Behanzin in 1894

Behanzin (d. December 1906, in Blida, Algeria) is considered (if Adandozan is not counted) eleventh King of Dahomey (now Benin). Upon taking the throne, he changed his name from Kondo. He succeeded his father, Glele, and ruled from 1889 to 1894. Behanzin was Abomey's last independent ruler established through traditional power structures, and considered to be a great ruler. 1894 photo of King of Dahomey, Behanzin This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Blida (Arabic: البليدة) is a major town of Algeria, chief town of the department(Wilaya) of Blida, 45 km south-west of Algiers. ... Adandozan was a King of Dahomey (now Benin), technically the ninth, though he is not counted as one of the twelve kings. ... Dahomey was a kingdom in Africa, situated in what is now the nation of Benin. ... Badohou, who took the throne name Glele, is considered (if Adandozan is not counted) to be the tenth King of Dahomey (now Benin). ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Abomey is a town in Benin, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey. ...

His symbols are the shark, the egg (a rebus of his name), and a captive hanging from a flagpole (a reference to a boastful and rebellious Nago practitioner of harmful magic from Ketou whom the king hanged from a flagpole as punishment for his pride). But, his most famous symbol is the smoking pipe, seen on the picture to the right. This is because he claimed that there wasn't a minute in his life, even when he was a baby, that he was not smoking. A rebus (Latin: by things) is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words, for example: H + picture of ear = Hear. ... Nago (名護市; -shi) is a city located in Okinawa, Japan. ... Kétou is a town located in the Plateau Department of Benin. ... Youth with pipe, by Hendrick Jansz Terbrugghen A smoking pipe is a device used for smoking combustible substances such as tobacco and cannabis. ...

Behanzin was seen by his people as intelligent and courageous. He saw that the Europeans were gradually encroaching on his kingdom, and as a result attempted a foreign policy of isolating the Europeans and rebuffing them. As price just before Glele's death, Behanzin declined to meet French envoy Jean Bayol, claiming conflicts in his schedule due to ritual and ceremonial obligations. As a result, Bayol returned to Cotonou to prepare to go to war against Behanzin, named king upon Glele's death. Seeing the preparations, the Dahomeans attacked Bayol's forces outside Cotonou in 1890; the French army stood fast due to superior weaponry and a strategically advantageous position. Eventually Behanzin's forces were forced to withdraw. Behanzin returned to Abomey, Bayol to France for a time. Cotonou, population 536,827 (1992), is the seat of government of Benin, though the official capital is Porto-Novo. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...

The peace lasted two years, during which time the French continued to occupy Cotonou. Both sides continued to buy arms in preparation for another battle. In 1892, the soldiers of Abomey attacked villages near Grand Popo and Porto-Novo in an effort to reassert the older boundaries of Dahomey. This was seen as an act of war by the French, who claimed interests in both areas. Bayol, by now named Colonial Governor by the French, declared war on Behanzin. The French war machine justified the aggression by characterizing the Dahomeans as savages in need of civilizing, and pointing to what it called the "human sacrifice" of the annual customs and at a king's death, and to the continued practice of slavery, as evidence of this savagery. 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Grand Popo is a town on the Atlantic coast of Benin. ... Porto-Novo, population 179,138 (1992), is the official capital of Benin. ... Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning to make sacred, from Old Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome French, from Latin sacrificium : sacer, sacred; sacred + facere, to make) is commonly known as the... Slavery is a condition in which one person, known as a slave, is under the control of another. ...

Some of this propaganda still exists today: in the Musee de l'Homme in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, there is a large print, again illustrating the alleged savagery of the Dahomeans, of a battle in the war against Dahomey where a Dahomey Amazon killed a French officer by ripping out his throat with her sharpened teeth. The story is somewhat more complex, however, since the traditional accounts of the event handed down in Benin have the Amazon as a trusted wife of Behanzin who had sworn to avenge members of the royal family who had been executed by Behanzin for treachery after divulging battle plans in return for bribes from French agents. Further, the French officer at issue was allegedly the head of French military intelligence who committed the 'savage' act of corrupting family members to betray their own --an unthinkable evil in Dahomean society; the Amazon was reduced to using her teeth after her ammunition ran out at the battle's peak. In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici built herself a house in the country here on Chaillot hill, later occupied by the Marshall of Bassompière. ... The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) which lasted until end of the 19th century. ... Bribery is the practice of offering a professional money or other favours in order to circumvent ethics in a variety of professions. ... Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ... Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ...

Similarly, the usual European allegations of Dahomean savagery do not take into account the role of the annual customs in Dahomean society, the deepness of traditional belief in the spirit world, the complex social organization seen in the court bureaucracy and policy making process, and the fact that at many of the very points where blood flowed most freely in Dahomean history, it was also flowing freely in Europe, through wars, civil wars, and revolutions. This is not to excuse any of the evils of the Dahomean traditional society, but only to put them in perspective and to point out that the term "savage" when applied to Dahomey by defenders of its European colonization is used more for its propaganda value than for its ability to describe honestly the level of organization or the cultural values of traditional Dahomean society. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science. ... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... The only atomic weapons ever used in war - the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan by the United States on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombs over Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 people. ... A civil war is a war in which parties within the same ethnicity, or distribution of wealth. ... It has been suggested that Revolutionary be merged into this article or section. ... Evil is a term describing that which is regarded as morally bad, intrinsically corrupt, wantonly destructive, inhumane, or wicked. ... U.S. propaganda poster, depicting a Nazi stabbing a Bible. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

Through superior intelligence gathering, superior weaponry, subversion by some members of the royal family who had been corrupted by bribes, and a campaign of psychological warfare that included cutting down most of the sacred trees in the Oueme and Zou, and an unexpected attack strategy, the French succeeded in defeating Dahomey, the last of the traditional African kingdoms to succumb to European colonization. Instead of attacking Abomey directly by marching straight north from Calavi just north of Cotonou, French General Alfred Dodds attacked from Porto-Novo, moving up the Oueme valley until he was within striking distance of Abomey, via Cove and Bohicon. Intelligence (abbreviated or ) is the process and the result of gathering information and analyzing it to answer questions or obtain advance warnings needed to plan for the future. ... The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as: The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives. ... Oueme may refer to: Benin Oueme Department Oueme Province (historic) Oueme River Oueme River Basin This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Zou may refer to Zou Province (historic) Zou Department Zou (instrument) Zou people (Benin) Zou people (India) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Porto-Novo, population 179,138 (1992), is the official capital of Benin. ... Oueme may refer to: Benin Oueme Department Oueme Province (historic) Oueme River Oueme River Basin This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Abomey is a town in Benin, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey. ... Lulworth Cove, Dorset England This article is about the coastal feature, for details of the megalithic monument see Cove (standing stones) A cove is a coastal landform. ... Bohicon is a city in Benin, lying east of Abomey on the railway line from Cotonou to Parakou and on Benin’s main highway. ...

The French were victorious, and in 1894, Behanzin surrendered his person to Dodds, without signing any instrument of national surrender or treaty. He lived out the remainder of his life in exile in Martinique and Algeria. After his death, his remains were returned to Abomey. 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (usually shortened to just DoDDS) is a network of schools, both primary and secondary, that serve dependents of United States military- and other non-US - personnel. ...

Behzanzin was succeeded by Agoli-agbo, his distant relative and one-time Army Chief of Staff, the only potential ruler which the French were willing to instate. Agoli-agbo is considered to have been the twelfth, and last, King of Dahomey. ...