After this, Agaja attempted to control the new territory of the kingdom of Dahomey through militarily suppressing revolts and creating administrative and ceremonial systems.

The motivations of Agaja and his involvement with the slave trade remain an active dispute among historians of Dahomey with some arguing that he was resistant to the slave trade but agreed to it because of the need to defend his kingdom, while others argue that no such motivation existed and the wars against Allada and Whydah were simply for economic control.

Akaba died during a war in the Ouémé River valley and since his oldest son, Agbo Sassa, was a minor, his twin sister Hangbe may have ruled for a brief period of time (alternatively given as either three months or three years).

[6] Hangbe supported a faction that wanted Agbo Sassa to be the next king, but Agaja contested this and became the ruler in 1718 after a brief, violent struggle.

Upon coming to the throne, Agaja and Soso made an agreement to attack Whydah and remove Huffon from power; however, this plan was halted for unknown reasons.

He also sent a letter to all of the European traders in the port of Whydah encouraging them to remain neutral in the conflict, in return for which he would provide favorable trade relations at the conclusion of the war.

As part of a strategy, Agaja buried his treasure, burned food resources, and made all the residents of Abomey abandon the city.

[16] The 1730 invasion was particularly devastating as the Oyo feigned acceptance of gifts from Agaja but then ambushed Dahomey's forces when they returned to Abomey.

[27] This royal monopoly led to some revolts by important chiefs who were not receiving full prices for their goods and Agaja crushed multiple rebellions between 1733 and 1740.

[26] One important contact began in 1726 when Agaja sent Bulfinch Lambe (a British trader captured in the 1724 attack on Godomey) and a Dahomey ambassador known as Adomo Tomo or Captain Tom on a mission to Britain.

Lambe and Tomo carried a letter claimed to be from Agaja and received an audience with King George II.

Complicating attempts to discern motivation is that Agaja's administration ended by creating a significant infrastructure for the slave trade and participated actively in it during the last few years of his reign.

[27] The debate over Agaja's motivations goes back to John Atkins' 1735 publication of A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies.

In that book, Atkins argued that Allada and Whydah were known for regular slave raiding on the Abomey plateau and that Agaja's attacks on those kingdoms were primarily to release some of his people who had been captured.

He writes: He noted that by converting his army from bows and arrows to guns, he needed a steady supply of gunpowder from the Europeans.

The cowry shells for the common people, like the silk cloth for the royal wives and the gunpowder for the army, could be obtained only through the slave trade.

He argued that Agaja took over the coastal cities to secure access to European firearms to protect the Fon from slave raiding.

He writes: Dahomey emerged "at the beginning of the seventeenth century, or about 1625, when the Fon people of the country behind the Slave Coast drew together in self-defense against the slave-raiding of their eastern neighbor, the Yoruba of Oyo.

And these it could obtain only by trade with Ardra [Allada] and Ouidah [Whydah] -- and, of course, only in exchange for slaves...In the end, Dahomey found their exactions intolerable.

Akinjogbin has pushed the argument the farthest arguing that Agaja's primary motivation was to end the slave trade in the region.

The Bulfinch Lambe letter plays a prominent role in Akinjogbin's analysis as a declaration of Agaja's willingness to stop the slave trade.

Akinjogbin writes: It immediately becomes clear that Agaja had very little sympathy for the slave trade when he invaded the Aja coast [Allada and Whydah].

His first motive appears to have been to sweep away the traditional political system, which had completely broken down and was no longer capable of providing basic security and justice...The second motive would appear to have been to restrict and eventually stop the slave trade, which had been the cause of the breakdown of the traditional system in Aja, and to substitute other 'legitimate' items of trade between Europe and the new kingdom of Dahomey.

[42] Instead, they argue that the evidence supports Agaja trying to get involved in the slave trade but being unable to do so because of war with the exiled royal family of Whydah and the Oyo Empire.

They write: Agaja's actions, insofar as we know them, suggest a willingness to participate in the external trade—be it slaves, goods, or gold—in a way that suited the perceived needs of Dahomey.

[43]Edna Bay assesses the debate by writing: Though the possibility that an African monarch tried to put an end to the slave trade is obviously attractive in the twentieth century, historians who have closely considered the evidence from Dahomey suggest, as did the eighteenth-century slave traders, that Dahomey's motive was a desire to trade directly with Europe, and that the kingdom was willing to provide the product most desired by European traders, human beings.

However, both Atkin's idea that Dahomey wanted to stop raids on its own people and the argument that the Dahomeans were seeking direct overseas commerce in slaves are conceivable.

Multiple histories account that Agaja did have armed female bodyguards in his palace and that he did dress women in armor in order to attack Whydah in 1728; however, historian Stanley Alpern believes that the Amazons were not likely fully organized during his reign.