Description

Benin was once a great African kingdom, but it was transformed into the largest supplier of humans for the slave trade. The Portuguese arrived in the area in the 15th century, which marked the fall of one of Africas most powerful territories. At the height of the slave trade, tens of thousands of people were being deported at a time and Benin's waterfront earned the name the Slave Coast. In 1872, the country was colonized by the French and in 1904; it became Dahomey, part of French West Africa. With the wave of decolonization gaining momentum in the late 1950's, Dahomey became a self-governing state in 1958 and finally achieved complete independence in 1960.