Legends of Africa wealth gained from trade and its possession of a powerful cavalry. The Oyo Empire was the most politically important state in the region from the mid-17th to the late 18th century, holding sway not only over other Yoruba kingdoms in modern-day Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, but also over other African kingdoms, most notable being the Fon Dahomey (in present-day Benin). The mythical origins of the Oyo Empire lie with Oranyan (also known as Oranmiyan), the second prince of the Yoruba Kingdom of Ile-Ife. Oranyan made an agreement with his brother to launch a punitive raid on their northern neighbors for
History of the Yoruba people to earth. They became popular with their trading with the Portuguese, which gave them guns for their trade. The Yoruba people were invaded by the Fulani which pushed the people to the South. In the late 1800's, they formed a treaty with the Fulani people and were colonized with the British in 1901. The people who lived in Yorubaland, at least by the seventh century BC, were not initially known as the Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. The historical Yoruba develop "in situ", out of earlier (Mesolithic) Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millennium BC. Archaeologically,