Britain’s Destruction of the Benin Empire

Benin Empire — The Empire Britain Destroyed 🎥 1-Minute Short Script (≈60s) HOOK (0–5s)

Britain didn’t discover Benin. Britain destroyed it. STORY (5–45s)

Deep in today’s southern Nigeria stood the Benin Empire— a powerful African

state with planned cities, wide roads, and massive walls longer than the

Great Wall of China. Benin’s kings, called Obas, ruled a disciplined society.

Under Ewuare the Great, the empire expanded, reformed its laws, and became famous

for bronze and brass artworks so advanced Europeans later claimed Africans couldn’t have made

them. In 1897, Britain launched the Punitive Expedition. Benin City was burned.