Dahomey
King Start of Rule End of Rule
Do-Aklin ( Ganyihessou ) ≈1600 1620
Dakodonou 1620 1645
Houégbadja 1645 1680
Akaba 1680 1708
Agaja 1708 1740
Tegbessou ( Tegbesu ) 1740 1774
Kpengla 1774 1789
Agonglo 1790 1797
Adandozan 1797 1818
Guézo ( Ghézo/Gezo ) 1818 1858
Glèlè 1858 1889
Béhanzin 1889 1894
Agoli-agbo 1894 1900
History -- Kings of Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () 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. 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. 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. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun with the large festival of the Annual Customs of Dahomey which involved large scale human sacrifice. They traded prisoners, which they captured during wars and raids, and exchanged them with Europeans for goods such as knives, bayonets, firearms, fabrics, and spirits.