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factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria

Political opposition to colonial rule often assumed religious dimensions. Africans come from Africa. Africans also were represented on the Lagos Legislative Council, a largely appointed assembly. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria Hon. Therefore, other factors exist to explain the institutional design. 11 Effects Of Colonialism In Nigeria - Information Guide in Nigeria In the face of threats to the divided Yoruba states from Dahomey and the Sokoto Caliphate, as represented by the emirate of Ilorin, the British Governorassisted by the CMSsucceeded in imposing peace settlements on the interior. What are the Factors which facilitated the rise of Colonialism? [78], After establishing political control of the country, the British implemented a system of taxation in order to force the indigenous Africans to shift from subsistence farming to wage labour. Order. British colonialism led to the spread of the English language in Africa, and many former British colonies still maintain English as an official language. By 18261850, the British Royal Navy was intervening significantly with Lagos slave exports. The classic example in English history was the victory of the Parliament over the king. All the territories were now under British control, and the search for an identity began, first as Northern and Southern Nigeria and then with eventual amalgamation. The British were not yet willing to assume the expense of maintaining an administration in Nigeria. The election of the House of Representatives after the adoption of the 1954 constitution gave the NPC a total of seventy-nine seats, all from the Northern Region. Three years later internal divisions arose that was dominated by major ethnic loyalties. Egypt) and titles (e.g. Balewa was called on to head an NPC-NCNC coalition government, and Awolowo became the official leader of the opposition. Direct taxation on men was introduced in 1928 without major incidents. [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. it was on that faithful day, 1 st January 1914 that the 1833 - The abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. The influence of Christianity and the establishment of schools made the nationalists realize that after all God created everyman equal . [59], Following the order recommended by the Niger Committee, the Colonial Office merged Lagos Colony and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate on 1 May 1906, forming a larger protectorate (still called the Southern Nigeria Protectorate) which spanned the coastline between Dahomey and Cameroon. "Specifically, the Company sought to secure the cooperation of the traditional rulers in ensuring peaceful conditions for trade. He insisted on maintaining the territorial integrity of the Northern Region. [38][39], In 1892 the British Armed Forces set out to fight the Ijebu Kingdom, which had resisted missionaries and foreign traders. Northern leaders committed to modernization were also firmly connected to the traditional power structure. Facebook Instagram Email. British staffs in each region continued to operate according to procedures developed before unification. Ethnic and kinship organisations that often took the form of a tribal union also emerged in the 1920s. It was British colonialism which was the ultimate cause of the war . The Southern Protectorate financed itself from the outset, with revenue increasing from 361,815 to 1,933,235 over the same period. As a protectorate, it did not have the status of a colony, so its officials were appointed by the Foreign Office and not by the Colonial Office. 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. "The agents performed similar but more expansive roles as their Company counterparts. The early Nigerian nationalist did not seek independence. Despite the acceptance of European and North American influences, the nationalists were critical of colonialism for its failure to appreciate the antiquity, richness and complexity of indigenous cultures. This became the Lagos Constabulary, and subsequently the Nigerian Police Force. The British and the French fought the Carnatic Wars, which the British won decisively - making the British the foremost colonial power. They never were able to elect sizeable legislative delegations, but they served as a means of public expression for minority concerns. A chief of Bonny in 1860 explained that he refused a British treaty due to the tendency to "induce the Chiefs to sign a treaty whose meaning they did not understand, and then seize upon the country".[14]. Open Document. How Britain Conquered And Created Nigeria - Politics - Nigeria - Nairaland 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. It was replaced by a new coalition government led by David Lloyd George featuring Conservatives and Lloyd George's supporters in the Liberal Party, while Asquith and the remainder of the Liberals entered opposition.[69]. The introduction of the federal principle, with deliberative authority devolved on the regions, signalled recognition of the country's diversity. The conference drafted the terms of a new constitution. 0 Wishlist. [49], Concrete plans for transition to Crown ruledirect control by the British Governmentapparently began in 1897. [75] The colonial government was not equipped nor ready in general for such a situation. The British finalized the border between Nigeria and French West Africa with the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. Under Lugard from 1900 to 1906, the Protectorate consolidated political control over the area through military conquest and initiated the use of British currency in substitute for barter. [76], The British treasury initially supported the landlocked Northern Nigeria Protectorate with grants, totalling 250,000 or more each year. How did use of enslaved African people for labour develop? The conquest was personal to William. By extending the elective principle and by providing for a central government with a Council of Ministers, the Macpherson Constitution gave renewed impetus to party activity and to political participation at the national level. For this objective, the Company chose to administer the African inhabitants of the Niger Sudan through their traditional rulers and their political institutions. The NPC continued to represent the interests of the traditional order in the pre-independence deliberations. The conquest and colonization of the Nigerian territory stirring up nationalist sentiments among the few educated elements mostly foreign educated Africans and liberated slaves, and later African students in Britain. A lack of interest in extending the NPC beyond the Northern Region corresponded to this strictly regional orientation. Nigerian recruits participated in the war effort as labourers and soldiers. (Specifically it would enable direct subsidy of the less profitable Northern jurisdiction.) 3. Individuals could be fined or jailed for refusing to comply.[12]. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria. In 1850, the British created a "Court of Equity" at Bonny, overseen by Beecroft, which would deal with trade disputes. Its effects are still widely felt up till today. [81] In 1936, of 6,259,547 income for the Nigerian state, 1,156,000 went back to England as home pay for British officials in the Nigerian civil service. The boundaries of the two protectorates and the territories of the Royal Niger Company were difficult to define, but the tension was eased in 1894 when both entities were merged into the Niger Coast Protectorate. FACTORS THAT LED TO NATIONALISM IN NIGERIA. [56], Walter Egerton's sixfold agenda for 1908, as detailed on 29 November 1907, in a telegram to the Colonial Office, is representative of British priorities. Events Leading to the Scramble for Africa - ThoughtCo It soon gained a virtual monopoly over trade along the River[11]. Harding, director of Nigerian affairs at the Colonial Office, defined the official position of the British Government in support of indirect rule when he said that "direct government by impartial and honest men of alien race [] never yet satisfied a nation long and [] under such a form of government, as wealth and education increase, so do political discontent and sedition". Additionally. David Ellis, "African and European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. The Reconquista, or reconquest, refers to the 800 years of violence and expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula after the failed Crusades. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria [73] The spread of the disease was quick and deadly, with an estimated 1.5% of the population of Lagos falling victim. Ethnic cleavages intensified in the 1950s. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. The palm oil trade was also linked to the Sokoto jihad and the Yoruba wars, because many warriors recognized the importance of slaves not only as soldiers and producers of food to feed soldiers but additionally as producers of palm oil to trade for European dane guns and other goods. In the 1850s, quinine had been found to combat malaria, and aided by the medicine, a Liverpool merchant, Macgregor Laird, opened the river. Motivation for European conquest of the New World THE FULANI CONQUEST AND RULE OF THE HAUSA KINGDOM 235 from 1804, the date of the Hegira. Sir Richmond Palmer, acting as Lieutenant Governor in the North, disagreed with Clifford and advocated the principles of Lugard and further decentralisation. The French had abolished slavery following the French Revolution, although it briefly re-established it in its Caribbean colonies under Napoleon. Hausa was recognised as an official language in the north, and knowledge of it was expected of colonial officers serving there. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but were responsible to British district officers, who had final authority. Unification meant only the loose affiliation of three distinct regional administrations into which Nigeria was subdividedNorthern, Western and Eastern regions. Although he reported on the eastward flow of the Niger, he was forced to turn back when his equipment was lost to Muslim Arab slave traders. Thanks to this skewed writing of history, many Nigerians today still have Empire nostalgia and view the colonial period through rose-tinted . [32], In 1880, the British Government and traders demonetised the Maria Theresa dollar, to the considerable dismay of its local holders, in favour of the pound sterling. The history of external colonisation of Africa can be divided into two stages: Classical antiquity and European colonialism. A consul was maintained at Fernando Po to oversee the lucrative palm oil trade in the region called the Oil Rivers. The company received 865,000 compensation for the loss of its Charter. Missionary forces demanded prohibition of liquor, which proved highly unpopular. Read suggested they be merged, and more use made of Nigeria's natural resources. 12 tribes of israel family tree; why did poseidon often adopt the shape of a steed. 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. What Britain Did to Nigeria - Max Siollun - Oxford University Press [82], Oil exploration began in 1906 under John Simon Bergheim's Nigeria Bitumen Corporation, to which the Colonial Office granted exclusive rights. Independent Christian churches had emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. Borno capitulated without a fight, but in 1903 Lugard's RWAFF mounted assaults on Kano and Sokoto. British are not always carriers of high economic freedom (see Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, and Nigeria). The colonial economic policies in Nigeria, for instance, discouraged indigenous industrialization, but promoted export crop and mineral production to feed the British factories. "Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund, 19401947: 'The Responsibility of the Nigerian Government to Provide Funds for the Welfare of Its Soldiers'. 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. His objective was to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. The Northern People's Congress (NPC) was organised in the late 1940s by a small group of Western-educated Northern Nigerians. Davies and Nnamdi Azikiwe. He aroused political awareness through his newspaper, the Lagos Daily News. 1. We also understand that the said National African Company (limited) have full power to mine, farm, and build in any portion of our territory. To some extent, competition amongst these companies undermined their collective position vis--vis, local merchants. Azikiwe had less interest in purely Nigerian goals than did Davies, a student of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, whose political orientation was considered left-wing. [73], Due to the failure of the sanitation officers in Lagos, the virus would continue to spread throughout the southern provinces throughout September and finally make its way into the hinterlands by October. [29] His servant, Richard Lander, and Lander's brother John were the ones to demonstrate that the Niger flowed into the sea. Protestant sects had flourished in Christianity since the Protestant Reformation; the emergence of independent Christian churches in Nigeria (as of black denominations in the United States) was another phase of this history. Macbeth) in the essay title portion of your citation. The NPC federal parliamentary leader, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was appointed Prime Minister of Nigeria. During the war, the colonial government earmarked a large portion of the Nigerian budget as a contribution to imperial defence. The first known encounter between the British and the people of the region of modern-day Nigeria was on April 1, 1600, when English sailors landed on the Niger River near Katsina, the largest city in northern Nigeria. [67], This system, in which the structure of authority focused on the emir to whom obedience was a mark of religious devotion, did not welcome change. In the south the British had to fight many wars, in particular the wars against the Ijebu (a Yoruba group) in 1892, the Aro of eastern Igboland, and, until 1914, the Aniocha of western Igboland. In the early stages of British rule, it is desirable to retain the native authority and to work through and by the native emirs. Wartime experiences provided a new frame of reference for many soldiers, who interacted across ethnic boundaries in ways that were unusual in Nigeria. [45], A campaign against the Sokoto Caliphate began in 1900 with the creation of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, under the direction of Governor Lugard. [53] The first five heads of the Nigeria Department (18981914) were Reginald Antrobus, William Mercer, William Baillie Hamilton, Sydney Olivier, and Charles Strachey. Lugard bequeathed to his successor a prosperous colony when his term as Governor-General expired. In the Eastern Region, appointed officials who were given "warrants" and hence called warrant chiefs, were strongly resisted by the people because they lacked traditional claims. In 1851 deposed king Akintoye of Lagos sought British help in restoring him to the throne. The British Conquest and Resistance of Sokoto Caliphate, 18971903 After the defection of Kano, the only significant disagreement within the NPC was related to moderates. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it ended slavery in its possessions. Regional administrations also varied widely in the quality of local personnel and in the scope of the operations they were willing to undertake. Other Protestant denominations from Great Britain, Canada, and the United States also opened missions and, in the 1860s, Roman Catholic religious orders established missions. In 1920, portions of former German Cameroon were mandated to Britain by the League of Nations and were administered as part of Nigeria. Durres Port. [19] Although the Ijebu had some weapons they were wiped out by British Maxims, the earliest machine gun. Indeed it was these developments in the history of Kano that transformed the political outlook of the people. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria In the late 19th and early 20th century, Europeans had raced to colonize the country Africa. The delta masked the mouth of the great river, and for centuries Nigerians chose not to tell Europeans the secrets of the interior. 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. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeriaannalise mahanes height. Motivations for Colonization - National Geographic Society If adopted, his proposals can hardly be a permanent solution and I gather that Sir F. Lugard only regards them as temporaryat any rate in part. But by providing for comparable regional governments exercising broad legislative powers, which could not be overridden by the newly established 185-seat federal House of Representatives, the Macpherson Constitution also gave a significant boost to regionalism. Total revenues of central and regional governments nearly doubled in relation to the gross domestic product during the decade. factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria The company interfered in the territory along the Niger and the Benue, sometimes becoming embroiled in serious conflicts when its British-led native constabulary intercepted slave raids or attempted to protect trade routes. Every Sultan and Emir and the principal officers of state will be appointed by the high Commissioner throughout all this country. He used for the first time in Nigeria modern, sometimes flamboyant, electioneering techniques. The traders suffered from the risks of their position and believed they were at the mercy of the coastal rulers, whom they considered unpredictable. In the meantime, public sector spending increased even more dramatically than export earnings. In some cases, British assignment of people to ethnic groups, and treatment based along ethnic lines, led to identification with ethnicity where none had existed before.[84]. [61] John Anderson diplomatically suggested: If it is the necessity for formally submitting the drafts that hurts Sir F. Lugard, I should be quite prepared to omit that provision provided that the period of publication of the draft prior to enactment is extended from one month to two. Although lacking Azikiwe's compelling personality, Awolowo was a formidable debater as well as a vigorous and tenacious political campaigner. Far from that, NEPU political struggles transformed the Nigerian Independence struggle from the fight against the British to a fight against both the British and the local agents of the British (the Aristocracy). The influx of cowrie led to inflation. The principal commodities of legitimate trade were palm oil and palm kernels, which were used in Europe to make soap and as lubricants for machinery before petroleum products were developed for that purpose. 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. 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.

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factors that led to the british conquest of nigeria