Editing Ghezo (section)

===Military expansion===
[[File:Dahomey amazon2.jpg|thumb|[[Dahomey Amazons]] became a significant part of the military under Ghezo]]
His most significant military victory was over the depleted [[Oyo empire]] in 1823.<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> Since 1730, Dahomey had provided yearly tribute to the Oyo empire and some of its economic and military policy was controlled by Oyo interests. However, the Oyo empire had been significantly weakened over the previous 30 years and, with the rise of the Islamic jihad to the north in the [[Sokoto Caliphate]], the empire was unable to secure its tribute from Dahomey.<ref name=Akinjogbin />

In the early 1820s, Ghezo refused to pay the annual tribute to Oyo.<ref name=Bay /> Oyo and Dahomey fought a small war early in the 1820s. Violence escalated in 1823 when Oyo sent an ambassador to demand tribute and Ghezo killed him.<ref name=Law-1977>{{cite book|last=Law|first=Robin|title=The Oyo Empire c. 1600-c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade|year=1977|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London}}</ref> The Oyo responded by organizing a force made up of the [[Mahi people|Mahi]] and other regional forces to attack Dahomey. Ghezo defeated these forces at a battle near [[Paouingnan]]. Oyo then sent a larger force that was 4,000 strong, including cavalry, and camped near the village of Kpaloko.  Ghezo defeated this force by organizing a night raid which resulted in the death of the Oyo leader, Ajanaku, and caused the Oyo troops to retreat.<ref name=Law-1977 />

Although the victories over the Oyo were important, other military engagements in the early years of Ghezo's reign were less effective. He suffered losses to the [[Mahi people]] to the north of Dahomey and was unable to secure enough individuals to meet slave demands, leading him to sell citizens of Dahomey, a quite unpopular decision.<ref name=Law-1997>{{cite journal|last=Law|first=Robin|title=The Politics of Commercial Transition: Factional Conflict in Dahomey in the Context of the Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade|journal=The Journal of African History|year=1997|volume=38|issue=2|pages=213–233|doi=10.1017/s0021853796006846|url=http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/280/1/politics-of-commercial-transition.pdf|hdl=1893/280|s2cid=15681629 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

With the further reduction of Oyo power in the region, Ghezo was more able to expand militarily against the Mahi and the [[Gbe languages|Gbe]] people to the southwest of Dahomey after the mid-1820s.<ref name=Bay /> Following victories in these areas, Ghezo focused the military power on a region which had been between the Oyo empire and Dahomey and had been the target of significant slave raiding. After some significant victories in this area by Dahomey, the city of [[Abeokuta]] was founded as a safe-haven for people to be free of slave raiding in an easily defended location.<ref name=Bay /><ref name=Yoder /> By the 1840s, Abeokuta had become a major power in the area and wars between Abeokuta and Dahomey became regular.

In 1849–50, under the direction of British Governor [[William Winniett]], British naval officer Frederick E. Forbes went on two missions to the court of King Ghezo "in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to end involvement in the slave trade."<ref>{{Cite book
| publisher = Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans - via World Digital Library
| last = Forbes
| first = Frederick E
| title = Dahomey and the Dahomans: Being the Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and Residence at His Capital, in the Year 1849 and 1850 - World Digital Library
| location = London
| access-date = 2014-06-19
| date = 1851
| url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2527/#regions=africa&page=4
}}</ref>

In 1851, Ghezo organized a direct attack on the city of Abeokuta, but it did not succeed. Ghezo suspended large-scale military operations when he ended the slave trade (1852). However, by 1858, a conservative faction pressured Ghezo to begin large-scale military operations again with an assault on Abeokuta to follow.<ref name=Law-1997 /> It is possible that this renewed warfare between the two states led to Ghezo's death, with some accounts stating that Abeokuta paid for an assassination of Ghezo (other accounts disagree).<ref name=Yoder />

Ghezo is credited with the formation of the [[Dahomey Amazons|Mino]] as an actual war fighting force. Although the female bodyguard for the king had existed for many kings, Ghezo is said often as the king who transformed them into a force for battle.<ref name=Alpern>{{cite journal|last=Alpern|first=Stanley B.|title=On the Origins of the Amazons of Dahomey|journal=History in Africa|year=1998|volume=25|pages=9–25|doi=10.2307/3172178|jstor=3172178 |s2cid=162412301 }}</ref> Historian Edna Bay contends that this may have been a result of a need to gain the support of the female palace guard after they had opposed Ghezo's coup against Adandozan. Ghezo did this by raising the status of the female guards, providing them uniforms, giving them additional weapons, and making them a crucial part of war policy.<ref name=Bay />