19th Century: (Change and Continuity in Forest and Savannah — Oyo and Kongo Collapse, the Rise of Niger Delta Merchant-Kings, Tio Trader-Chiefs on the Congo,…

19th Century: (Change and Continuity in Forest and Savannah — Oyo and Kongo Collapse, the Rise of Niger Delta Merchant-Kings, Tio Trader-Chiefs on the Congo, and the Survival of Dahomey and Asante Through Proto-National Identity and Military Culture): Change took many forms during the gradual transition from one commercial era to the next. Large empires such as Oyo and Kongo collapsed — though only partly as the result of explicitly commercial change — while new states and communities came to prominence in the coastal forest and savannah zones. The small trading states of the Niger Delta saw the emergence of powerful merchants as hereditary kings, while among the Tio traders on the Congo River, kingship became largely ceremonial as real power passed to local merchant-chiefs. Centralized states such as Dahomey and Asante, however, survived through the nineteenth century and to some degree beyond — proto-national identities, potent military cultures, and monarchical systems of government strove to adapt in the face of threats both local and foreign.