Republic of Benin (1967) Republic of Benin (1967) The Republic of Benin was a short-lived unrecognized secessionist state in West Africa which existed for one day in 1967. It was established on 19 September 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War as a puppet state of Biafra, following its occupation of Nigeria's Mid-Western Region, and named after its capital, Benin City, with Albert Nwazu Okonkwo as its head of government. The new state was an attempt by Biafra to prevent non-Igbo residents of the neighboring Mid-Western Region from siding with Nigeria following regional ethnic tensions early in the war. The Republic of Benin was officially
Bight of Biafra trade emanating from the Bight of Biafra. Between 1525 and 1859, Britain dominated the slave trade from the Bight of Biafra accounting for over two-thirds of slaves exported to the New World. However, in 1807, Great Britain made illegal the international trade in slaves, and the Royal Navy was deployed to forcibly prevent slavers from the United States, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, West Africa and Arabia from plying their trade. Earlier, in 1777, Portugal transferred control of Fernando Poo and Annobon to Spanish suzerainty thus introducing Spain into the early colonial history of the Bight of Biafra. On 30 June