Editing Agoli-agbo

{{Short description|Last King of Dahomey (r. 1894–1900)}}

[[File:Agoli-Agbo (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Agoli-agbo.]]
[[File:Agoli-Agbo, roi d'Abomey et sa cour (Dahomey).jpg|thumb|right|Agoli-agbo (''center''), before 1900.]]
[[File:Couronnement-Agoliagbo.jpg|thumb|right|Coronation of Agoli-agbo, 1895.]]
'''Agoli-agbo''' is considered to have been the twelfth and final King of [[Dahomey]]. He was in power from 1894 to 1900.

==Biography==
He took the throne after the previous king, [[Béhanzin]], went into exile after being defeated in the invasion of [[Dahomey]] by [[French Third Republic|France]] in the [[Second Franco-Dahomean War]].

The exile of Béhanzin did not legalize the French colonization. The French general [[Alfred-Amédée Dodds]] offered the throne to every one of the immediate royal family, in return for a signature on a treaty establishing a French protectorate over the [[Kingdom (politics)|Kingdom]]; all refused.

Finally, on January 15, 1894, Béhanzin's Army Chief of Staff Prince Agoli-agbo (whose name meaning "the dynasty has not fallen"<ref name="jk">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bB6vCwAAQBAJ&dq=agoli+agbo&pg=PA178|pages=178–180|title=West Africa Partitioned: Volume II The Elephants and the Grass|publisher=Springer|year=1985|last1=Hargreaves|first1=John D.|isbn=9781349028252}}</ref>), brother of Béhanzin and son of King Glélé, signed. He was appointed to the throne, as a 'traditional chief' rather than head of state of a sovereign nation, by the French when he agreed to sign the instrument of surrender.

He 'reigned' for only six years, assisted by a French [[Viceroy]]. The French prepared for direct administration, which they achieved on 12 February 1900. As the [[Indigénat]] exacerbated the exploitation, Agoli-agbo went into exile in [[French Gabon|Gabon]].<ref name="jk"/>

In 1910, he was allowed to return and to live in the Save Region. He occasionally returned to Abomey in order to perform ancestor worship for the departed kings.
[[File:Symbole de Agoli Agbo roi du Dahomey au mur de la place Goho à Abomey au Bénin2.jpg|thumb|Symbol of Agoli Agbo at Place Goho Abomey in 2020]]
Agoli-agbo's symbols are a leg kicking a rock, a bow (a symbol of the return to traditional weapons under the new rules established by the colonial administrators), and a broom, and the last king of Dahomey.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Dahomey|Kingdom of Dahomey]]||?||1940|}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Béhanzin]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[King of Dahomey]]|years=1894–1900}}
{{s-aft|after=[[French West Africa|French conquest]]}}
|-
{{s-pre}}
{{s-new|loss|reason=[[French West Africa|French conquest]]}}
{{s-tul|title=[[King of Dahomey]]|years=1900–1940}}
{{s-inc|heir=[[Aidododo]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Monarchs of Dahomey}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agoli-Agbo}}
[[Category:Kings of Dahomey]]
[[Category:People of French West Africa]]
[[Category:19th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:19th century in the Kingdom of Dahomey]]
[[Category:20th century in Benin]]
[[Category:20th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:19th-century births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]

{{Benin-bio-stub}}