British and French traders did a large share of this business until 1807 when they were replaced by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. The officers of the RWAFF were British. A third of the people associated with an 1842 riverine expedition died. [54] Olivier was a member of the Fabian Society and a friend of George Bernard Shaw. [23] Regardless, slavery had decimated the population and fuelled militarisation and chaos, thereby paving the way for more aggressive colonisation.[21][24]. [73] The spread of the disease was quick and deadly, with an estimated 1.5% of the population of Lagos falling victim. Webster, Boahen and Idowu are of the opinion that the conquest of Africa was very simple and that it was carried out with ease. Ethnic and kinship organisations that often took the form of a tribal union also emerged in the 1920s. The appointment of Joseph Chamberlain as colonial secretary in 1895 especially marked a shift towards new territorial ambitions of the British Empire. [36], The company, as was common among European businesses in Africa, paid its native workers in barter. Beecroft agreed on condition that the slave trade be abolished, and British merchants have a monopoly in commodities. . The discussion of pragmatic resistance in Africa comes full circle with the former Portuguese colonies, South Africa, and Kenya. 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. Other Protestant denominations from Great Britain, Canada, and the United States also opened missions and, in the 1860s, Roman Catholic religious orders established missions. The 1922 constitution provided Nigerians with the chance to elect a handful of representatives to the Legislative Council. [38][39], In 1892 the British Armed Forces set out to fight the Ijebu Kingdom, which had resisted missionaries and foreign traders. It was guerrilla warfare in the case of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (1952-60) and Zimbabwe's war of independence (1965-79); it was all . WORKING PAPER: Passive and Active Resistance to Openness - 4 can also resist fulfilling the spirit of FOIAs in a more passive or subtle manner. The incidence of slavery in local societies increased. The rapid growth of organised labour in the 1940s also brought new political forces into play. The large companies that subsequently opened depots in the delta cities and in Lagos were as ruthlessly competitive as the delta towns themselves and frequently used force to compel potential suppliers to agree to contracts and to meet their demands. [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. Author. In 1946 a new constitution was approved by the British Parliament at Westminster and promulgated in Nigeria. 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. While each generated considerable political controversy, they moved the country toward greater internal autonomy, with an increasing role for the political parties. Among his leading lieutenants were Samuel Akintola of Ogbomoso and the Oni of Ife, the most important of the Yoruba monarchs. In case of resistance by one of its friends the other would join hands to mount formidable resistance against colonial rule e.g. 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. Colonial official A. J. Harding commented in 1913: Sir F. Lugard's proposal contemplates a state which it is impossible to classify. 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. During World War II, Awolowo reorganized it as a predominantly Yoruba political party, the Action Group. Independence was achieved on 1 October 1960. 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. Each region had a governor, premier, cabinet, legislature, and civil service, with the significantly weaker federal government represented in Lagos by a governor-general, bureaucracy, House of Representatives, and Senate. Clifford emphasized economic development, encouraging enterprises by immigrant southerners in the north while restricting European participation to capital intensive activity. The Southern Protectorate financed itself from the outset, with revenue increasing from 361,815 to 1,933,235 over the same period. 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. Bello wanted to protect northern social and political institutions from southern influence. The Royal Niger Company had its own armed forces. 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). Village Heads were paid 10 shillings for conscripts, and fined 50 if they failed to supply. The Action Group was thus the heir of a generation of flourishing cultural consciousness among the Yoruba and also had valuable connections with commercial interests that were representative of the comparative economic advancement of the Western Region. Combining the three jurisdictions would reduce administrative expenses and facilitate deployment of resources and money between the areas. [35] However, the company did accept that local kings could act as partners in governance and trade. In practice, British administrative procedures under indirect rule entailed constant interaction between colonial authorities and local rulersthe system was modified to fit the needs of each region. Protestant missionaries tended to divide the country into spheres of activity to avoid competition with each other, and Catholic missions similarly avoided duplication of effort among the several religious orders working there. PhD dissertation accepted at the Graduate Programme in History, York University, Ontario. After the British government assumed direct control of the Royal Niger Companys territories, the northern areas were renamed the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, and the land in the Niger delta and along the lower reaches of the river was added to the Niger Coast Protectorate, which was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. THE COLONIAL ECONOMIC LEGACY. Ethnic cleavages intensified in the 1950s. It was suspended in 1950 against a call for greater autonomy, which resulted in an inter-parliamentary conference at Ibadan in 1950. A.J. He definitely laid the basis for British claims. In the long term, the acceptance of Christianity by large numbers of Nigerians depended on the various denominations adapting to local conditions. [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. 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. Nigeria: A Country Study. History of Islam in Nigeria. These schools would teach "the basic principles that would and should regulate character and conduct". I would encourage the society to resist by declaring a war against the Europeans. Goods were made available on credit to African middlemen, who were expected to trade them at a pre-arranged price and deliver the proceeds to the company. 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. colonizers and passive resistance by refusing to collaborate with the colonizers e .g. 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. Algeria fought back and eventually was granted self rule and nigeria was put down and never got independance. The NPC platform emphasized the integrity of the north, its traditions, religion and social order. The Governor-General represented the British monarch as head of state and was appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Nigerian prime minister in consultation with the regional premiers. In elections that year, the NYM ended the domination of the NNDP in the Legislative Council and worked to establish a national network of affiliates. By the end of World War I, most of Africa had been effectively colonized. [29] His servant, Richard Lander, and Lander's brother John were the ones to demonstrate that the Niger flowed into the sea. British influence in the Niger area increased gradually over the . 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. In some instances, however, a double allegianceto the idea of sacred monarchy for its symbolic value and to modern concepts of law and administrationwas maintained. Central Africa to 1964. Much of the human trafficking which occurred there was nominally illegal, and records from this time and place are not comprehensive. 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 prevent any united opposition to its authority, the British adopted a divide-and-rule policy, keeping Nigerian groups separate from one another as much as possible. In the meantime, public sector spending increased even more dramatically than export earnings. Ouidah (now part of Benin) and Lagos were the major ports on the coast. 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. In the north, appeals to Islamic legitimacy upheld the rule of the emirs, so that nationalist sentiments were related to Islamic ideals. Total revenues of central and regional governments nearly doubled in relation to the gross domestic product during the decade. For this objective, the Company chose to administer the African inhabitants of the Niger Sudan through their traditional rulers and their political institutions. 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. [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. The CMS initially promoted Africans to responsible positions in the mission field; for instance, they appointed Samuel Ajayi Crowther as the first Anglican Bishop of the Niger. The Colonial Office approved most of Lugard's plan, but balked at authorising him to pass laws without their approval. Some European traders switched to legitimate business only when the commerce in slaves became too hazardous. In 1916, Sir Edward Carson led the majority of the Conservative and Unionist Party to vote against Party Leader Bonar Law on the issue, forcing it to withdraw from the Asquith coalition and for the government to begin to break apart. 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. They, in turn, have by defeat lost their rule which has come into the hands of the British. The NPC federal parliamentary leader, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was appointed Prime Minister of Nigeria. By the 1820s, the British had made connections . Colonial Nigeria was ruled by the British Empire from the mid-nineteenth century until 1960 when Nigeria achieved independence. 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. It was a relatively simple adjustment for many Igbo families to transport the oil to rivers and streams that led to the Niger Delta for sale to European merchants. It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while . His political platform called for economic and educational development, Africanization of the civil service, and self-government for Lagos. Taxes became a source of discontent in the south, however, and contributed to disturbances protesting British policy. These courts contained majorities British members and represented a new level of presumptive British sovereignty in the Bight of Biafra. The NPC continued to represent the interests of the traditional order in the pre-independence deliberations. [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. 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. To some extent, competition amongst these companies undermined their collective position vis--vis, local merchants. 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. , its traditions, religion and social order Ibadan in 1950 against call... 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