Adandozan
| Adandozan | |
|---|---|
| King of Dahomey | |
| Reign | 1797–1818 |
| Predecessor | Agonglo |
| Successor | Ghezo |
| Died | 1861 |
| House | Aladaxonou |
| Father | Agonglo |
Adandozan was a King of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1797 until 1818. His rule ended with a coup by his brother Ghezo who then erased Adandozan from the official history resulting in high uncertainty about many aspects of his life. Adandozan took over from his father Agonglo in 1797 but was quite young at the time and so there was a regent in charge of the kingdom until 1804. Dealing with the economic depression that had defined the administrations of his father Agonglo and grandfather Kpengla, Adandozan tried to increase slave raiding, increase European trade, and when these failed reform the economy to focus on agriculture. Unfortunately, these efforts did not end domestic dissent and in 1818 at the Annual Customs of Dahomey, Ghezo and Francisco Félix de Sousa, a powerful Brazilian slave trader, organized a coup d'état and replaced Adandozan. He was left alive and lived until the 1860s hidden in the palaces while he was largely erased from official royal history.
Agonglo's (1789-1797) reign had been very contentious ending in his assassination by a brother, Dogan. The slave trade had been largely disrupted for two decades by the Oyo empire, the lack of military success by Dahomey, and European traders changing their focus (the French abolished slavery in 1794 and the British and Portuguese had stopped relying on Dahomey's ports). The result was that when Agonglo died there was a large scale upheaval led by various factions, but this ended on May 5, 1797 with the appointment of Adandozan, the second oldest son of Agonglo as the new king. However, because Adandozan was young at the time, the first seven years of his rule were held by a regency of various elder statesmen. In 1804, he became old enough to formally rule with his own authority but the regency members retained importance.
One story contends that Adandozan's younger brother Ghezo had actually been named the heir to Agonglo and that Adandozan was merely a regent. However, that Adondozan refused to relinquish the throne when Ghezo was old enough. This story is doubted by historian Akinjogbin as an invention by Ghezo to justify his coup against Adandozan.
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