ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a selective overview of the history of the kingdom as it relates to the plaque corpus as an aid to those less familiar with the court. It outlines opposing views about the ethnic origins of the dynasty, the date bronze-casting technology first entered the kingdom, and whether European trade had any great impact on court art commissions. European and American art historians, historians, and anthropologists have put considerable effort into fixing the dates of succession for the Benin kings in the Gregorian calendar. The thirteenth-century excavation site provides evidence that bronze-casting technology and materials were available in Benin long before contact with European traders, and may have come through trans-Saharan trade routes. Benin history is marked by periods of waxing and waning trade contact with European powers. In the late nineteenth century, colonialism changed the political boundaries of Benin and the entire African continent.
