Economic links among the regions increased, but indirect rule tended to discourage political interchange. 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. 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. A "house" included the extended family of the trader, including retainers and slaves. . 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 . Ist October, 2010, marks The 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence from imperial Britain. 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. Among the problems needing attention before the British would grant full independence was the minorities fear of discrimination by a future government based on majority ethnic groups. resistance to British invasion and colonial rule so as to close that vacuum created by the 'majority syndrome' approach. The trend was toward the establishment of a parliamentary system of government, with regional assemblies and a federal House of Representatives. Nigeria officially became a democracy on its independence from Britain in October 1960. Nigerian delegates were selected to represent each region and to reflect various shades of opinion. A new constitution was created in 1922 under British colonial rule, largely due to Nigerian calls for reform. British colonialism created Nigeria, but did little to make it a viable, stable, self-sustaining national entity. As its head, the master trader taxed other traders who were members of his "house"; he maintained a war vessel, a large dugout canoe that could hold several tons of cargo and dozens of crew, for the defense of the harbor. [82], Oil exploration began in 1906 under John Simon Bergheim's Nigeria Bitumen Corporation, to which the Colonial Office granted exclusive rights. In fact, while the southern delegates pressed for Years of colonial rule yieleded system w/ all-powerful central government surrounded by weak and economically insolvent states. Some of them also manned Company stations and served as District Agents.". Nigeria in the past was forced to participate in the slave trade. 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 protest began in the [11] In 1891, the African Banking Corporation founded the Bank of British West Africa in Lagos.[33]. Despite these difficulties, the Action Group rapidly built an effective organisation. Formal diplomatic relations were established with the opening of the American Embassy in Lagos and of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, both on 1 October 1960, the same day which Nigeria acquired its independence from British rule. Consequently, in 1849, John Beecroft was accredited as consul for the bights of Benin and Biafra, a jurisdiction stretching from Dahomey to Cameroon. The Nigerian Resistance. The rapid growth of organised labour in the 1940s also brought new political forces into play. Nigeria Table of Contents. Algeria fought back and eventually was granted self rule and nigeria was put down and never got independance. European colonialists had managed to quell the efforts by Africans to resist the establishment of colonial rule. [38][39], In 1892 the British Armed Forces set out to fight the Ijebu Kingdom, which had resisted missionaries and foreign traders. [37] Economically, local colonial administrators also pushed for the imposition of British colonial rule, believing that trade and taxation conducted in British pounds would prove far more lucrative than a barter trade which yielded only inconsistent customs duties. However, in October 1929 in Oloko a census related to taxation was conducted, and the women in the area suspected that this was a prelude to the extension of direct taxation, which had been imposed on the men the previous year. Lugard bequeathed to his successor a prosperous colony when his term as Governor-General expired. The NPC platform emphasized the integrity of the north, its traditions, religion and social order. The protectorate was organised to control and develop trade coming down the Niger. The most important of these was a near fetish with indirect rule that was supposed to facilitate a cheap and effective ruling strategy. European traders in Nigeria initially made widespread use of the cowrie, which was already valued locally. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston detested slavery, and in 1851 he took advantage of divisions in native politics, the presence of Christian missionaries, and the maneuvers of British consul John Beecroft to encourage the overthrow of the regime. They received attention from major parties before elections, at which time either a dominant party from another region or the opposition party in their region sought their alliance. The appointment of Joseph Chamberlain as colonial secretary in 1895 especially marked a shift towards new territorial ambitions of the British Empire. Recovery came quickly and improvements in port facilities and the transportation infrastructure during World War I furthered economic development. Like in other countries under imperialist rule, colonialism in Nigeria resulted in numerous positive and negative impacts. Crowther, a liberated Yoruba slave, had been educated in Sierra Leone and in Britain, where he was ordained before returning to his homeland with the first group of CMS missionaries. Most internal problems were concealed, and open opposition to the domination of the Muslim aristocracy was not tolerated. African Resistance to Colonial Rule (Talten, Africana Age) LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE In case of resistance by one of its friends the other would join hands to mount formidable resistance against colonial rule e.g. 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. In 1946 a new constitution was approved by the British Parliament at Westminster and promulgated in Nigeria. 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. 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. Political opposition to colonial rule often assumed religious dimensions. The Royal Niger Company established its headquarters far inland at Lokoja, which was the main trading port of the company,[34] from where it began to assume responsibility for the administration of areas along the Niger and Benue rivers where it maintained depots. Many changes accompanied British rule: Western education, the English language, and Christianity spread during the period; new forms of money, transportation, and communication were developed; and the Nigerian economy became based on the export of cash crops. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but were responsible to British district officers, who had final authority. Frequently African armies of 20, 000 were defeated by European-led armies of 2,000 or less. 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. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1719. The greatest advantage of Nigeria were its huge natural . The war also made the British reappraise Nigeria's political future. 1324 Words6 Pages. Pre-colonial southern Nigeria was an _____ societey. British staffs in each region continued to operate according to procedures developed before unification. Namely, it possessed colonies on all continents. [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 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. 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. Britain also annexed Freetown in Sierra Leone, declaring it a Crown Colony in 1808.[20]. In November 1908, Bergheim reported striking oil; in September 1909, he reported extracting 2,000 barrels per day. 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. He was contemptuous of the educated and Westernised African elite found more in the South, and he recommended transferring the capital from Lagos, the cosmopolitan city where the influence of these people was most pronounced, to Kaduna in the north. Nigerian students abroad, particularly at British schools, joined those from other colonies in pan-African groups such as the West African Students Union, founded in London in 1925. In the south, by contrast, traditional rulers were employed as vehicles of indirect rule in Edoland and Yorubaland, but Christianity and Western education undermined their sacerdotal functions. These organisations were primarily urban phenomena that arose after numerous rural migrants moved to the cities. It made anti-slavery treaties with West African powers, which it enforced militarily with the blockade of Africa. Until he stepped down as Governor-General in 1918, Lugard primarily was concerned with consolidating British sovereignty and with assuring local administration through traditional rulers. [77] Its revenue quickly increased, from 4,424 in 1901 to 274,989 in 1910. The NCNC backed creation of a midwest state and proposed federal control of education and health services. 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. Sometimes forced labour was used directly for public works projects. 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]. 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. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. In general, the regional constitutions followed the federal model, both structurally and functionally. Although colonial rule appeared secure in the first two decades of the 20th century, the British struggled to keep control of their Nigerian colony and continued to do so until Nigeria became independent in 1960. [79][80], Much of the colony's budget went to payments of its military, the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF). In 1920, portions of former German Cameroon were mandated to Britain by the League of Nations and were administered as part of Nigeria. The arrival of the British. Instead, the companies had to be content with a monopoly of the export trade in these products. Trained as an army officer, he had served in India, Egypt and East Africa, where he expelled Arab slave traders from Nyasaland and established British presence in Uganda. 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. In 1916 Lugard formed the Nigerian Council, a consultative body that brought together six traditional rulersincluding the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano and the Oba of Beninto represent all parts of the colony. By 1938 the NYM was agitating for dominion status within the British Commonwealth of Nations so that Nigeria would have the same status as Canada and Australia. 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. Under Goldie's direction, the Royal Niger Company was instrumental in depriving France and Germany of access to the region. The pulpits of the independent congregations became avenues for the free expression of critics of colonial rule. The French had abolished slavery following the French Revolution, although it briefly re-established it in its Caribbean colonies under Napoleon. Lost land and independence died of diseases that euro bring However, decolonization also brought regionalization and a hardening of ethnic identities. They caused major transformations in traditional society as they eroded the religious institutions such as human sacrifice, infanticide and secret societies, which had formerly played a role in political authority and community life.[26]. The small contingent of northerners who had been educated abroada group that included Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Aminu Kanowas allied with British-backed efforts to introduce gradual change to the emirates. 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 . The women's protest of 1929 marked an apex in women's resistance in eastern Nigeria to colonial rule. Though the Europeans possess many considerable settlements both upon the coast of Africa and in the East Indies, they have not yet established in either of those countries such numerous and thriving colonies as those in the islands and continent of America. The British, when faced with dissent, tended to grant political reforms in an effort to dispel the attractiveness of more-radical . In 1900, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate passed from company hands to the Crown. 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 experiment began in 1890 and was repealed in 1939,[71]. While each generated considerable political controversy, they moved the country toward greater internal autonomy, with an increasing role for the political parties. Nigeria's potential in the Post-Colonial Era. The NPC, entering candidates only in the Northern Region, confined campaigning largely to local issues but opposed the addition of new regimes. 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. The Central African Federation, embracing Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, was created in 1953 . In the Bight of Biafra, the major ports were Old Calabar (Akwa Akpa), Bonny and New Calabar. The High Commissioner will be guided by all the usual laws of succession and the wishes of the people and chief but will set them aside if he desires for good cause to do so. Hogendorn. As a latecomer in the struggle for colonies, Germany had to settle for four territories, called "protectorates," in . Beecroft agreed on condition that the slave trade be abolished, and British merchants have a monopoly in commodities. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it ended slavery in its possessions. 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. 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