French Dahomey French Dahomey French Dahomey was a French colony of and a part of French West Africa from 1904 to 1958. After World War II, by the establishment of the French Fourth Republic in 1947, Dahomey became part of the French Union with an increased autonomy. On 11 December 1958, the French Fifth Republic was established and the French Union became the French Community. The colony became the self-governing Republic of Dahomey within the Community, and two years later on 1 August 1960 it gained full independence (and in 1975 changed its name to Benin). During the 13th century, the indigenous
History of the Kingdom of Dahomey about the morality or immorality of the slave trade, Dahomey became a key aspect of the debate with significant attention. The key role of Dahomey with the slave trade had a significant impact on a range of other scholars. Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel used the funeral ceremonies after the death of the King of Dahomey in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837). Karl Polanyi's last written book "Dahomey and the Slave Trade" (1966) explored the economic relationships in the kingdom. The Kingdom of Dahomey has been depicted in a number of different literary works of fiction or