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The Kingdom of Benin, [2] also known as Great Benin or Benin Kingdom is a kingdom within what is now considered southern Nigeria. [3] It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, [4] which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo State, Nigeria.
Beware, beware the Bight of the Benin, for few come out though many go in. A variation goes: Beware beware, the Bight of Benin: one comes out, where fifty went in! This is said to be a slavery jingle or sea shanty about the risk of malaria in the Bight. [4] A third version of the couplet is: Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin.
A 1729 map showing the Slave Coast The Slave Coast is still marked on this c. 1914 map by John Bartholomew & Co. of Edinburgh. Major slave trading areas of western Africa, 15th–19th centuries. The Slave Coast is a historical region along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, encompassing parts of modern-day Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.
The Kingdom of Dahomey (/ d ə ˈ h oʊ m i /) was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst 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 ...
There were many kingdoms and empires in all regions of the continent of Africa throughout history. A kingdom is a state with a king or queen as its head. [1] An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate peripheries".
[2] [3] [4] The Kingdom was founded in 1625 by the Fon people who developed it into a powerful military and commercial empire, which dominated trade with European slave traders on the Slave Coast until the late 19th century, to whom they sold their prisoners of war. [5] At its peak the palaces could accommodate up to 8000 people. [6]
The history of the territories which since ca. 1900 have been known under the name of Nigeria during the pre-colonial period (16th to 18th centuries) was dominated by several powerful West African kingdoms or empires, such as the Benin Kingdom, Oyo Empire and the Islamic Kanem-Bornu Empire in the northeast.
Slavery played a notable role in the economy of the Byzantine Empire. Many slaves were sourced from wars within the Mediterranean and Europe while others were sourced from trading with Vikings visiting the empire. Slavery's role in the economy and the power of slave owners slowly diminished while laws gradually improved the rights of slaves.