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http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/benin.htm

Benin  More than 350 years ago the area now known as Benin was split into numerous principalities. Akaba of Abomey conquered his neighbouring ruler Dan and called the new kingdom Dan-Homey, later shortened by French colonisers. Each king pledged to leave his successor more land than he inherited, achieved by waging war with his neighbours. They grew rich by selling slaves to the European traders, notably the Portuguese, who established trading posts in Porto Novo, Ouidah and along the coast. For more than a century an average of 10,000 slaves per year were shipped to the Americas. Southern Dahomey was dubbed the Slave Coast. Following colonisation by the French, great progress was made in education, and many Dahomey's were employed as government advisers throughout French West Africa. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/benin/history

border countries: Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria

related countries: France, Haiti (Most Haitians trace their ancestry to Benin.)

The Warrior Queens of Dahomey:The Known in Benin as the Mino, theWarrior Queens of Dahomey were established in the 1600′s, with the last remaining member passing away in 1979.  The Mino were recruited from among the extensive ranks of the king’s wives (there were hundreds at a time) and from the public- volunteers seeking honor or escape from abusive marriages, and women involuntarily enlisted by their husbands.  The Mino were first utilized as elephant hunters, then as palace guards and community police, and finally as warriors.  Missionaries and French armies recorded their impressions of these female warriors, noting their strength, bravery, skill, and patriotism: “the equal of every contemporary body of male elite soldiers from among the colonial powers (source).

http://globalreadher.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/warrior-queens/