What causes the Dahomey Gap?
The mid-Holocene marine transgression caused a spread of mangrove forest along the inland lagoons. Pollen analysis and geochemistry indicate that the Dahomey Gap became established at the onset of the late Holocene due to an abrupt climatic change between c. 4500 and 3400 cal.
What is Dahomey Gap?
In West Africa, the Dahomey Gap refers to the portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo, and Ghana, thus separating the forest zone that covers much of the south of the region into two separate parts.
What is Dahomey now called?
the People’s Republic of Benin
COTONOU, Dahomey, Nov. 30 (Reuters) — The West African country of Dahomey has changed its name to the People’s Republic of Benin, President Mathieu Kerekou announced here today. Benin was the name of an African kingdom on the Gulf of Guinea that reached its peak in the 17th century.
What were female soldiers in the Dahomey army called?
The Dahomey Amazons (Fon:”Mino” or “Minon”) were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey which existed until 1904. They were so named by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea.
What is Dahomey known for?
The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military.
Who were the Dahomey warriors?
Dahomey Amazons were frontline soldiers in the army of the Kingdom of Dahomey, a West African empire that existed from 1625 to 1894. Its remnants lie in modern-day Benin, which occupies a sliver of the coast between Nigeria and Togo.
Why did Dahomey change to Benin?
However, in 1990, Dahomey changed its name to the Republic of Benin (Republique du Benin) in memory of pre-19th century greatness of Ancient Benin of Nigeria. Thus, to avoid confusing the new Republic with the latter, the phrase “formerly Dahomey” would be added in parenthesis where necessary.
Is Dahomey a Yoruba?
Thirdly, the Dahomey kingdom, to the west of the Yoruba, was founded by the Fon (see Argyle 1966, cited under Precolonial Period). Notwithstanding their frequent raids into one another’s territories during the transatlantic slave trade, the Yoruba states, Benin, and Dahomey have dynastic ties.
How did the Kingdom of Dahomey become a regional power?
Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey was a key regional state, eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire.
When did the Kingdom of Dahomey fall to France?
The Kingdom of Dahomey ( / dəˈhoʊmi /) was a pre-colonial African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. The kingdom fell when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by France, leading to the country being annexed into the French colonial empire.
Who was the last king of the Dahomey Kingdom?
Dahomey. The Kingdom of Dahomey ( /dəˈhoʊmi/) was an African kingdom (located within the area of the present-day country of Benin) that existed from about 1600 until 1894, when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by the French, and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire.
What was the relationship between Dahomey and the Oyo Empire?
The Oyo empire engaged in frequent conflicts with the Kingdom of Dahomey and Dahomey became a tributary of the Oyo from 1732 until 1823. The city-state of Porto-Novo, under the protection of Oyo, and Dahomey had a long-standing rivalry largely over control of the slave trade along the coast.