II.

Political History

The Alladahonu who migrated north from the coastal kingdom of Allada became the founders of Dahomey. Making alliances with chiefs on the Dahomey plateau, the Alladahonu newcomers overpowered many small towns and kingdoms in the area. By the beginning of the 1700s, the Alladahonu and their followers had conquered most of the plateau and set up their capital at Abomey.

Dahomey’s first king, Wegbaja (ruler from 1645 to 1685), established many of the laws and traditions of Dahomey, including the imperative that each king “make Dahomey ever greater.” During Wegbaja’s reign, slaves were traded through middlemen and embarked from a number of different outposts along the Slave Coast. Longboats ferried slaves to ships anchored offshore.

The warrior king Agaja (ruler from 1708 to 1740) led the kingdom’s expansion southward. His army conquered the kingdom of Allada in 1724 and Whydah in 1727. Under Dahomean control, Whydah became an important coastal slave trading port.

Among his administrative reforms, Agaja established the principle of rule by a regnum, a man and woman who led the kingdom. However, the two members of the regnum were not married. Rather, the woman was a wife of the king’s father, but not his biological mother. Agaja’s regnum partner was a common woman who represented the previous rulers of Dahomey before the arrival of the Alladahonu. For the remainder of its history, Dahomey was led by a royal Alladahonu man and a common woman, symbolizing the unity of royal and commoner, as well as newcomers and indigenous peoples.

Agaja’s motive for his conquests to the coast has been disputed. Some historians believe that he wanted to trade directly with Europe, while others maintain that he wanted to end slavery. Regardless, the Agaja regnum and its close followers profited from the slave trade. Wealthy persons gave imported goods to their followers, thereby cementing links with clients and fostering the distribution of European products throughout society. Prosperity from the trade allowed the consolidation of the conquests of Agaja under the reign of his successor, Tegbesu, who ruled from 1740 to 1774.

Tegbesu became king with the help of a powerful woman in his father’s household, Hwanjile, who was his regnum partner. Religious institutions organized early opposition to Tegbesu. To counter the opposition, Hwanjile set up a male-female pair of gods under her control who were paramount over all others. Hwanjile confirmed priests of congregations with other gods, and financial support for religious groups was provided from the royal treasury.

Wealthy titled persons offered soldiers for warfare. These personal forces joined the king’s standing army to form a massive force armed with guns purchased from Europe and swords created by local smiths. However, they were no match for the Oyo cavalry that yearly invaded Dahomey. The Dahomeans eventually agreed to pay annual tribute to Oyo. Freed from constant attack, Dahomey set up an administration over its newly conquered lands, integrating diverse peoples into its population. Peace and safety were assured for Dahomean citizens, for no Dahomean was allowed to be traded overseas.

By the time of Tegbesu’s death in 1774 slavery had diminished. The loss of income created political instability for nearly five decades. The three kings who followed Tegbesu had relatively short reigns, and two of them were ended violently by factions seeking power.

Stability and a degree of prosperity returned with the rule of Gezo, who ruled from 1818 to 1858. The Gezo regnum’s first major accomplishment was ending the tributary relationship with Oyo. By the 1820s civil wars raged in Oyo’s former provinces and they were no longer a threat to Dahomey. As a result, in the 1830s and 1840s Dahomey added thousands of war victims to its population.

Dahomey waged war annually under Gezo’s reign. Prominent people continued to provide their private armies to the king for war. A standing army of women was created parallel to that of the men. Women recruits came from the population at large and from war captives, raised from a young age to be elite soldiers. Warfare increasingly became a central preoccupation of the court as militarism increased. War alternated with ceremonies in honor of the royal ancestors. Advancement at court, particularly for women, became linked to valor in war, and all courtiers were technically warriors.

By the 1840s the dynasty encouraged the cultivation of oil palms as a substitute for slavery. The labor-intensive work of processing palm oil was increasingly done by slaves on plantations. Thus the end of the overseas slave trade did not end slavery, but transformed Dahomean slavery in part into an institution similar to plantation slavery in the American colonies.

It became clear during the reign of Glele (ruler from 1858 to 1889) that the export of oil palm products could not replace the enormous profits of slavery. Unable to continue to support the numbers of followers that previous kings had maintained, Glele appointed his own siblings to high offices, thus violating the spirit of the regnum. Laws became stricter and taxes more demanding as the royal family attempted to maintain its wealth at the expense of common people.

Meanwhile, European imperialism began to threaten Dahomey. As early as the 1850s, the French tried to protect their interests in palm oil by demanding control over the port of Cotonou. The Dahomeans played European interests against each other, as the French, British, and Portuguese alternately tried to position themselves to exert influence over the kingdom.

By the time Behanzin became king in 1889, the French had declared a protectorate over the kingdom of Porto Novo. They claimed sovereignty over Cotonou on the basis of treaties signed with Glele. When the Dahomean army raided areas that the French considered to be part of their Porto Novo protectorate, the French felt justified in making war.

In 1892 a force of about 200 French officers with several thousand African soldiers moved up the Weme River into Dahomean territory. Fighting a series of battles, they advanced overland to Abomey. When negotiations for a truce failed, Behanzin burned the palace and retreated to the north. After more than a year, epidemics and the futility of resistance brought most of the king’s entourage back to Abomey. By the time Behanzin gave himself up in early 1894, the French had proclaimed his brother king. However, the new king, Agoliagbo, refused to act as a French puppet and was deposed in 1900.