Dahomey

The Kingdom of Dahomey (/dəˈhoʊmi/, Fon: Danhɔmɛ, lit. 'Stomach of the Snake') was a West African kingdom located within the present-day Republic of Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. 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.

Ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire, Dahomey became a key regional state for much of the middle 19th century. European visitors extensively documented the kingdom, and it became one of the most familiar African nations known to Europeans. 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.

The growth of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, and it became known to Europeans as a major supplier of slaves. 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. Other captives became slaves in Dahomey royal plantations or were killed in human sacrifices during celebrations known as the Annual Customs of Dahomey. This festival involved significant collection and distribution of gifts, religious Vodun ceremonies, military parades, and discussions by dignitaries about the kingdom's future.

In the 1840s, Dahomey began to decline due to British pressure to abolish the slave trade, which included the anti-slavery blockade of Africa by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron. Dahomey was also weakened after crushing defeats by Abeokuta, a Yoruba city-state founded by Oyo Empire refugees migrating south. Territorial disputes with France led to the war in 1890 and part of the kingdom becoming a French protectorate. The kingdom fell four years later, when renewed fighting caused the overthrow of king Béhanzin and the country's annexation into French West Africa.

French Dahomey gained independence in 1960 as the Republic of Dahomey, renamed to Benin in 1975.