How did the Kingdom of Benin become powerful?

The trading post at the existing Benin town of Gwaton

was founded by the Portuguese by 1490 but it was
abandoned in 1507: trade was slim, people did not
want to convert to Christianity, and Portuguese traders
stationed there tended to sicken and die.

The next 50 years saw the development of the trading

relationship which characterised the first two centuries
of Benin’s relations with European traders. The initial
focus of trade in the 1490s was in the Beni pepper,
which served as a popular substitute for Indian spices
and was marketed by Portuguese traders through their
strong networks in Antwerp (Belgium). But when spices
from India came onto the market at the end of the 15th
century, the focus began to shift to a trade in enslaved
people: traders from the Portuguese island of São Tomé
were trading enslaved people from Benin by 1510,
Oral traditions on Benin describe its rise as having
often to sell further along the West African coast in
taken place at some time around the 12th century AD.
Elmina for gold, which was then shipped to Europe.
According to Edo oral literatures, village chiefs (the
However, the Obas of Benin were unwilling to sell men
Uzama) sent a messenger to Ile-Ife – the sacred town
from the kingdom, who were vital for warfare and were
of the Yoruba peoples - to request a divine ruler to
in any case seen as “slaves of the king”. By 1530 there
restore order after a period of discord. The divine ruler
was a total ban on the Atlantic slave trade which
(the Ooni) sent his son, Oranmiyan. His son, Eweka,
continued more or less until 1700. Benin therefore
was crowned as the Oba, probably around 1200 AD.
offers a striking example of a West African kingdom
Towards the end of the 13th century, Oba Oguola is
which strongly resisted the demands of European slave
said to have sent to Ile-Ife for a master bronze caster to
traders and instead traded with the wider world
teach the craft to the Edo.
through local cloth production.
By the middle of the 15th century, a series of changes
Benin’s early relationships with Europeans were
began to affect the kingdom. To the North of Benin, in
therefore very complex. Initially exchanges were
Oyo and Nupe, dynasties became consolidated and
positive, with ambassadors from Benin visiting
developed new relationships with the people of Benin.
Portuguese and 3 Catholic churches built in Edo before
Oba Ewuare (enthroned c. 1440) responded to unite
1500. By 1516, when the Igala of the Kingdom of Idah
Benin. Administrative changes consolidated the
invaded Edo from the north-east along with their allies
kingdom, with the establishment of three associations
of Idoma, Portuguese troops fought alongside the Oba’s
of palace chiefs, and royal festivals designed to protect
warriors to defeat them. Nevertheless when the
and renew the kingdom, such as the Ugie Erhe Oba
economic demands shifted from peppers and cloth to
dedicated to the Oba’s sacred ancestors, and Igue
slaves, the Obas resisted the changes. Benin developed
which strengthened the belief in the Oba’s divine
its own administrative, economic and political
powers. Ewuare also expanded the structures of the
structures according to local impetus and priorities.
‘Benin City’, improving the road system. These
developments were helped by growing military power,
as Benin expanded East to the lands of the Ibo and Ijo
on the right bank of the Niger, South to the Ocean, and
West towards the Lagos lagoon. A “bronze”
showing a chief
Thus in the decades prior to the Portuguese arrival in with armour,
the 1480s, Benin had expanded territorially as well as subordinate
consolidating as a state. Oba Ewuare’s power was soldiers and
strengthened by his reputation as both a magician and musicians from
warrior. The belief that the dynasty was supernaturally the palace of
the Oba in
gifted created military success, which in turn
Benin
strengthened this belief.

© OCR 2015