Yoruba Kingdoms

The Yoruba are a people-group indigenous to West Africa, especially modern-day Nigeria. Their homeland combines vast coasts, powerful rivers, fertile lands, thick jungles, and vast savannahs. As such, the Yoruba developed several means of subsistence, but by the early modern period they were primarily sedentary. Remarkably large and bustling urban centers developed and served as foci of local and royal power. During the 17th-19th centuries, the Oyo Empire held sway over much of the region and exerted pressure on its neighbors in Benin and Dahomey. While the state benefited economically from trade with European merchants, its military, overconfident in its powerful forces of cavalry and infantry, delayed its widespread adoption of firearms until the 19th century. This, combined with civil unrest, made it susceptible to aggression from the rising Sokoto Caliphate. These Fulani invasions in turn opened the door for British invasions to easily overwhelm the region and hold it until 1960, when the Nigerian nation gained its independence.

From the game's History encyclopedia, AoE3: DE 100.19.18309.