History of Nigeria city-states. A state council (the "Oyo Mesi") named the "Alaafin" (king) and acted as a check on his authority. Their capital city was situated about 100 km north of present-day Oyo. Unlike the forest-bound Yoruba kingdoms, Oyo was in the savanna and drew its military strength from its cavalry forces, which established hegemony over the adjacent Nupe and the Borgu kingdoms and thereby developed trade routes farther to the north. The Benin Empire (1440–1897; called "Bini" by locals) was a pre-colonial African state in what is now modern Nigeria. It should not be confused with the modern-day country called Benin,
History of the Jews in 18th-century Poland an independent country. The great bulk of the Jewish population was transferred to Russia, and thus became subjects of that empire, although in the first half of the 19th century some semblance of a Polish state was preserved, greatly diminished, especially in the form of the Congress Poland (1815–1831). History of the Jews in 18th-century Poland The 18th-Century for the Jews of Poland was a tumultuous period as political unrest in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth led to changes in the treatment and behavior of Jews living within its territory. The ascent of the Wettin dynasty to the Polish throne, as well