[70], Lugard's immediate successor (19191925), Sir Hugh Clifford, was an aristocratic professional administrator with liberal instincts who had won recognition for his enlightened governorship of the Gold Coast in 19121919. It continued to enjoy special privileges and maintained a de facto monopoly over commerce. Nigeria is a country in West Africa and was colonized by the British in 1884 during a slave trade (Alme). The British finalized the border between Nigeria and French West Africa with the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. During World War II, three battalions of the Nigeria Regiment fought against Fascist Italy in the Ethiopian campaign. [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 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]. Uneasy with the amount of latitude allowed traditional rulers under indirect rule, Clifford opposed further extension of the judicial authority held by the northern emirs. In time, they built depots onshore and eventually moved up the Niger River to establish stations in the interior. In April 1927, the British colonial government in Nigeria took measures to enforce the Native Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance. The NPC was called on to form a government, but the NCNC received six of the ten ministerial posts. The impact of colonialism in Nigeria could be discussed under political, economic, social, educational and religious aspects. Alan Lennox-Boyd, M.P., the British Secretary of State for the Colonies. [76], The British treasury initially supported the landlocked Northern Nigeria Protectorate with grants, totalling 250,000 or more each year. By the 1820s, the British had made connections . Gandhi. [64], Each region also had a Native Administration, staffed by locals, and possessing a Native Treasury. His political platform called for economic and educational development, Africanization of the civil service, and self-government for Lagos. The Royal Niger Company had its own armed forces. The British entry into World War I saw the confiscation of Nigerian palm oil firms operated by expatriates from the Central Powers. In addition to their economic grievances, they also called for the end of the reform of the native courts. By. Another court was established in 1856 at Calabar, based on an agreement with local Efik traders which prohibited them from interfering with British merchants. Davies and Nnamdi Azikiwe. Unification meant only the loose affiliation of three distinct regional administrations into which Nigeria was subdividedNorthern, Western and Eastern regions. In 1944 Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo who had been educated in the United States, united more than 40 different groups to establish the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). The pace of constitutional change accelerated after the promulgation of the Richards Constitution. Nigeria did not come into being until 1914, when the consort of a colonial Governor-General, Flora Shaw and her man, the fascist Lord Lugard willed and named Nigeria into being, with the dubious . Accordingly, as the volume of trade increased, merchants requested that the Government of the United Kingdom appoint a consul to cover the region. The National Youth Movement used nationalist rhetoric to agitate for improvements in education. The appointment of Joseph Chamberlain as colonial secretary in 1895 especially marked a shift towards new territorial ambitions of the British Empire. Subsequent revisions contained in the Lyttleton Constitution, enacted in 1954, firmly established the federal principle and paved the way for independence. The southern protectorate was divided into two provinces in 1939Western and Easternand in 1954 they, along with the northern protectorate, were renamed the Western, Eastern, and Northern regions as part of Nigerias reconstruction into a federal state. 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]. (Specifically it would enable direct subsidy of the less profitable Northern jurisdiction.) 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. [73] An estimated 500,000 Nigerians would lose their lives due to the pandemic, severely decreasing production capabilities on Nigerian farms and plantations. Others refused recruitment into colonial armies or labor forces.Jun 20 2017. It is not a unitary state with local government areas but with one Central Executive and one Legislature. 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. The French had abolished slavery following the French Revolution, although it briefly re-established it in its Caribbean colonies under Napoleon. Early British Imperialism. Sir Richmond Palmer, acting as Lieutenant Governor in the North, disagreed with Clifford and advocated the principles of Lugard and further decentralisation. In 1920, portions of former German Cameroon were mandated to Britain by the League of Nations and were administered as part of Nigeria. [18], In 1807, the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the Slave Trade Act, prohibiting British subjects from participating in the Atlantic slave trade. Du Bois. Britain withdrew from the slave trade when it was the major transporter of slaves to the Americas. The delta masked the mouth of the great river, and for centuries Nigerians chose not to tell Europeans the secrets of the interior. Other European powers acknowledged Britain's dominance over the area in the 1885 Berlin Conference. The British Culture in Nigeria. Demanding immediate self-government, the Action Group was opposed by the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), which was composed largely of northerners and headed by several leaders, including Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Most Europeans tended to overlook their own differences and were surprised and shocked that Nigerians wanted to develop new denominations independent of European control. ", Tamuno, T. N. (1970). From 1790 to 1807, predominantly British slave traders purchased 1,0002,000 slaves each year in Lagos alone. (This was also reflective of growing pan-Africanism among American activists of the time.) Other firms applying for licenses were rejected. Joining the Royal Niger Company in 1894, Lugard was sent to Borgu to counter inroads made by the French, and in 1897 he was made responsible for raising the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) from local levies to serve under British officers. Although this trade grew to significant proportionspalm oil exports alone were worth 1 billion a year by 1840it was concentrated near the coast, where palm trees grew in abundance. France sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, the same year that it gave up on trying to regain Saint-Domingue from the Haitian Revolution. Otherwise, the Governor-General's office was essentially ceremonial. [75] The colonial government was not equipped nor ready in general for such a situation. Introduction. Chapter 2 argues that following the transformation of the Northern Nigerian region by the Sokoto Jihad in the nineteenth century, Islamic structures provided the crucial structural and ideological frameworks on which the British colonial administrative system was rationalized in the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in the first half of the twentieth century. Individuals could be fined or jailed for refusing to comply.[12]. [19], West Africa also bought British exports, supplying 3040% of the demand for British cotton during the Industrial Revolution of 17501790.[27]. Borno capitulated without a fight, but in 1903 Lugard's RWAFF mounted assaults on Kano and Sokoto. Herbert Richmond Palmer developed details of this model from 1906 to 1911 as the Governor of Northern Nigeria after Lugard.[66]. The Lander brothers were seized by slave traders in the interior and sold down the river to a waiting European ship. The nationalism that became a political factor in Nigeria during the interwar period derived both from an older political particularism and broad pan-Africanism, rather than from any sense among the people of a common Nigerian nationality. The Anglicans and other religious groups had a conscious "native church" policy to develop indigenous ecclesiastical institutions to become independent of Europeans. It was a resistance movement whereby women in the Eastern Provinces of the British colony of Nigeria intended to reverse colonial policies that intruded on their political, economic, and social participation in local communities. On January 1, 1914, following the recommendations of Sir Frederick Lugard, the two protectorates were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria under a single governor-general resident in Lagos. Lugard bequeathed to his successor a prosperous colony when his term as Governor-General expired. The 1922 constitution provided Nigerians with the chance to elect a handful of representatives to the Legislative Council. [72] In line with this attitude, he rejected Lugard's proposal for moving the capital from Lagos, the stronghold of the elite in whom he placed so much confidence for the future. In the 1850s, quinine had been found to combat malaria, and aided by the medicine, a Liverpool merchant, Macgregor Laird, opened the river. 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. Two tiers of government emerged, central and local. By the mid-1940s, the major ethnic groups had formed such associations as the Igbo Federal Union and the Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa), a Yoruba cultural movement, in which Awolowo played a leading role. It represented a substantial element of reformism in the North. The conference drafted the terms of a new constitution. In the South, only English had official status. Colonial official A. J. Harding commented in 1913: Sir F. Lugard's proposal contemplates a state which it is impossible to classify. Frederick Lugard, shortly before becoming High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria.[68]. David Ellis, "African and European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. At first, the trade centered around West Central Africa, now the Congo. As a result, the trading post at the Niger River is created and the British economic rule is maintained over the colonies, exploiting Nigerians (Graham, 2009). To raise additional revenues, Lugard took steps to institute a uniform tax structure patterned on the traditional system that he had adopted in the north during his tenure there. Although Azikiwe later came to be recognised as the leading spokesman for national unity, when he first returned from university training in the United States, his outlook was pan-African rather than nationalist, and emphasised the common African struggle against European colonialism. Frederick Lugard, who was appointed as High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1900 and served until 1906 in his first term, often has been regarded by the British as their model colonial administrator. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but were responsible to British district officers, who had final authority. Published August 7, 2020. Oil income was still marginal, but the prospects for continued economic expansion appeared bright and accentuated political rivalries on the eve of independence. The most important of these was a near fetish with indirect rule that was supposed to facilitate a cheap and effective ruling strategy. Even before gaining its charter, the Company signed treaties with local leaders which granted it broad sovereign powers. Some indigenous peoples, such as those in the Americas, were forced to move to reservations or killed outright by invading European colonizers. Because of the hazards of climate and tropical diseases for Europeans and the absence of any centralized authorities on the mainland responsive to their interests, European merchants moored their ships outside harbours or in the delta, and used the ships as trading stations and warehouses. It made anti-slavery treaties with West African powers, which it enforced militarily with the blockade of Africa. The Niger Delta and Calabar, which once had been known for the export of slaves, became notable for the export of palm oil. The protest began in the [51], Guidelines for running the Nigerian colony were established in 1898 by the Niger Committee, chaired by the Earl of Selborne, in 1898. British expansion accelerated in the last decades of the nineteenth century. . Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1315. The best way to describe what has happened to Nigeria in the last 72 hours, beginning with the country's first set of general elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023, is to echo Charles Dickens . In November 1908, Bergheim reported striking oil; in September 1909, he reported extracting 2,000 barrels per day. The only significant interruption in economic development arose from natural disasterthe Great Drought of 191314. Political opposition to colonial rule often assumed religious dimensions. Armed resistance decreased in the 1920s but protest continued, "characterised by civil rights and civil . With the exception of Brandenburg-Prussia's short-lived attempt to gain a foothold on the West African coast and to participate in the 17th-century transatlantic slave trade, German colonialism began only in the 1880s. Nigeria in the past was forced to participate in the slave trade. By the 1950s, there were organized nationalist parties that demanded political independence in almost every colony in Africa. African resistance to colonial rule began with A) The arrival of the Europeans on the continent in the late 19th century B) The end of World War II C) . Namely, it possessed colonies on all continents. The government was responsible to a Parliament composed of the popularly elected 312-member House of Representatives and the 44-member Senate, chosen by the regional legislatures. During the war, union membership increased sixfold to 30,000. In the 1700s, the British Empire and other European powers had settlements and forts in West Africa but had not yet established the full-scale plantation colonies which existed in the Americas. The most powerful figure in the party was Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. [16] Starting in 1740, the British were the primary European slave trafficker from this area. Britain subsequently lobbied other European powers to stop the slave trade as well. tax. Early on in colonial rule, for example, Nigerians protested the manner in which water rates and head taxes were collected. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Britain announced the formation of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, which included the Niger Delta and extended eastward to Calabar, where the British Consulate General was relocated from Fernando Po. They selected an increasingly high proportion of African clergy for the missions. Village Heads were paid 10 shillings for conscripts, and fined 50 if they failed to supply. 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. These policies met with ongoing resistance. [72] In the south, he saw the possibility of building an elite educated in schools modelled on a European method (and numerous elite children attended high-ranking colleges in Britain during the colonial years). Instead, acts of resistance were usually prompted by some new colonial policy - like taking away land, or forcing people to pay a tax, or forcing them to work for free on roads or railways. Maji-Maji Uprising (Tanganyika) 4. To be sure, there were widespread resistances against colonial rule, which include the 'Abd al-Qadir led resistance against the French in Algeria, the Asante King (Prempeh I) led revolt against British colonialists in Ghana, the Maji Maji revolt in Tanganyika, the Ndebele rebellions in Rhodasia, the Ijebu Kingdom and the Opobo resistances in . Although lacking Azikiwe's compelling personality, Awolowo was a formidable debater as well as a vigorous and tenacious political campaigner. The emirs gave support to limited modernization largely from fears of the unsettling presence of southerners in the north, and by observing the improvements in living conditions in the South. [32] This included a river fleet which it used for retaliatory attacks on uncooperative villages. The colonisers decided to use divide and rule method . [11], The British led a series of military campaigns to enlarge its sphere of influence and expand its commercial opportunities. I will be dealing almost exclusively with the areas of East and Central Africa - Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe - where a more or less coherent debate can be seen. "Nigerian Forces Comforts Fund, 19401947: 'The Responsibility of the Nigerian Government to Provide Funds for the Welfare of Its Soldiers'. 22. The exploitation of the women's work led to resistance movements and led the women to develop more political awareness and engage in and aid existing decolonization movements. Exploration was intensified in 1946, but the first commercial discovery did not occur until 1956, at Olobiri in the Niger Delta. Park reached the upper Niger the next year by travelling inland from the Gambia River. The council was promoted as a device for allowing the expression of opinions that could instruct the Governor-General. Years of colonial rule yieleded system w/ all-powerful central government surrounded by weak and economically insolvent states. Northern leaders committed to modernization were also firmly connected to the traditional power structure. Revolts took place across Nigeria, but were most frequent in the Niger Delta. Most of the fighting was done by Hausa soldiers, recruited to fight against other groups. [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 British took an interest in Nigeria because of its resources. Throughout this period of reign, many changes were made to their . [10], Following military conquest, the British imposed an economic system designed to profit from African labor. vestigation of the forms of primary resistance by Africans to the impo-sition of colonial rule in the classic period of European imperialism, say from 1880 to 1914. At its own request the Northern region was not given internal self-government until 1959, because northerners feared that their region might lose its claim to an equal share in the operation and opportunities of the federal government if it was not given time to catch up with the educationally advanced south. [42], The British had difficulty conquering Igboland, which lacked a central political organisation. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1719. British staffs in each region continued to operate according to procedures developed before unification. [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. Locally this involved the immediate invasion of the German-held Kamerun (Cameroon) by Nigerian forces, followed by a costly campaign that lasted until 1916. In her . Divide and rule policy: This was mainly applied in areas where African societies or population had poor relations as a result of differences between their leaders or divisions created by Christian religious sects to easily defeat Africans in case of impending resistance against colonial rule. [57], Egerton also supervised improvements to the Lagos harbour and extension of the local telegraph network. The legitimate trade in commodities attracted a number of British merchants to the Niger River, as well as some men who had been formerly engaged in the slave trade but who now changed their line of wares. 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