dynasty of the Kingdom of Allada. It developed on the Abomey Plateau among the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like Whydah belonging to the Kingdom of Whydah on the Atlantic coast, which granted it unhindered access to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Territorial disputes with France led to the war in 1890 and part of the kingdom becoming a French protectorate.
Seat of power: Abomey
No rulers documented for this era yet.
Culture
- An important regional power, it had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade, diplomatic relations with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation, and an organized military.
- Notable were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun.
- Dahomey was a highly militaristic society organised for constant warfare; it took captives in wars and raids against neighboring societies and sold them as slaves to Europeans in exchange for goods such as rifles, gunpowder, fabrics, cowrie shells, tobacco, pipes, and alcohol.
- In 1724, Agaja conquered Allada, the origin for the royal family according to oral tradition, and in 1727 he conquered Whydah.
Picture
The Royal Palaces of Abomey are 10 palaces spread over an area of 47 hectares (120 acres) at the heart of the Abomey town in Benin, formerly the capital of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey.
Image: Joachim Huber, CC BY-SA 2.0, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.