1960 — Dahomey's Independence

On August 1, 1960, the French colony of Dahomey proclaimed independence, becoming the Republic of Dahomey under Hubert Maga. It was one of the first dominoes of Africa's Year of Africa, a season when colony after colony stepped into sovereignty and the map of the continent changed in a matter of months.

The new republic took its name from the historic Kingdom of Dahomey, famed for its all-female Amazon warriors. That choice reached back beyond the colonial years to an older African power, giving the young state a proud name to carry forward. In 1975 the country would be renamed Benin, but the pride in that older kingdom endured.