The Benin Empire was located in southern Nigeria, east of Yorubaland and west of the Niger River. It was populated by speakers of a group of closely related languages called Edo. Benin is one of the states of southern Nigeria which claim to have obtained kingship from the Yoruba city of Ife. Archaeological research at Benin has shown, however, that important developments preceded the foundation of the empire. In the countryside around Benin City lies an extraordinary complex of walls, thirty feet high in places and stretching perhaps 10,000 miles in length. Because they are older than the walls of the city which became the capital of the Benin Empire, historians believe that the region was the home of a large population before the emergence of a centralized state.

Historians of Benin believe that its first kingdom developed in the 12th or 13th century. They think, however, that the densely forested region around Benin City was still divided into perhaps several dozen tiny and quarrelsome chiefdoms when, about 1300, it found unity. According to Benin tradition, when the chiefs decided to unify they invited Oranyan (or Oranmiyan) from Ife to become their leader. Oranyan stayed in Benin only long enough to father a child with a daughter of a local chief. Their son, Eweka, is considered the first king, or oba, of Benin. Some historians have suggested that the tale of a marriage between Oranyan and a chiefly family of Benin may conceal the unpleasant truth that Benin was at this time conquered by outsiders who became its rulers.

During the 15th century, the famous Oba Ewuare increased his power by making important reforms. He tried to reduce the influence of the uzama, a body of hereditary chiefs who participated in the selection of the oba, by instituting primogeniture, the rule that a father should be succeeded by his son. He also tried to find a political counterweight to the uzama by creating new categories of chiefs, the "palace chiefs" and "town chiefs" whom he appointed himself. Ewuare is also credited in Benin tradition with having built a monumental system of walls and moats around Benin City. In addition, Ewuare vastly increased the territory under the control of Benin. He and his son, Ozolua, extended the sway of Benin from the Niger River in the east to the eastern portions of Yoruba country in the west.

Ewuare¹s reforms created a government based on checks and balances. It allowed the oba to play off different factions of chiefs against each other as "palace" and "town" chiefs competed with the uzama to gain influence. Yet, while they were appointed by the oba, the "palace" and "town" chiefs kept independent sources of power. Because they collected tribute (paid twice annually in palm oil, yams and other foodstuffs) provided by all the villages and districts to the court, the oba relied on the chiefs for his revenue. Moreover, Benin¹s political institutions created endless opportunities for individuals to compete for advancement through grades of seniority and authority. Even free male commoners enjoyed opportunities for advancement by competing for the chiefly titles awarded by the oba. Slaves, however, were denied these opportunities.

When Portuguese mariners became the first Europeans to visit this part of West Africa in 1486, the obas were able to benefit from trade with them. Ozolua¹s son, Esigie, who ruled from about 1504 to 1550, established close contacts with the Portuguese and, according to some accounts, learned to speak and read Portuguese. The obas established a royal monopoly over trade in pepper and ivory with Europeans. Benin also became an important exporter of cloth. However, Benin prevented the depletion of its own population by prohibiting the export of males slaves during the 16th and 17th centuries, although it did import slaves purchased by Europeans elsewhere in West Africa, and resold some of them to the region which is now Ghana (see section on Asante below).

Wealthy and powerful obas became the patrons of artists and craftspeople. Ewuare divided Benin City into two wards, one for the palace and the other for guilds of artists and craftworkers. Under Esigie the artists of Benin produced their most famous work. Because trade brought copper and brass into the kingdom, metalworkers were now able to refine techniques of bronze and brass casting which had been known in Benin since the 13th century. They produced a remarkable series of bronze bas-reliefs lining the walls of the oba¹s palace. The bas-reliefs, writes the historian Elizabeth Isichei, "recreate the world of the courtŠ The oba, his regalia, his attendants, a Portuguese hunter with his crossbow, and the bird he has shot, a royal drummer, naked palace attendantsŠ As a record of past events, one is tempted to compare them with the Bayeux tapestry.

Historians have described the century following the death of Esigie in 1550 as a period when the obas withdrew from politics, yet it is not altogether certain that they were unable to influence politics even while remaining behind palace walls. Historians of Benin know relatively little about the kingdom¹s history during the 18th century, although they recognize that slaves supplanted cloth as Benin¹s major export after it abolished the prohibition on slave exports. Yet, they have been able to say little about how the slave trade of the 18th century affected the kingdom¹s economy and society.

The 19th century is often described by historians as a period of steady decline culminating in the conquest of Benin by the British in 1897. Like much of West Africa, Benin¹s economy was disrupted by the decision of the British in 1807 to abolish the slave trade. Meanwhile, militarily formidable Islamic states to the north of Benin posed a new threat; one of them, Nupe, seized control of Benin¹s northern peripheries. To the west, the Yoruba state of Ibadan menaced Benin. As the nineteenth century wore on, European traders also established an increasingly threatening presence.

This context of decline and external menace has been used by historians to explain an infamous aspect of Benin¹s history, the practice of human sacrifice. They have suggested that, faced with dwindling profits from trade and besieged by enemies on all sides, the obas resorted to ritual sacrifice as a way of overawing their subjects. "The intensification of human sacrifice in Benin City from the late 1880s," writes the Nigerian scholar A.I. Asiwaju, "has been interpreted by some as evidence of the desperation of the rulers seeking ritual solution to the political problem of an imminent collapse."

Source: http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/history/giblinstate.html#benin