A wide indentation of the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa. officially Republic of Benin formerly Dahomey Country, western Africa. Republic of Benin Benin Bight of Benin kingdom of Dahomey kingdom
Bay, northern section of Gulf of Guinea. It extends along the West African coast about 400 mi (640 km) from Cape St. Paul, Ghana, past Togo and Benin to an outlet of the Niger River in Nigeria. Major ports include Lomé, Cotonou, and Lagos. It was the scene of extensive slave trading during the 16th-19th century, and the region of coastal lagoons west of the Niger delta became known as the Slave Coast. By the 1830s trade in palm oil had become the major economic activity. Petroleum was discovered in the Niger delta in the 1950s
One of the principal historic kingdoms (12th-19th century) of the western African forest region. Founded by the Edo people, the kingdom was centred on present-day Benin City in southern Nigeria.With the accession of Ewuare the Great in the mid 15th century, the Benin kingdom was vastly expanded, including the founding of the city of Lagos. The Portuguese first visited Benin in the late 15th century, and, for a time, Benin traded ivory, palm oil, pepper, and slaves with Portuguese and Dutch traders. Benin stopped trading slaves with Europeans in the 18th century and focused attention on dependent regions around it. Succession struggles in the 18th and 19th centuries put a series of weaker kings on the throne. After the British attacked and burned Benin City in 1897, the kingdom was incorporated into British Nigeria