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208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_200	## The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin The heart of the kingdom of Benin was its capital at Edo, consolidated and expanded under Oba Ewuare prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. Visitors to Edo from the coastal trading port at Gwatón arrived from the south-west. Between...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 0 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_201	It is important to understand that Edo's urban configuration expanded dramatically over the 16th and 17th centuries, testament to a society and kingdom undergoing change and self-transformation. In 1505, the Portuguese official Duarte Pacheco Pereira - who visited the city four times - wrote how there was no wall aroun...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 660 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_202	The evolution of Benin's political organization and the growth of Edo was linked to the growth of the currency systems in the kingdom and the opportunities this provided for taxation and political consolidation. Another Dutch traveller, Nyandael, wrote in 1702 that the Obas of Benin had good income from taxes of cowrie...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 1722 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_203	The expansion of trade and the state is easily apparent in the sources which detail the different types of trade and commercial exchange and production which characterised the economy of Benin. As already noted, early Atlantic trade with the Portuguese was for peppers and cloths. In 1505, Pacheco Pereira also noted mar...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 2750 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_204	of yams, wood and water to provision passing ships. This was to become a mainstay of the Atlantic trade not only of Benin but of many Atlantic African kingdoms: slave trading ships taking on occasion 500 and even 700 Africans to the New World needed large amounts of provisions and water, which African societies had to ...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 3337 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_205	By 1600, the trading networks of Benin had grown further, and Dirck Ruiters described the complexity of markets and the variety of produce available: "They bring all sorts of things to sell, such as live dogs, of which they eat many, roasted monkies, catfish, rats, parrots, fowls, yams, manigette pepper in pods or ears...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 3937 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_206	Ruiters' account makes clear that production of cloth and everyday objects was an important part of life in Benin. What may be most important in his account, however is the emphasis on iron. Agricultural production grew in response to a variety of factors, but in Benin as elsewhere in West Africa the supply of iron was...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4692 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_207	Trade was thus an important part of royal power in Benin, offering revenues, receipts, and luxury goods for display and distribution to loyal followers. Obas were able to tax revenue and grow stocks of money and their reserves held in cowries, the currency of Benin. Nevertheless, as the Dutch trade to Benin continued i...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The political, social, and economic development and trade of the Kingdom of Benin", "image_references": [ "img_ref_27" ], "images_base64": [ "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcGBQgHBwcJCQgKDBQNDAsLDBkSEw8UHRofHh0aHBwgJC4nICIsIxwcK...	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_208	## Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute At the centre of the kingdom of Benin was unquestionably the Oba. The Oba was seen as holding a divine power, and his court was at the heart of Edo and the kingdom. Complex rituals and sumptuary...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 0 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_209	gave supernatural credentials. This power was manifested in various ways. Only the Oba had power of life and death, while as the historian RE Bradbury notes the inhabitants of Edo considered themselves "true slaves" of the Oba: as Nyandael wrote in 1702, the Oba "calls all his subjects slaves, however great nobles they...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 956 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_210	As the Oba was confined for so much of his life to his palace, its physical manifestation was of great importance. It was much the most impressive complex in Edo, and visitors were affected by its size and scope. Olfert Dapper described how "the king's court is square, and stands at the right hand side when entering th...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 1388 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_211	Given the religious and political power associated with the royal court at Edo, and the dependent relationship between commoners and the king, ordinary members of Benin society were bound by strict rules as to their behaviour at court. The English trader Wyndham described in 1558 how "when the nobleman are in his [the ...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 2207 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_212	With such a powerful structural and symbolic hold over the Edo imaginary, the royal palace evolved in time to become a highly complex administrative and political centre. In the 16th century, town and palace chiefs evolved known as the eghaevo n'ore and eghaevo n'ogbe. There were in addition three classes of titles wit...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 2845 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_213	As Benin grew, the different palace titleholders became increasingly involved in palace revenues and stores. The iwebo looked after the Oba's reserves of cowries, beads and cloth, for instance, while the iwegune were responsible for collecting tribute and taxes paid in kind such as yams and other produce. Meanwhile the...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 3565 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_214	Understanding the role of the palace titles is very important to understanding Benin. Though nobility was an important part of Edo hierarchies, and was symbolised through the wearing of coral beads, access and promotion to the titles was on merit, and depended on prowess and achievement. Each group of titles had grades...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4089 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_215	Given the importance of the Oba, many of them became central figures in the historical imaginary of Benin. As we have seen, a central figure was that of Ewuare, who accelerated the urbanisation of Edo in the mid-15th century and developed new titles and administrative structures. Another important feature of Ewuare's r...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4991 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_216	Ewuare was succeeded by Oba Ozolua (c. 1481-1504), another key figure in Benin's history. It was Ozolua who established stable trade relations with the Portuguese and consolidated the achievements of Ewuare. Ozolua was an expansionist Oba, who led battle against the Ijebu-Yorubas according to Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Ed...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 5911 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_217	Esigie was also a key figure in Benin's golden age. He established diplomatic ties with the Portuguese, sending ambassadors to Lisbon in 1514, and establishing a school in Edo for teaching the reading and writing of Portuguese. It was also Esigie who began the careful regulation of the trade, barring the export of male...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 6529 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_218	through occult medicines, and thereafter the cult of the queen mother, the lyoba, provided the queen mother with her own palace, chiefs and attendants. Esigie was followed by Oba Orhogbua in the mid-16th century, who led the expansion to conquer the Lagos lagoon, turning the Lagos kingdom into a vassal of Benin. This...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Importance of the Oba, achievements of individual Obas, selection procedures, importance of ceremony and ritual, tribute", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 7260 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_219	## The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms The highpoint of Benin as a kingdom came as we have seen in the 16th century. This brought together the transformations in Benin kingship and belief under Oba Ewuare with the opportunities coming ...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [ "img_ref_28" ], "images_base64": [ "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcGBQgHBwcJCQgKDBQN...	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_220	![img-27.jpeg](img_ref_28) One of the aspects of the relationship with the Portuguese which at first interested Obas such as Ozolua and Esigie was the potential for access to Portuguese firearms. As previously noted, some Portuguese fought alongside the armies of Edo in a battle of 1516, and request for military assi...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [ "img_ref_28" ], "images_base64": [ "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcGBQgHBwcJCQgKDBQN...	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_221	The 16th century therefore saw important changes in military organisation. As we have seen already, this was a time of expansion, with Ozolua, Esigie and Orhogbua expanding the boundaries of the kingdom to Lagos and east to the lands of the Igbo. It was the Oba's duty to declare war and to command high-ranking military...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 1593 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_222	Thus, by this period Benin had expanded far beyond the confines of the original kingdom. An imperial system had developed which required a complex relationship between Edo and the provinces, and which grew alongside the expansion of the market economy with the growth of the currency base in cowries. Benin had a rising ...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 2603 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_223	The growth of the empire became a mechanism to diffuse tensions within the royal household and to expand the wealth of the Oba. Quarrelsome sons and brothers of the Obas were often appointed as governors of distant provinces to which they would migrate along with their dependants and retinues, thereby diminishing the t...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 3253 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_224	To ensure that the tributary villages were able to meet these requirements, village administration was devolved. Each village had a sole head, the Odiunwere, who governed locally along with a council of elders, and shared authority with the hereditary chief called the Onogie; executive power lay finally with the Odiunw...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4291 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_225	This structure of governance was well organised, therefore, and grew along with Benin's political, economic and military power. There were nevertheless inherent tensions within the imperial structure which often provoked conflict. As noted previously, collection of village tribute was arranged by the officials of the t...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "The Benin military; Imperial structure and the relationship between Benin City State, the Empire, and Subject Kingdoms", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4848 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_226	## Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult One of the most remarkable things about Benin from the vantage point of the 21 st century is the extraordinary range of artistic representations which have been left to consider the history of this strong West African kingdom. So po...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 0 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_227	There can be no doubt when looking at the heritage of sculpture and representation of history from Edo that Benin was a powerful, complex, and sophisticated civilization. The bronzes provide powerful evidence of the past of Edo, and of the ideas that underpinned it. One remarkable example is the way in which the swords...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 850 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_228	in a global nexus of trade and exchange which began in the kingdom at an early time. The tradition of casting was a very old one in Benin, linked both to the spiritual power of the Obas and the relationship of Benin to Ife. Oral histories recount two versions. The first claims that Oba Oguola, circa 1280, sent to Ife...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [ "img_ref_29" ], "images_base64": [ "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcGBQgHBwcJCQgKDBQNDAsLDBkSEw8UHRofHh0aHBwgJC4nICIsIxwc...	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_229	![img-28.jpeg](img_ref_29) There was then certainly a tradition in casting in Benin prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. Nevertheless, the Portuguese trade stimulated the expansion of the craft, with an influx of copper manilas as currency as we have seen. This offered Obas an important opportunity to elaborate up...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [ "img_ref_29" ], "images_base64": [ "data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcGBQgHBwcJCQgKDBQNDAsLDBkSEw8UHRofHh0aHBwgJC4nICIsIxwc...	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_230	16th century, at the height of the Portuguese trade; and it also declined significantly in the 18th century, along with the power of Benin. As in many other parts of the world, therefore, art and power were deeply connected in Benin. Just as art was deeply connected to religious patronage in medieval and early modern...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 3632 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_231	An important feature of the power of Obas was therefore their capacity to innovate in terms of the working of representations of both history and of the world. Magic and art had a close connection, for each produced something from nothing. As the anthropologist Patrick McNaughton has shown, blacksmiths held a close con...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 4553 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_232	As we have seen in this analysis of Benin, an important feature of the kingdom's strength was its religious power and the important role which religious innovation played in securing the kingdom's independence. A key feature of this strength was not only the ways in which the Obas innovated to add artistic power to the...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 5321 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_233	, and the ways in which Atlantic trade had hastened social and material transformations, Olokun was central to how the historical transformations of the time could be	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 6255 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_234	represented, along with the castings which still confront us with the power and representations of the truth of the Edo past.	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Material Culture and Artistic Achievements; Religion, Culture, and the Olokun Cult", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 6424 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_235	## Conclusion: Benin's Decline and Renewal in the 18th Century The decline of Benin began in the 17th century. In approximately 1608, Oba Ohuan died without an heir, precipitating a major succession crisis. A series of "puppet Obas" of powerful chiefs followed, and the details of many of the Obas of the 17th century ...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Conclusion: Benin's Decline and Renewal in the 18th Century", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 0 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_236	In the 18th century, Benin began to revitalise itself however. By 1725, one French report claimed that the King of Allada was a vassal of Benin. Key to this appears to have been a shift in royal policy, since by 1730 the Obas were selling war captives as slaves to the Dutch. Trade grew through the 1730s, and in 1737 Ob...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Conclusion: Benin's Decline and Renewal in the 18th Century", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 822 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_237	Oral histories recall some of this process of change and its relationship to external trade. The historian Cecil Ling Roth noted an oral tradition of European trade which was taken down in the 1890s: "The white men stayed long, many many years they come to trade, and if a man comes to trade he must sit down and sell hi...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Conclusion: Benin's Decline and Renewal in the 18th Century", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 1518 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_238	Benin had evolved from a powerful kingdom with a complex administration, and a mixed trade. After its decline in the 17th and early 18th century, it had managed to rise again and reposition itself through the slave trade. In this way it became one of the great survival stories of West African political history. But the...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Conclusion: Benin's Decline and Renewal in the 18th Century", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 2218 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf
208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf_chunk_239	## Factbox c. 1200 - Oba Eweka crowned first Oba of Benin c. 1280 - Coppercasters requested from Ife to help with the development of copper casting in Edo c. 1440 - Oba Equare enthroned and transforms many aspects of Benin c. 1481-1504 - Reign of Oba Ezuola who expands Benin's territories hugely 1485 - Portuguese a...	{ "Header 1": "Chapter Four:", "Header 2": "Factbox", "image_references": [], "images_base64": [], "start_index": 0 }	208299-african-kingdoms-ebook-.pdf