Great Benin On The World Stage: Re-Assessing Portugal-Benin Diplomacy In The 15th And 16th Centuries

Diplomacy as a tool of International Relations predates the modem state; though those machineries for its conduct have been continuously transformed. And today, due to diplomatic efforts and other enabling factors within the international system, the world has shrunk into a global village. As students of history and politics, we are interested in those forces that succeeded in bringing the peoples of the world together 500 and more years ago despite those horrendous cultural and geographical barriers. Not surprisingly, national interests have always defined such endeavours and these (trade, religion, politics etc) brought the ancient Kingdom of Benin into the orbit of Portugalthe then major World Power. Indeed, the economic and political interactions between these two powers induced lasting changes in the historical and political experiences of both Kingdoms. Even though it was a win-win outcome as each Kingdom forged new foreign policy goals to guide and protect her interests, indeed it was Portugal and as a corollary the whole of Europe that recorded significant gains through those economic dalliances with Benin. That phenomenal discovery that the African continent had a bottom, round which Europe could access Asia revolutionized both the political history and the economy of Europe. The bottom of Africa named the Cape of Good Hope, enabled Europe to outflank the Moslem World in her desire to establish trade relations with the peoples of Asia.