Kings of Dahomey

1797-1818: Adanzozan

1818-1869: Ghezo

-taken over with assistance of slave trader De Sousa
-amplification of slave trade despite French and later British opposition
-in particular this makes French in Lagos their heavy opponents
-makes Dahomey Amazons powerful entity
-successfully takes Abeokuta, helped by chaos of Sokoto's expansion southwards
-this is in part due to Anglo-French suppression of slave trade
-in the end dies of old age in prosperous realm

1869-1893: Glele

-with slave trade suppressed by French thanks to victory in France's Wars > Franco-Portuguese War (1871-2)) economy diminishes
-results in Glele forced to expand country outwards to get money and new plantations
-this succeeds

1893-1908: Gbehanzin

-with state having stopped expanding it increasingly exploits its own subjects
-results in growing instability

1908-1910: Wanilu

-this guy
-slave revolt headed by Vodun hungans overthrows Dahomey's government
-ends up fleeing to Lagos to avoid getting killed

Chief Hungans of Dahomey

1910-1913: Kukutu Vieyra

-leads an army of subjects which successfully overthrows the kingdom
-establishes a Vodun peasant republic
-Ewe subject peoples successfully break off
-with support from Germans who want influence
-French palm oil interests in Lagos form a private army and march on Dahomey to restore the monarchy in alliance with old monarchical elites
-achieve successes in this era
-however when word of this comes to France proper there's a backlash
-as this is viewed as supporting a royalist entity against republicans and this comes to an end

1913-1922: Iropa Soglo

-overthrows Vieyra and makes himself Chief Hungan