Benin adopted Portuguese as a business language when dealing with other Europeans. Many Edo words, such as EKUYE (spoon), EKALAKA (glass) and ALIMO (orange), are derived from the Portuguese words Colher, Caneca and Limo.
As a result of this unification, some guilds and palace titles were established in Benin, such as IWEBO, EWUA, ARAGUA and OHUOBA. IDUNWUN EBO (European Quarter) was founded in 1486 for Portuguese missionaries and traders in Benin.
In the 17th century, the Dutch begin to occupy all the trading ports on the West African coast. This is a remarkable feat that they failed to achieve in the Benin Kingdom’s trading ports of GWATTO (Ughoton) and EKO (Lagos).
