[57], From 1895 to 1900, a railway was constructed running from Lagos to Ibadan; it opened in March 1901. Segments of the Yoruba community had their own animosities and new rivalries arose. The cleavage between the Yoruba and the Igbo was accentuated by their competition for control of the political machinery. These changes included taking land from African people and giving it to the growing number of Europeans in the colonies. The British answered this activity by attempting to create a more representational colonial system. 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. Political opposition to colonial rule often assumed religious dimensions. But in the 1700s, the Bight of Benin (also known as the Slave Coast) became the next most important hub. Nigeria's first nationalist movements appeared in the 1920s, and resistance to colonial rule grew over the next three decades. Indigenous responses to imperialism during the period of 1750-1900 varied widely depending on the specific group of people and the imperial power they were interacting with. The operations of this force are still not fully known due to a policy of strict secrecy mandated by the British Government. The political parties jockeyed for positions of power in anticipation of the independence of Nigeria. They, in turn, have by defeat lost their rule which has come into the hands of the British. The British had participated in it until human trafficking was abolished in 1807. 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. This scheme proved unpopular and confusing to many involved parties and was phased out. The NPC was called on to form a government, but the NCNC received six of the ten ministerial posts. If an eye is kept on the Gazettes as they come in this will enable us to warn him of any objections we may entertain to legislative proposals, and also give Liverpool and Manchester an opportunity of voicing their objections. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. Davies and Nnamdi Azikiwe. The most dramatic event having a long-term effect on Nigeria's economic development was the discovery and exploitation of petroleum deposits. Published August 7, 2020. The Royal Navy bombarded Lagos in November 1851, ousted the pro-slavery Oba Kosoko and established a treaty with the newly installed Oba Akintoye, who was expectedly more amenable to British interests. Because Western education and Christianity spread rapidly in the south and not in the north, development was much slower in the north, and the growing disparity between north and south later caused political tensions. Slaves formerly had been traded for European goods, especially guns and gunpowder, but now the British encouraged trade in palm oil in the Niger delta states, ostensibly to replace the trade in slaves. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1012. In May of this year, Herbert J. A national party, the Nigerian Youth Movement, emerged in 1934, and its members won elections to the Legislative Council. 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. Nigeria: A Country Study. Background: Attitudes Towards Policing The period from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s marked the zenith of imperial rule in Africa. Samori Ture 7. How did British keep Nigerians from developing organized political resistance. While initially organised for professional and fraternal reasons, these were centres of educated people who had chances to develop their leadership skills in the organisations, as well as form broad social networks. 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. In Nigeria, the British colonial administration found perhaps the longest-lasting resistance movement. The early history of Lagos Colony was one of repeated attempts to end the Yoruba wars. Beecroft was the British representative to Fernando Po, where the African Slave Trade Patrol of the Royal Navy was stationed. 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. The conditions that led African peoples to resist colonial rule often emerged from longstanding grievances against colonial labor exploitation taxation racist and paternalist practices arbitrary violence and political illegitimacy. [38][39], In 1892 the British Armed Forces set out to fight the Ijebu Kingdom, which had resisted missionaries and foreign traders. [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. We also understand that the said National African Company (limited) have full power to mine, farm, and build in any portion of our territory. Nigeria in the past was forced to participate in the slave trade. 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. Further dislocation accompanied the outbreak of World War I. This was used for Britain's main purpose of taking control of the region. WORKING PAPER: Passive and Active Resistance to Openness - 4 can also resist fulfilling the spirit of FOIAs in a more passive or subtle manner. 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". It was supported not only by the income from huge agricultural surpluses but also by a new range of direct and indirect taxes imposed during the 1950s. Later Nigerian troops were sent to East Africa. [72], The Influenza pandemic made its way to the port of Lagos by September 1918 by way of a number of ships including the SS Panayiotis, the SS Ahanti, and the SS Bida. He shows that, long before the growth of a mass independence movement in the wake of the second world war, there was considerable opposition to colonial rule. (Specifically it would enable direct subsidy of the less profitable Northern jurisdiction.) 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. For example, many people in Ibadan opposed Awolowo on personal grounds because of his identification with the Ijebu Yoruba. [31], In 1891, the consulate established the Niger Coast Protectorate Force or "Oil Rivers Irregulars".[32]. [82], Oil exploration began in 1906 under John Simon Bergheim's Nigeria Bitumen Corporation, to which the Colonial Office granted exclusive rights. In 1805, he set out on a second expedition, sponsored by the British Government, to follow the Niger to the sea. Initial British attempts to open trade with the interior by way of the Niger could not overcome climate and diseases such as malaria. Focusing on Britain and Africa, this looks at the growth of anti-colonial resistance and opposition to racism in the prelude to the post-colonial era. 1. A constabulary force was raised and used to pacify the coastal area. It is not a personal union of separate colonies under the same Governor like the Windwards, it is not a Confederation of States. Native Administration was responsible for police, hospitals, public works and local courts. In February 1961, a plebiscite was conducted to determine the disposition of the Southern Cameroons and Northern Cameroons, which were administered by Britain as United Nations Trust Territories. Definition of Colonialism Colonialism means a system which the Europeans adopted in ruling the colonies of Africa to their own benefits. [73] The spread of the disease was quick and deadly, with an estimated 1.5% of the population of Lagos falling victim. During World War II, Awolowo reorganized it as a predominantly Yoruba political party, the Action Group. 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. The British, like other newcomers to the slave trade, found . In: Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs: (1999), vol. Resistance to colonial rule was mitigated to the extent that local authorities and courts were able to manage affairs. Lagos remained the capital of the south, with Zungeru the new capital of the north. Indigenous Resistance to New Colonialism. Progressive constitutions after World War II provided for increasing representation and electoral government by Nigerians. At the urging of Governor Frederick Lugard, the two territories were amalgamated as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, while maintaining considerable regional autonomy among the three major regions (Northern protectorate, Southern protectorate and the Colony of Lagos). [8], Through a progressive sequence of regimes, the British imposed Crown Colony government on much of the area of West Africa which came to be known as Nigeria, a form of rule which was both autocratic and bureaucratic. 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. The superior weapons, tactics and political unity of the British are commonly given as reasons for their decisive ultimate victory. Although the capital was not moved, Lugard's bias in favour of the Muslim north was clear at the time. Afeadie, Philip Atsu. They wanted self-government, charging that only colonial rule prevented the unshackling of progressive forces in Nigeria and other states. Christian missionaries were barred, and the limited government efforts in education were harmonized with Islamic institutions.[67]. Missionary forces demanded prohibition of liquor, which proved highly unpopular. In all three regions, minority parties represented the special interests of ethnic groups, especially as they were affected by the majority. Nigeria (/ n a d r i / ny-JEER-ee-), officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa.It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea to the south in the Atlantic Ocean.It covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 sq mi), and with a population of over 225 million, it is the most populous country in Africa, and the world's . Battle of Adowa (Ethiopia) 5. Beginning in the 1920s, a number of Nigerians joined other Blacks in various parts of the world to embark on the wider project of Pan-Africanism, which sought to liberate Black people from racism and European domination. Internal self-government was granted to the Western and Eastern regions in 1957. 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. Namely, it possessed colonies on all continents. Early on in colonial rule, for example, Nigerians protested the manner in which water rates and head taxes were collected. Awolowo had little difficulty in appealing to broad segments of the Yoruba population, but he worked to avoid the Action Group from being stigmatized as a "tribal" group. Three constitutions were enacted from 1946 to 1954. 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