In 1892, the French, led by Colonel Alfred-Amédée Dodds, a Senegalese mulatto, invaded Dahomey. The chief responded to Dakodonu, with sarcasm, “Should I open up my belly and build you a house in it?” Dakodonu killed Dan on the spot and ordered that his new palace be built on the site and derived the kingdom’s name from the incident. However, when Dakodonu requested additional land from a prominent chief named Dan the relationship grew hostile. Do-Aklin’s son Dakodonu was granted permission to settle in the area by the Gedevi chiefs in Abomey. Around 1600, two (in some versions three) princes in Agassu’s lineage fought over who would be the ruler of Allada.[ It was decided that both princes would leave the town and found new kingdoms with Teagbanlin going south and founding the city that would become Porto-Novo and Do-Aklin moving to the Abomey plateau to the north (Porto-Novo and the Kingdom of Dahomey remained rivals for much of history). According to this story, there was a Fon prince named Agassu in the city of Tado who tried to become king but lost the struggle and took over the city of Allada instead. The most common founding myth traces the establishment of the kingdom to the royal lineage of Allada. Most scholars believe many of these stories were created or exaggerated in the 18th century to promote the legitimacy of the Dahomey royal regimes at the time and thus may be based only loosely on actual events. There are a number of different folk stories about the founding of the Kingdom of Dahomey. The coastal area had come in contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century, but significant trade did not start until 1533 when the Portuguese and the city of Grand-Popo signed a trade agreement. To the south, there were two prominent kingdoms, Allada and the Whydah, which had power along the Atlantic coast. To the east of the Abomey plateau, the Oyo Empire (in present-day Nigeria) was at the peak of its power and exercised some hegemony over the tribes in the area. However, because of a lack of resources and access to the key trade routes in the region, the plateau was very poor compared to the surrounding areas. Prior to the centralisation of the kingdom of Dahomey, the evidence suggests that the Abomey plateau was settled by a number of small tribes, commonly known as the Gedevi. Historiography of the kingdom has had a significant impact on work far beyond African history and the history of the kingdom forms the backdrop for a number of novels and plays. The throne was vacated by the French in 1900, but the royal families and key administrative positions of the administration continued to have a large impact in the politics of the French administration and the post-independence Republic of Dahomey, renamed Benin in 1975. War with the French began in 1892 and the French took over the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1894. With control over these key coastal cities, Dahomey became a major center in the Atlantic Slave Trade until 1852 when the British imposed a naval blockade to stop the trade. The kingdom became a major regional power in the 1720s when it conquered the coastal kingdoms of Allada and Whydah. The tribal groups, possibly forced to move due to the slave trade, coalesced around a highly centralised, strict military culture which was aimed at securing and eventually expanding the borders of the small kingdom. Situated in western Africa, the kingdom of Dahomey (or Abomey in its earliest years) was formed by a mixture of various local ethnic groups on the Abomey plain. Group portrait of 'Dahomey Amazons', visiting Paris (Europe), Circa 01 / 02-1891
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