During 1504 to 1550, a well respected king, Oba Esigie, took control of the Benin Empire, which was later called the Kingdom of Dahomey and is located in present day Southern Nigeria. Under the rule of Esigie, the Benin empire started became one of the two the wealthiest regions in West Africa. This was due to Esigie’s way of ruling and how he expanded the empire’s relationship with countries other than the ones they were located next to. The ruler or oba as they call it in their language, Beninian, took advantage of the fact that his empire was next to the Atlantic Sea and started to trade with many European countries. Even though trade did consist mostly of slaves, he was not willing to let a war be started in order to capture more slaves for future trading deals. In addition to trading slaves, farming was also an important industry which brought in revenue, followed by the manufacturing of palm oil. Through the trade connections which Esigie started, the empire began to benefit becoming the most powerful empire in the Western Africa region.…show more content… Esigie was a strong communicator, therefore he was able to create and maintain peaceful connections with most European countries, in order to trade. Esigie started by creating a strong relationships with the ambassadors of Portugal, as well as, their Christian missionaries, who came through the area and helped spread the religion, which became three of the most practiced among Islam and their Traditional Religion. Esigie maintained his connection with Portugal throughout his reign, even sending an ambassador there in 1540. In addition to Portugal, he also created relationships with France and Spain, however they weren’t as
