It is a Parliamentary Democracy, with the head party, the Kuzirist Party (liberal social and economic views), having 201 out of 386 seats in the Parliament with the Prime Minister being Nla-Iso Obuhun-Emwinhiaye who was elected in 2013 for her first 10-year term. Being elected at the age of 35 (she was born in 1978), she is the youngest elected prime minister of Benin.
From 1041 AD - 1945 AD (until WW2), Benin was known as the Benin Empire. They didn’t have much contact with the West (trade excluded) until the 1700’s and 1800’s.
They were extremely advanced for a non-western civilisation, being as advanced as Europe in the 1850’s, with things like steam power, high literacy and education rates, and decent medicine for the time.
They even had their own measurement system. 1 hatte was equal to 1.33 millimeters, and 1 parme was equal to 10 hatte. For an engine, 1 abe was 13 horsepower.
Population: 162,358,145
Growth: 2.486 million people a year, most to all natural due to heavy immigration limits and Africa ITTL being much wealthier than IOTL
Fertility rate: 2.8
Largest ethnicity is the Edo people, with 139,679,786 people, 86% of the population
Median age: 34
Official Language is the Edo language
Area: 853,073 sq mi (2,209,450 sq km), 12th in area
Density: 190.32/sq mi (73.48/sq km)
HDI: 0.936 (on par with Germany)
Gini: 33.4
Life Expectancy: 85.3 for Women, 81.6 for men, meaning an average LE of 83.45
Currency: Tomnin, exchange rate is ₮1 = 0.792 USD. It is divided into 100
Minimum Wage: ₮20 ($15.84) an hour
Universal health care, education, and welfare which are all among the best in the world.
Gay marriage and abortion are legal in all states, and women have equal rights with men, with women gaining suffrage in 1890.
Member of the OECD
Wealth: $52.78 trillion, or $325,084 per capita
Government Budget: $4.656 trillion
Government Expenses: $4.635 trillion
Surplus: $21 billion
Trade:
Imports: $3.043 trillion
Exports: $3.345 trillion
Surplus: $302 billion
Debt: $7.439 trillion
Creditor nation, with a NIIP of $732.6 billion
Foreign Reserves: $577.5 billion
Capital is Nla-Odu (OTL Boromo):
Population: 7.8 million (2nd most populous city in Benin)
HDI: 0.973
GDP (nominal): $700 billion ($89,752 per capita)
Alpha city
Area: 750 sq km
Home to the Nla-Odu Stock Exchange, with a market capitalisation of $4.87 trillion
Despite not being as much of an economic giant that Edo is, Nla-Odu is still the 2nd richest city in Benin (1st richest per capita), and is still an important member of the global economy. It is a useful capital city as it is in the center of the nation, far away from the coast.
Minimum wage in Nla-Odu is about $40,315 a year due to higher incomes and prices than the national average
Largest city is Edo (OTL Benin City):
Population (metro): 37,125,512
HDI: 0.965
GDP (nominal): $2.517 trillion ($67,797 per capita)
Alpha ++ city
Population (city): 10,411,414
Home to the Edo Stock Exchange, which has a market capitalization of $14.836 trillion (2nd highest in the world).
Home to the world-famous Edo Salon, where intellectuals around the world gather.
Minimum wage in the city and metro is about $32,029 a year due to higher incomes and prices than the national average.
Poorest province is Dakar, with 1,615,385 million people, a HDI of 0.875, and a nominal GDP of $51.45 billion ($31,850 per capita). Despite being the least developed province in terms of HDI (on par with Estonia) and the poorest per capita as well (on par with Spain and South Korea), it is still a developed province and is a decent place to live in.
Richest Company: Hexiron, with total assets of $639.5 billion. It focuses on technology, mainly producing and exporting the latest tech.
Transportation:
Being one of the first countries to promote railway development, the train network, at 330,952 km, being the most dense railway network in the continent. Most of the rail network is used for merchandise or industrial freight.
Mass transit in the Empire is very important. A part of the domestic passenger transport needs are served by an extensive bus network with several dozen companies operating by regions and about 10 lines of High Speed Trains.. There also exists many interurban train passenger transportation between cities. Inner-city rail mass transit is available at most cities with the operation of the subway and in many cases high elevated train due the orography and climate; this makes Benin the country with the most cities with subway systems.
Kuzirism (https://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Kuzirism_(Principia_Moderni_IV_Map_Game)), being the main religion of the country (155,125,744 Beninese are Kuzirists) and the name of the head party in Parliament, still plays a large role in Beninese society. However, due to its liberal and progressive values, it doesn’t hinder the nation like extreme Christianity (abortion and stem cell bans in the US) or Islam (sexism, obsolete traditions) have done to other nations, instead encouraging science and progressive thought. Benin is one of the only countries where Kuzirism is the most-practiced religion, along with its former colonies of Sri Lanka and Hainan.
Sri Lanka was colonized in 1890, and was freed in 1945. It has 31,204,479 people (illegal immigrants from India are a huge issue), a HDI of 0.917, and a GDP of $1.118 trillion nominal ($35,814 per capita) and $1.213 trillion PPP ($38,851 per capita).
Hainan was taken from China in 1911 and was given independence in 2010 (instead of being given to China), and has 16.134 million people, a HDI of 0.910, and a GDP of $714.4 billion nominal ($43,714 per capita) and $742.107 trillion PPP ($45,409 per capita).
During WW2, Benin (which was a developed country) fought on the Axis side. They didn’t do this out of racism (despite being majority-Edo, Benin didn’t like racism and even protected its Jews, which is why today it has 153,000 Jews), but it was furious at the West for things like the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited Benin to 427,000 tons, 70% of what the US, Brazil, and UK were each allowed, and the Great Depression. Benin was the most liberal Axis member, being a liberal yet authoritarian nation. They were initially winning in Africa, smashing through Brazilian Africa and helping the Italians in Libya and Egypt. They were defeated in 1945 by Brazil and the US, surrendering on January 19, 1945 to prevent Edo and Nla-Olu from being taken. In the Treaty of Timbuktu, they agreed to pay some war reparations and install a democratic government.
After the war, the nation was in ruins. However, a democratic government which had many technocratic values helped fix the nation, causing it to experience an economic miracle until 1980. They rose to be almost on par with the US in wealth, and became a technology focused economy.
It was one of the only UN nations to support Israel, and they have helped Israel out in many wars. Today, Israel has no Palestinian conflict and UN condemnation, controls OTL Israel, Sinai, Gaza, and West Bank (not many Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza) has 13.43 million people, a HDI of 0.913, and a nominal GDP of $610.16 billion ($45,433 per capita).