Dahomey kingdom

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Western African kingdom that flourished in the 18th–19th century in what is now central Benin.

Initially called Abomey, its name was changed to Dahomey after it had expanded by conquering the neighbouring kingdoms of Allada (1724) and Whydah (1727). It thrived on the slave trade with Europe, reaching its high point under Gezu (1818–58), under whom it became independent of the Oyo empire. Society was rigidly stratified into royalty, commoners, and slaves; a centralized bureaucracy carried out the king's will. The nation was organized for war, both to increase its territory and to take captives for the slave market, and women served as soldiers along with men. With the end of the slave trade in the 1840s, Dahomey began exporting palm oil, which proved less profitable, and an economic decline followed. In 1892 Dahomey was defeated by a French expedition and became part of the French colony of the same name.

More on "Dahomey kingdom" from Britannica Concise:

Benin - Country, western Africa.

Fon - People of southern Benin and adjacent parts of Togo.

Oyo empire - Yoruba state in present-day southwestern Nigeria that dominated the land between the Volta and Niger rivers in 1650-1750.

More on "Dahomey kingdom" from the 32 Volume Encyclopædia Britannica:

Dahomey - kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on the slave trade. When one of the brothers won control of Allada, the other two fled. One went southeast and ...

Fon - people living in the south of Benin (called Dahomey until 1975) and adjacent parts of Togo. Speaking a dialect of Ewe, a language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of African languages, the Fon numbered some 3,010,000 in the late 20th century.

Benin - country of western Africa. It consists of a narrow wedge of territory extending northward for about 420 miles (675 kilometres) from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, on which it has a 75-mile seacoast, to the Niger River, which forms part of Benin's northern border with Niger. Benin is bordered to the northwest by Burkina Faso, to the east by Nigeria, and to the west by Togo. The official ...

Benin - Dahomey (also called Abomey, after its capital city) was the state of the Fon people. It was originally a dependency of Allada, but during the 17th century a ruler called Wegbaja declared himself king and made Dahomey an independent state. Under King Agaja (reigned 1708?-40) Dahomey overran the coastal area, conquering Allada in 1724 and the commercial centre of Ouidah in 1727, thus establishing ...

western Africa, history of - By the middle of the century the development of the liberated African community in Sierra Leone under the tutelage of British administration, churches, and education meant that some of its members were providing a considerable reinforcement for the British interest in western Africa. Economic activities in Sierra Leone itself were limited, and Sierra Leoneans were soon finding their way along the ...

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