Benin, Kingdom of

Benin, Kingdom of West African kingdom based on Benin City, now in southern Nigeria, probably founded in about the 13th century. Its iron work and bronze and ivory sculptures rank with the finest art of Africa. It developed by trading in ivory, pepper, cloth, metals, and, from the 15th century, slaves. The kingdom achieved its greatest power under Oba Equare, who ruled from about 1440 to 1481. With his powerful army he conquered Yoruba lands to the west and Lower Niger to the east. He initiated administrative reforms, established a sophisticated bureaucracy, and ensured that the Portuguese, who arrived on the coast in 1472, did not establish control over Benin. The kingdom expanded further in the 16th century but by the 18th century its power waned with the growing strength of Oyo and other Yoruba states. Its extent declined further in the 19th century. Continuing slave-trading and the use of human sacrifice in religious rituals precipitated a British military expedition in 1897, which was massacred, whereupon a British force razed Benin city. The kingdom of Benin was incorporated into the new protectorate of southern NIGERIA in 1900. The republic of DAHOMEY subsequently took the name Benin.