Ewuare

Timeline

1. c. 1430–1440Benin City · Edo StateAfter Ogun and his brother Uwaifiokun were driven from the capital, oral tradition holds that Uwaifiokun was first enthroned as Oba. With aid from market women such as Emotan, Ogun returned during a festival, assassinated his brother, set fires to punish the capital, then ascended the throne and took the name Ewuare.
2. c. 1440–1450Benin City · Edo StateAfter accession he massively rebuilt the palace, demarcated the palace quarter Ogbe and the town quarter Ore-Node, and extended the inner walls and moats. Archaeological evidence supports the tradition of a 15th-century rebuilding of the capital. This project forms the core memory of his 'Great' epithet and falls within the 1401–1450 window.
3. c. 1440–1473Benin City · Edo StateHe reorganized the two sets of offices, town chiefs and palace chiefs, weakened the hereditary Uzama's elective power, and brought the heir apparent into the Uzama ranks with the title Edaiken, promoting father-to-son succession. The palace was divided into departments for dress, attendants, and the harem; children of free men entered palace service, and royal power became more concentrated than in previous reigns.
4. c. 1445–1473Kingdom of Benin and its surroundings · Niger DeltaOral tradition records the capture of some two hundred towns and villages, compelling Ekiti, Owo, Akure, and others to pay tribute, with direct rule mostly limited to within tens of miles of the capital. Meanwhile the Igue festival, coral beads, and Olukun legends reinforced sacred kingship, and the status of court carvers and bronze-casting guilds rose. His expansionary peak from the 1440s onward intersects this database's time window.