Kingdom of Dahomey 61century a royal court was in place. It was always ruled by
a powerful king who was usually a former war leader. Th e
king, however, later became a more religious fi gure. Th e
kingdom extended throughout what is presently southern
Nigeria.
One of its most successful kings was Ozoula. During
his reign, from about 1480 to 1504, Benin established many
commercial and diplomatic relations with Portugal. In 1481
emissaries from the king of Portugal visited the court of the
king of Benin. Portuguese soldiers aided Benin in its wars.
Gwatto, the port of Benin, became the depot to handle the
peppers, ivory, and increasing numbers of slaves off ered by
the king of Benin in exchange for coral beads, textile im-
ports from India, and European-manufactured articles, in-
cluding tools and weapons.
Benin profi ted from its close ties with the Portuguese
and exploited the fi rearms bought from them to tighten
its hold on the lower Niger area. Two factors checked the
spread of Portuguese infl uence and the continued expan-
sion of Benin. First, Portugal stopped buying pepper be-
cause of the availability of other spices in the Indian Ocean
region. Second, Benin placed an embargo on the export of
slaves, thereby isolating itself from the growth of what was
to become the major export from the Nigerian coast for
300 years. Benin continued to capture slaves and to em-
ploy them in its domestic economy, but it remained unique
among Nigerian polities in refusing to participate in the
transatlantic trade. Gradually, the power of the kingdom
decreased and eventually, in 1897, the area was annexed to
British Nigeria.
See also: African Imperialism; Atlantic Slave Trade; Bight of
Benin; Gulf of GuineaMoshe TerdimanBibliography
McClelland, Elizabeth M. Th e Kingdom of Benin in the Sixteenth
Century. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Millar, Heather. Th e Kingdom of Benin in West Africa. Tarrytown,
NY: Benchmark Books, 1997.Kingdom of Dahomey
Dahomey was an African kingdom situated in what is now
Benin. Th e kingdom was founded in the 17th century andgod—Onyame—called down a Golden Stool from the very
heavens to rest on the knees of Osei Tutu in full view of
the assembled royalty. Okomfo Anokye announced that the
Golden Stool contained the soul of the Asante people. In
addition, he marked the spot where the stool descended
with a sword and noted that if the sword was ever pulled
from the ground, the newly founded Asante kingdom
would come to an end. With these important and transcen-
dent cultural symbols, the Asante kingdom rose and began
a steady march to complete military and political consoli-
dation in the region.
Asantehene Nana Osei Tutu, king of the confedera-
tion of Akan-speaking states, made Kumasi the capital of
the kingdom and organized a massive army equipped with
guns imported from Dutch and Danish traders along the
coastline. By 1700, Asante defeated Denkyira and by 1715,
Osei Tutu led his armies to victories against Twifu, Wassa,
and Aowin. Th ese victories allowed Asante direct access to
Elmina and other European-controlled coastal factories.
From this point forward, the Kingdom of Asante would be
a major player in the Atlantic slave trade and in the dis-
persal of enslaved Africans from the Gold Coast. Aft er a
century of expansion and political domination, Asante
controlled most of the country of modern Ghana, some of
the inland region of Côte-d’Ivoire, and portions of modern
Togo. Th eir dominion would not be threatened until the
advent of British imperial incursion in the period between
1873 and 1900.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade; Elmina; Gold Coast
Walter C. RuckerBibliography
McCaskie, T. C. State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Wilks, Ivor. Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of
Asante. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1993.
Yarak, Larry W. Asante and the Dutch, 1 744– 1 873. Oxford, UK:
Clarendon Press, 1990.
Kingdom of Benin
Benin was an infl uential city-state in northwest Africa from
the 15th to the 17th century. It was founded by the Edo
or Bini people in the 13th century, and by the early 14th