Politics of Benin century until the colonial period, the Kingdom of Dahomey (whose borders encompassed more than present day Benin) was ruled by an "Oba". The French were the colonial power from 1892 to 1960, when independence was finally achieved. Between 1960 and 1972, a series of military coups in Benin (known until 1975 as the Republic of Dahomey) brought about many changes of government. The last of these brought Major Mathieu Kérékou to power as the head of a regime professing strict Marxist-Leninist principles. The Revolutionary Party of the People of Benin (PRPB) remained in complete power until the beginning of the
1945 French legislative election in Dahomey and Togo policy were sent to the United Nations by the Ewe, who sought to be reunited with their brethren in British Togoland. Despite having left Dahomey seventeen years before the elections, Aupiais remained a popular figure in Dahomey, even amongst animists. His former pupil Sourou-Migan Apithy benefitted from his association with Aupiais, although he had also become an important figure in his own right through his work on the Monnerville Commission, which had reported on the future of the French colonies. Following the elections, Senegalese MP Lamine Guèye attempted to persuade all the African MPs to form an African Bloc, which