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Oyo Empire

AfricaHeartland today: Nigeria and Benin

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A Yoruba state in the savannah of what is now southwest Nigeria, ruled by an alaafin from Oyo-Ile. Its cavalry won it control of trade routes to the coast. Civil strife and the loss of Ilorin broke it apart in the early 1800s.

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Key events

  1. Yoruba tradition names a descendant of Oduduwa of Ife as Oyo's first alaafinDisputed

    This is oral tradition. Britannica names a son of Oduduwa; World History Encyclopedia and BlackPast name Oranmiyan. Penn Museum's Expedition sets the foundation anywhere from the 10th to the early 15th century.

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  2. Nupe forces take Old Oyo and the ruling line withdraws into exileDisputed

    Both sources give about 1535 and neither is firm. BlackPast frames the period differently: it says Oyo had conquered Borgu and Nupe by 1550.

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  3. Oyo builds its army around cavalry and archers, with imported horses, and grows into an empireDisputed

    The date is approximate. BlackPast says the cavalry was reorganised in the sixteenth century; Penn Museum's Expedition says Oyo became important as an empire early in the 17th century. BlackPast says horses came from Europe and North Africa; World History Encyclopedia says from the north.

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  4. – Oyo campaigns against Dahomey, makes it pay tribute and, by 1748, subjugates itDisputed

    World History Encyclopedia gives a war from 1726 to 1730; Wikipedia gives a major invasion in 1728 and final subjugation in 1748. Penn Museum's Expedition says Dahomey threw off Oyo's rule in 1818.

  5. Ilorin, Oyo's northern province, breaks away and becomes an emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate; Oyo starts to break upDisputed

    World History Encyclopedia puts the Fulani conquest of Ilorin in the 1820s. Wikipedia dates the secession to 1817 and Ilorin's entry into the Sokoto Caliphate to 1823.

  6. Ilorin forces destroy Old Oyo, and the royal court later founds a new capital to the southDisputed

    Only Wikipedia gives 1835 for the destruction (its infobox says c. 1836). BlackPast says the kingdom had collapsed by 1837 and World History Encyclopedia says by the mid-19th century.