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state in present-day Nigeria. There
were ancient walls 60-feet (18-m)
high surrounding the city, which
stretched for about 750 miles (1200
km), and various other
constructions suggested there was a
large and organized population.
Stable and balanced government
was created by Oba Ewuare in the
15th century, when the city was
divided between the court and an
area for craftsmen, who produced
the celebrated bronze and brass
castings that became a speciality of
the kingdom. A bas relief from the
palace has been likened to the
Bayeux Tapestry in France.
The first contact with Europeans
was by the Portuguese in 1472,
followed soon after by visits to
Benin city itself for the purpose of
trade. This was initially in pepper
and ivory, but there was a more
lucrative trade in slaves, traded
directly from Benin and via the
island of São Tomé.
The power of Benin was ended
in the 19th century when British
troops destroyed the capital, the
break-up of the Oyo empire having
already destabilized the
surrounding states
Abomey (in present-day Benin)
was the capital of the ancient
Kingdom of Dahomey, its royal
palaces being a group of earthen
structures built by the Fon people
between the mid-17th and late-19th
centuries, and now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
The Atlantic slave trade, a
crucial element in the so-called
three-cornered trade between
Europe, West Africa, and the
Americas, grew and flourished
between about 1500 and 1800 into a
forced migration of at least 11
million people. It is impossible to
over-emphasize what the removal of
this number of able-bodied people
did to the economy of West Africa,
affecting the Yoruba states as it did
all other parts of the region.
A Concise History of Africa
37