Benin Empire Expands Under Ewuare the Great

1430

Oba Ewuare seized the throne of Benin through civil war and began transforming the Edo kingdom into a centralized empire with professional administrators and a standing army. He rebuilt the capital with massive earthwork walls and moats, patronized the bronze-casting guilds whose lost-wax sculptures would later astonish European collectors, and extended Benin's authority from the Niger Delta to the coast near Lagos. West African statecraft reached a new level of sophistication.