BENIN
by
Alex M

COUNTRY POPULATION SIZE
(square miles)		 POPULATION DENSITY
(# of people per square mile)
USA 301,139,947 3,539,225 85
BENIN 8,294,941 42,710 75

 

NATIONAL FLAG OF BENIN

LOCATION:

 

Dahomey (Benin) was taken over by France in the 1800’s. Their king, Ghezo, agreed that the French could share their land and goods if they could get protection from the British. The people were hoping that the French could overthrow their king, because their king sold citizens to slave traders for goods. The French then took over, overthrew the king and controlled most of Dahomey’s government. They did compromise with the people and ruled them fairly though.

            Surprisingly, the French mainly helped the people of Dahomey. They gave them the protection they needed from the British who also wanted to take over. It also gave them more military help and more people to trade with. There were a couple flaws to it though, like having to share their natural resources and being governed by people who weren’t even native to their country.

            Eventually, the people got annoyed with being controlled by another country. So they worked and complained for independence and to be ruled by their native people. Finally, on August 1st, 1960 Dahomey won its independence from France. Its government changed from Monarchy to a Democracy, and its first president became Hubert Maga.

            Later, the government struggled because Northern Dahomey and Southern Dahomey couldn’t get along. Some problems faced from this were economic struggles, race rivalry and different law procedures among the country. Also with different parts of the country not agreeing it was difficult to make government decisions. In 1975 its name was changed to Benin. Today, Benin is having trouble communicating with all the ethnic groups and all their different languages and religions. So it might not be as bad as decades and centuries ago but Benin is still having problems today

Works Cited

Flag and map courtesy of Microsoft Clipart Gallery.

"Benin." Peoples of Africa. Marshall Cavendish Digital. 2009. 11 February 2009
<http://www.marshallcavendishdigital.com/articledisplay/20/4864/49586>.

"United States: History, Geography, Government, and Culture." Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
11 Feb. 2009 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108121.html>.