Non-violent Resistance - In the Year of African Independence, 1961, 17 countries declared themselves independent of colonial powers, most of them non-violently, through protest and/or negotiation . A national party, the Nigerian Youth Movement, emerged in 1934, and its members won elections to the Legislative Council. Britain also annexed Freetown in Sierra Leone, declaring it a Crown Colony in 1808.[20]. A . To some extent, competition amongst these companies undermined their collective position vis--vis, local merchants. 3 The Amakholwa's upsurge as a black, conservative, and educated class in the Cape Colony helped establish political resistance to colonial rule. The British entry into World War I saw the confiscation of Nigerian palm oil firms operated by expatriates from the Central Powers. The impact of colonialism in Nigeria could be discussed under political, economic, social, educational and religious aspects. The slave trade was heaviest in the period 17001850, with an average of 76,000 people taken from Africa each year between 1783 and 1792. Initially, most palm oil (and later kernels) came from Igboland, where palm trees formed a canopy over the densely inhabited areas of the Ngwa, Nri Kingdom, Awka and other Igbo peoples. Nigerian units also contributed to two divisions serving with British forces in Palestine, Morocco, Sicily and Burma, where they won many honours. In practice, Lugard used the annual sessions to inform the traditional rulers of British policy, leaving them with no functions at the council's meetings except to listen and to assent. 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. The political parties jockeyed for positions of power in anticipation of the independence of Nigeria. They later discovered that the demand for . In the 1850s, quinine had been found to combat malaria, and aided by the medicine, a Liverpool merchant, Macgregor Laird, opened the river. The Emirs and chiefs who are appointed will rule over the people as of old-time and take such taxes as are approved by the High Commissioner, but they will obey the laws of the Governor and will act in accordance with the advice of the Resident. Algeria fought back and eventually was granted self rule and nigeria was put down and never got independance. 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. Even before gaining its charter, the Company signed treaties with local leaders which granted it broad sovereign powers. In the north, appeals to Islamic legitimacy upheld the rule of the emirs, so that nationalist sentiments were related to Islamic ideals. He aroused political awareness through his newspaper, the Lagos Daily News. The National Youth Movement used nationalist rhetoric to agitate for improvements in education. Africans also were represented on the Lagos Legislative Council, a largely appointed assembly. [77] Its revenue quickly increased, from 4,424 in 1901 to 274,989 in 1910. David Richardson, "Background to annexation: Anglo-African credit relations in the Bight of Biafra, 17001891"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. The said National African Company (Limited) bind themselves to protect the said King and Chiefs from the attacks of any neighbouring tribes (Ibid.). 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. From 1886 to 1899, much of the country was ruled by the Royal Niger Company, authorised by charter, and governed by George Taubman Goldie. Today, Lagos remains Nigeria's financial capital and, as home to an estimated eight million people, ranks . [9] Administration and military control of the territory was conducted primarily by white Britons, both in London and in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the British colonial administration found perhaps the longest-lasting resistance movement. The Central African Federation, embracing Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, was created in 1953 . September 1996. Native institutions were utilized and interference with local customs kept to a minimum, although the British did not always understand the local customs. Between 1919 and 1954 the title reverted to governor. 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. Clifford emphasized economic development, encouraging enterprises by immigrant southerners in the north while restricting European participation to capital intensive activity. This led to protests known as Women's War. For this objective, the Company chose to administer the African inhabitants of the Niger Sudan through their traditional rulers and their political institutions. 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. [76], The British treasury initially supported the landlocked Northern Nigeria Protectorate with grants, totalling 250,000 or more each year. Frederick Lugard, shortly before becoming High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria.[68]. In the Northern Region, the colonial government took careful account of Islam and avoided any appearance of a challenge to traditional values that might incite resistance to British rule. They were instrumental in the development of government diplomacy with the traditional rulers; they spread government propaganda among the indigenous people; and they assisted colonial officials in parleying with native forces at war with government troops. [19] Ultimately, this became the Royal Niger Company. The staff of this office came primarily from the British upper-middle classi.e., university-educated men, primarily not nobility, with fathers in well-respected professions. The early history of Lagos Colony was one of repeated attempts to end the Yoruba wars. Areas with lucrative crops such as cacao and peanuts (groundnuts) profited, while many people in different parts of the country had to migrate to work elsewhere as tenant farmers or use their newly acquired education and skills to work in cities as wage earners, traders, and artisans. The experiment began in 1890 and was repealed in 1939,[71]. They had obtained the assent of the emirs to form a political party to counterbalance the activities of the southern-based parties. Its residents were employed in official capacities and were active in business. In the immediate post-World War II period, Nigeria benefited from a favourable trade balance. European colonialists had managed to quell the efforts by Africans to resist the establishment of colonial rule with one exception. He definitely laid the basis for British claims. Although the Muslim emirs eventually collaborated with the British to establish such rule in Northern Nigeria, the absence of similar authority structures in the South led to more direct colonial rule. Webster, Boahen and Idowu are of the opinion that the conquest of Africa was very simple and that it was carried out with ease. In 1922 Kamerun was divided under a League of Nations mandate between France and Britain, Britain administering its area within the government of Nigeria; after 1946 the mandated areas were redesignated as a United Nations (UN) trust territory. This scheme proved unpopular and confusing to many involved parties and was phased out. 22. It represented a substantial element of reformism in the North. They selected an increasingly high proportion of African clergy for the missions. [61], The task of unification was achieved on the eve of World War I. Elliot J. Berg, "The Development of a Labour Force in Sub-Saharan Africa"; France sold Louisiana to the United States, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Military history of Nigeria during World War II, National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, discovery and exploitation of petroleum deposits, "The Nigeria (Constitution) Order in Council, 1954", "Gombe-Abba: Historic emirs' town ruined by the British", A Very Bloody Transaction: Old Calabar and the Massacre of 1767, The Impact of the Slave Trade on African Economies, "Managing Epidemic: The British Approach to 19181919 Influenza in Lagos", "The Nigerian Victory Against The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and 1897 Smallpox Epidemic", "African Pentecostalism and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: The Supernatural Amid the Fearful and Implications for the COVID-19 Pandemic", "The influenza pandemic of 191819 and the spread of cassava cultivation on the lower Niger: a study in historical linkages", Google Cultural Institute: Birth of the Nigerian Colony, 18511914, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colonial_Nigeria&oldid=1136412842. In 1912, Lugard returned to Nigeria from his six-year term as Governor of Hong Kong, to oversee the merger of the northern and southern protectorates. This became the Lagos Constabulary, and subsequently the Nigerian Police Force. Later Nigerian troops were sent to East Africa. During the war, union membership increased sixfold to 30,000. . Read suggested they be merged, and more use made of Nigeria's natural resources. [29] His servant, Richard Lander, and Lander's brother John were the ones to demonstrate that the Niger flowed into the sea. 19, no. 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. Despite these difficulties, the Action Group rapidly built an effective organisation. One 1885 treaty read: We, the undersigned King and Chiefs [] with the view to the bettering of the condition of our country and people, do this day cede to the National Africa Company (Limited), their heirs and assigns, forever, the whole of our territory [] We also give the said National African Company (Limited) full power to settle all native disputes arising from any cause whatever, and we pledge ourselves not to enter into any war with other tribes without the sanction of the said National Africa Company (Limited). The company's major imports to the area included gin and low-quality firearms. [19][41], In 18961897 the forces of the Niger Coast Protectorate fought with the remnants of the Edo Empire. The council was headed by a Governor. Anticolonialism in the twentieth and twenty-first century refers to two interconnected concepts: a historical event and a critical analytic. He argued that the division into two separate colonies was advisable unless a stronger central government could bind Nigeria into more than just an administrative convenience for the three regions. Anietie A. Inyang & Manasseh Edidem Bassey, "Imperial Treaties and the Origins of British Colonial Rule in Southern Nigeria, 18601890". They never were able to elect sizeable legislative delegations, but they served as a means of public expression for minority concerns. 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 . Definition of Colonialism Colonialism means a system which the Europeans adopted in ruling the colonies of Africa to their own benefits. 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. The British, when faced with dissent, tended to grant political reforms in an effort to dispel the attractiveness of more-radical . Several churches were built to serve the Edo community and a small number of African converts. In 1886, Taubman secured a royal charter and his company became the Royal Niger Company. British staffs in each region continued to operate according to procedures developed before unification. The economy suffered from the decline in the slave trade, although considerable smuggling of slaves to the Americas continued for years afterward. His government guided the country for the next three years, operating with almost complete autonomy in internal affairs. [11] In 1891, the African Banking Corporation founded the Bank of British West Africa in Lagos.[33]. [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. From 1815 to 1840, palm oil exports increased by a factor of 25, from 800 to 20,000 tons per year. [8] British influence in the region began with the prohibition of slave trade to British subjects in 1807. They gathered information which was needed for policy-making in administration. David Ellis, "African and European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. 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. At the same time, British scientists were interested in exploring the course and related settlements along the Niger River. 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. 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