Carte du Dahomey pour suivre les opérations militaires…

Description

This seemingly-unrecorded map of Dahomey was published during the Second Franco-Dahomean War, with the expressed purpose of detailing the conflict’s theater of operations. The Kingdom of Dahomey was an African kingdom (located within the area of the present-day country of Benin) that existed from about 1600 until 1894.

Our map, published in 1892, shows the kingdom in its final years. The Second Franco-Dahomean War, which raged from 1892 to 1894 and was fought between the French Third Republic and the Kingdom of Dahomey, culminated in triumph for France. Dahomey was incorporated into the growing colonial territory of French West Africa.

The map highlights both Dahomey and the French protectorate kingdom of Porto Novo. All roads seem to lead to the city of Abomey and indeed that is how the conflict played out. After victories along the Dahomey-Porto Novo border, the combined French forces marched towards Abomey, with the last major battle taking place at Cana just outside Abomey.

European colonialism in Africa is on full display; on either side of Dahomey is German Togo and British Lagos.