Editing Benin (section)

===Pre-colonial===
[[File:Kingdom of Dahomy-1793.jpg|thumb|left|Map of the [[Kingdom of Dahomey]], 1793]]
Prior to 1600, present-day Benin comprised a variety of areas with different political systems and ethnicities. These included [[city-state]]s along the coast (primarily of the [[Aja people|Aja]] ethnic group and also including [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] and [[Gbe languages|Gbe]] peoples) and tribal regions inland (composed of [[Bariba people|Bariba]], Mahi, Gedevi, and Kabye peoples). The [[Oyo Empire]], located primarily to the east of Benin, was a military force in the region, conducting raids and exacting tribute from the coastal kingdoms and tribal regions.<ref name="Bay-1998">{{cite book |last=Bay |first=Edna |title=Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey |year=1998 |publisher=University of Virginia Press}}</ref> The situation changed in the 17th and 18th centuries as the [[Kingdom of Dahomey]], consisting mostly of [[Fon people]], was founded on the [[Abomey]] plateau and began taking over areas along the coast.<ref>{{cite book |last=Akinjogbin |first=I.A. |title=Dahomey and Its Neighbors: 1708–1818 |year=1967 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |oclc=469476592}}</ref> By 1727, King [[Agaja]] of the Kingdom of Dahomey had conquered the coastal cities of [[Allada]] and [[Ouidah|Whydah]]. Dahomey had become a tributary of the Oyo Empire, and rivaled but did not directly attack the Oyo-allied city-state of [[Porto-Novo]].<ref name="Law-1986">{{cite journal |last=Law |first=Robin |title=Dahomey and the Slave Trade: Reflections on the Historiography of the Rise of Dahomey |journal=The Journal of African History |year=1986 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=237–267 |doi=10.1017/s0021853700036665 |s2cid=165754199}}</ref> The rise of Dahomey, its rivalry with Porto-Novo, and tribal politics in the northern region persisted into the colonial and post-colonial periods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Creevey |first1=Lucy |last2=Ngomo |first2=Paul |last3=Vengroff |first3=Richard |title=Party Politics and Different Paths to Democratic Transitions: A Comparison of Benin and Senegal |journal=Party Politics |year=2005 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=471–493 |doi=10.1177/1354068805053213 |s2cid=145169455 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/897004 |access-date=20 April 2018 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202224421/https://zenodo.org/record/897004 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the [[Dahomey]], some younger people were apprenticed to older soldiers and taught the kingdom's military customs until they were old enough to join the army.<ref name="Harms2002">{{cite book |last=Harms |first=Robert W. |title=The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YILMba_EnoC |year=2002 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02872-6 |page=172 |access-date=12 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509061636/https://books.google.com/books?id=0YILMba_EnoC |archive-date=9 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> Dahomey instituted an elite female soldier corps variously called [[Ahosi]] (the king's wives), Mino ("our mothers" in [[Fongbe]]) or the "Dahomean [[Amazons]]". This emphasis on military preparation and achievement earned Dahomey the nickname of "Black [[Sparta]]", from European observers and 19th-century explorers such as [[Sir Richard Burton]].<ref name="Alpern1998">{{cite book |last=Alpern |first=Stanley B. |title=Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fdtg4e5_WoIC |year=1998 |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |isbn=978-1-85065-362-2 |page=37 |access-date=12 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506013639/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fdtg4e5_WoIC |archive-date=6 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:São João Baptista de Ajudá 1886 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Portuguese Empire]] was the longest European presence in Benin, beginning in 1680 and ending in 1961 when the last forces left [[Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá|Ajudá]].]]
The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slavery]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/african-ambassador-apologizes-for-slavery-role |last=Miller |first=David Lee |title=African Ambassador Apologizes for Slavery Role |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522233737/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,91575,00.html |archive-date=22 May 2010 |work=Fox News |url-status=live |date=10 July 2003}}</ref> or killed them ritually in a ceremony known as the [[Annual Customs of Dahomey|Annual Customs]]. By about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling African captives to European slave-traders.<ref name="BbcSlavery">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter2.shtml |title=African Slave Owners |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308014748/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter2.shtml |archive-date=8 March 2013 |website=The story of South Africa: Slavery |publisher=BBC World Service}}</ref> The area was named the [[Slave Coast of West Africa|"Slave Coast"]] because of a flourishing slave trade. Court protocols which demanded that a portion of war captives from the kingdom's battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from the area. The number went from 102,000 people per decade in the 1780s to 24,000 per decade by the 1860s.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Manning |first=Patrick |title=Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640–1960 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1982 |location=London |pages=15–16}}</ref> The decline was partly due to the [[Slave Trade Act 1807]] banning the [[trans-Atlantic slave trade]] by Britain in 1808, followed by other countries.<ref name="BbcSlavery"/> This decline continued until 1885 when the last slave ship departed the modern Benin Republic for Brazil, which had yet to abolish slavery. The capital [[Porto-Novo]] ("New Port" in Portuguese) was originally developed as a port for the slave trade.
[[File:Armed women with the King at their head, going to war-1793.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dahomey Amazons]] with the King at their head, going to war, 1793]]
Among the goods the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] sought were carved items of ivory made by Benin's artisans in the form of carved saltcellars, spoons, and hunting horns – pieces of African art produced for sale abroad as exotic objects.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2021/01-02/ivory-saltcellar-reveals-colonial-power-dynamic-benin-portugal/ |title=This ivory relic reveals the colonial power dynamic between Benin and Portugal History Magazine, National Geographic, 09.02.2021 |website=[[National Geographic Society]] |date=9 February 2021 |access-date=9 February 2021 |archive-date=9 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209201911/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2021/01-02/ivory-saltcellar-reveals-colonial-power-dynamic-benin-portugal/}}</ref>

Another major good sought by European settlers was palm oil. In 1856 approximately 2,500 tons of palm oil was exported by British companies which was valued at £112,500.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ryder |first=Alan |title=Benin and the Europeans 1485–1897 |publisher=Humanities Press |date=1969 |location=New York, NY |pages=239}}</ref>