factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria

In the name of liberating the Igbos from the Aro Confederacy, the British launched the Anglo-Aro War of 19011902. The influence of Christianity and the establishment of schools made the nationalists realize that after all God created everyman equal . It represented a substantial element of reformism in the North. In 1920, portions of former German Cameroon were mandated to Britain by the League of Nations and were administered as part of Nigeria. He insisted on maintaining the territorial integrity of the Northern Region. Three of these posts were assigned to representatives from each region, and one was reserved for a delegate from the Northern Cameroons. The Royal Niger Company established its headquarters far inland at Lokoja, which was the main trading port of the company,[34] from where it began to assume responsibility for the administration of areas along the Niger and Benue rivers where it maintained depots. Its program reflected greater planning and was more ideologically oriented than that of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. The trend was toward the establishment of a parliamentary system of government, with regional assemblies and a federal House of Representatives. Most of the fighting was done by Hausa soldiers, recruited to fight against other groups. It backed Yoruba irredentism in the Fulani-ruled emirate of Ilorin in the Northern Region, and separatist movements among non-Igbo in the Eastern Region. The transfer of responsibility for budgetary management from the central to the regional governments in 1954 accelerated the pace of public spending on services and on development projects. The Crusades and the Reconquista cemented religious intolerance, and the Christians looked to colonization partly as a means of continuing religious conquests. Bello wanted to protect northern social and political institutions from southern influence. [21], Whether British conquest of Nigeria resulted from a benevolent motive to end slavery or more instrumental motives of wealth and power, remains a topic of dispute between African and European historians. In the long term, the acceptance of Christianity by large numbers of Nigerians depended on the various denominations adapting to local conditions. By 1903 the conquest of the emirates was complete. One of the most effective tactics, the British used to take over most of India. . Agents also collected intelligence for the colonial officials; they gathered information on public opinion and the military resources of the local polities; they also spied on rival colonial forces in foreign territories. A "house" included the extended family of the trader, including retainers and slaves. Lagos was the first part of Nigeria to be conquered and declare a British colony in 1861. In the south, by contrast, traditional rulers were employed as vehicles of indirect rule in Edoland and Yorubaland, but Christianity and Western education undermined their sacerdotal functions. Consequently, in 1849, John Beecroft was accredited as consul for the bights of Benin and Biafra, a jurisdiction stretching from Dahomey to Cameroon. Du Bois. Dike, K. O. Otherwise, the Governor-General's office was essentially ceremonial. Islam reached Nigeria through the Bornu Empire . These courts contained majorities British members and represented a new level of presumptive British sovereignty in the Bight of Biafra. The so-called Macpherson Constitution, after the incumbent Governor-General John Stuart Macpherson, went into effect the following year. Whereas Lugard had applied lessons learned in the north to the administration of the south, Clifford was prepared to extend to the north practices that had been successful in the south. Lugard's governmental model for Nigeria was unique and there was apparently not much planning for its future development. The racial discriminatory tendencies of the Europeans to Nigerians. [19][41], In 18961897 the forces of the Niger Coast Protectorate fought with the remnants of the Edo Empire. As its head, the master trader taxed other traders who were members of his "house"; he maintained a war vessel, a large dugout canoe that could hold several tons of cargo and dozens of crew, for the defense of the harbor. Significantly, Macauley's NNDP remained almost entirely a Lagos party, popular only in the area whose people already had experience in elective politics. prince edward island newspapers online; how to clean a wavy turban shell; flip or flop nashville house locations; sunrise growers diced strawberry cup nutrition facts; factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria. Its effects are still widely felt up till today. [82], Oil exploration began in 1906 under John Simon Bergheim's Nigeria Bitumen Corporation, to which the Colonial Office granted exclusive rights. Local rulers continued to administer their territories, but consular authorities assumed jurisdiction for the equity courts established earlier by the foreign mercantile communities. Elections were held for a new and greatly enlarged House of Representatives in December 1959; 174 of the 312 seats were allocated to the Northern Region on the basis of its larger population. The Treasury used a planned budget for payment of staff and development of public works projects, and therefore could not be spent at the discretion of the local traditional ruler. The similarity between the federal and regional constitutions was deceptive, however, and the conduct of public affairs reflected wide differences among the regions. Developed from Mayan civilization B. acquired empires by means of military conquest C. Independently developed iron technology D. Depended entirely on oral record keeping . [13], The Colonial Office accepted Lugard's proposal that the Governor would not be required to stay in-country full-time; consequently, as Governor, Lugard spent four months out of the year in London. Doctrine of Lapse. At the turn of the century, top wages were four bags of salt (company retail price, 3s 9d) for a month of work. The Governor-General, in turn, was responsible for appointing the prime minister and for choosing a candidate from among contending leaders when there was no parliamentary majority. Out of reverence for traditional kingship, for instance, the Oba of Benin, whose office was closely identified with Edo religion, was accepted as the sponsor of a Yoruba political movement. The movement brought to public notice a long list of future leaders, including H.O. [23] Regardless, slavery had decimated the population and fuelled militarisation and chaos, thereby paving the way for more aggressive colonisation.[21][24]. Even before gaining its charter, the Company signed treaties with local leaders which granted it broad sovereign powers. In 1841 the British tried to settle some Egba on a model farm in Lokoja, but the plan was aborted because the mortality rate among European officials was so high. Laird's efforts were stimulated by the detailed reports of a pioneer German explorer, Heinrich Barth, who travelled through much of Borno and the Sokoto Caliphate, where he recorded information about the region's geography, economy and inhabitants. The High Commissioner will be guided by all the usual laws of succession and the wishes of the people and chief but will set them aside if he desires for good cause to do so. A third of the people associated with an 1842 riverine expedition died. The Mad Rush Into Africa in the Early 1880s Within just 20 years, the political face of Africa had changed, with only Liberia (a colony run by formerly enslaved African Americans) and Ethiopia remaining free of European control . Separate legislative bodies, the houses of assembly, were established in each of the three regions to consider local questions and to advise the Lieutenant Governors. In 1890, a group of adventurers known as the Pioneer Column, sponsored by South African-based British arch-imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, occupied Zimbabwe and claimed the country for the British. [73] An estimated 500,000 Nigerians would lose their lives due to the pandemic, severely decreasing production capabilities on Nigerian farms and plantations. [11], By the 1880s, the National African Company became the dominant commercial power, increasing from 19 to 39 stations between 1882 and 1893. David Ellis, "African and European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. So, how did Europeans end up in Africa? Officials of the Sokoto Caliphate considered these treaties quite differently; from their perspective, the British were granted only extraterritorial rights that did not prevent similar arrangements with the Germans and the French and certainly did not surrender sovereignty. The Resident also oversaw a Provincial Court at the region's capital. At first, the trade centered around West Central Africa, now the Congo. The most striking departure was in the Northern Region, where special provisions brought the regional constitution into consonance with Islamic law and custom. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from. It is not a federal state with federal Executive, Legislature and finances, like the Leewards. Clifford emphasized economic development, encouraging enterprises by immigrant southerners in the north while restricting European participation to capital intensive activity. That's human geography 101. The superior weapons, tactics and political unity of the British are commonly given as reasons for their decisive . Antrobus, Fiddes and Strachey in the Colonial Office promoted amalgamation, along with Lugard. by How Africa 6 years ago. There were three main factors that contributed to the European colonization Africa which were, political, social, and economic. The influx of cowrie led to inflation. [54] Olivier was a member of the Fabian Society and a friend of George Bernard Shaw. In large measure, European missionaries assumed the value of colonial rule in terms of promoting education, health and welfare measures, thereby effectively reinforcing colonial policy. In-text citation: The Anglicans and other religious groups had a conscious "native church" policy to develop indigenous ecclesiastical institutions to become independent of Europeans. [46] Lugard was slow to describe these excursions to the Colonial Office, which apparently learned of preparations to attack Kano from the newspapers in December 1902. In 1894 the territory was redesignated the Niger Coast Protectorate and was expanded to include the region from Calabar to Lagos Colony and Protectorate, including the hinterland, and northward up the Niger River as far as Lokoja, the headquarters of the Royal Niger Company. Beecroft was the British representative to Fernando Po, where the African Slave Trade Patrol of the Royal Navy was stationed. Their common denominators tended to be based on newly assertive ethnic consciousness, particularly that of the Yoruba and Igbo. [55], Under the Colonial Office was the Governor, who managed the administration of his colony and held powers of emergency rule. At the same time it is feasible by degrees to bring them gradually into approximation with our ideas of justice and humanity. Both claimed in 1908; territories formed in 1962 (British Antarctic Territory) and 1985 (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands). A consul was maintained at Fernando Po to oversee the lucrative palm oil trade in the region called the Oil Rivers. The British Conquest of Nigeria From about the mid nineteenth century, the British began to alter the nature of their relationship between themselves and Nigerians. [27] To produce all this oil, the economy of the southern region crossed over from mostly subsistence to the production of palm oil as a cash crop.[28]. In a sense, you can say that the British were the cause of the Biafran Civil War which happened in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970. He was prepared to introduce educational and economic changes to strengthen the north. By 1919 the National Council of British West Africa, an organization consisting of elites across West Africa, was demanding that half the members of the Legislative Council be Africans; they also wanted a university in West Africa and more senior positions for Africans in the colonial civil service. The goal of activists initially was not self-determination, but increased participation on a regional level in the governmental process. As a further step toward independence, the Governor's Executive Council was merged with the Council of Ministers in 1957 to form the all-Nigerian Federal Executive Council. In the north, for instance, legislation took the form of a decree cosigned by the Governor and the emir, while in the south, the Governor sought the approval of the Legislative Council. Among his leading lieutenants were Samuel Akintola of Ogbomoso and the Oni of Ife, the most important of the Yoruba monarchs. The British turned to Persia for oil.[83]. The proliferation of labour organisations fragmented the movement, and potential leaders lacked the experience and skill to draw workers together. The Native Administration was headed by the traditional rulersmostly emirs in the north and often obas in the southand their District Heads, who oversaw a larger number of Village Heads. [31], In 1891, the consulate established the Niger Coast Protectorate Force or "Oil Rivers Irregulars".[32]. Alienated by the anonymity of the urban environment and drawn together by ties to their ethnic homelandsas well as by the need for mutual aidthe new city dwellers formed local clubs that later expanded into federations covering whole regions. The early Nigerian nationalist did not seek independence. [59], Lugard advocated constantly for the unification of the whole territory, and in August 1911 the Colonial Office asked Lugard to lead the amalgamated colony.[60]. Nigerian units also contributed to two divisions serving with British forces in Palestine, Morocco, Sicily and Burma, where they won many honours. In German East Africa, Britain took over Tangayika while Ruanda-Urundi possessions were given to Belgium. The principal figure in the political activity that ensued was Herbert Macauley, often referred to as the father of Nigerian nationalism. sutton united average attendance; granville woods most famous invention; alcoa utilities power outage; "Specifically, the Company sought to secure the cooperation of the traditional rulers in ensuring peaceful conditions for trade. The Delta streams were called "oil rivers". The war years brought a polarization between the older, more parochial leaders inclined toward gradualism and the younger intellectuals, who thought in more immediate terms. In the north, the emirs intended to maintain firm control on economic and political change. How did use of enslaved African people for labour develop? Europeans come from Europe. The war also made the British reappraise Nigeria's political future. Free shipping for many products! Britain also encouraged the formation of the Muslim League of India in 1907. He was aware that the Muslim north would present problems, but he had hopes for progress along the lines which he laid down in the south, where he anticipated "general emancipation" leading to a more representative form of government. British business interests wanted to use this to create a monopoly over the industry, but Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's Liberal government and subsequent war coalition favored allowing international free trade. The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country. Herbert Richmond Palmer developed details of this model from 1906 to 1911 as the Governor of Northern Nigeria after Lugard.[66].