Thanks. Decolonization - Jan C. Jansen 2019-06-11 The end of colonial rule in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean was one of the most Nigerian recruits participated in the war effort as labourers and soldiers. It also makes imporatant new developments in the study of interwar history. Political leaders resorted to the use of political parties and the media to mobilize millions of Nigerians against the continuation of British rule. Traditional authorities were co-opted in the north, where the spread of Western education by Christian missionaries was strongly resisted by Muslim leaders. In time, they built depots onshore and eventually moved up the Niger River to establish stations in the interior. Lugard's governmental model for Nigeria was unique and there was apparently not much planning for its future development. The most dramatic event having a long-term effect on Nigeria's economic development was the discovery and exploitation of petroleum deposits. All these things which I have said the Fulani by conquest took the right to do now pass to the British. Consequently, he may well deserve the epithet of the "father of Nigeria", which historians accorded him. 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. In the meantime, public sector spending increased even more dramatically than export earnings. Because of the spread of mission schools and wealth derived from export crops, the southern parties were committed to policies that would benefit the south of the country. 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". Locally this involved the immediate invasion of the German-held Kamerun (Cameroon) by Nigerian forces, followed by a costly campaign that lasted until 1916. It also means foreign rule on foreign lands. Colonial Nigeria was the area of West Africa that became the modern day Nigeria, during the time of British rule in the 19th and 20th centuries. Background: Attitudes Towards Policing The period from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s marked the zenith of imperial rule in Africa. In 1957, the Western and the Eastern regions became formally self-governing under the parliamentary system. Hogendorn. How did British keep Nigerians from developing organized political resistance. The experiment began in 1890 and was repealed in 1939,[71]. Battle of Adowa (Ethiopia) 5. The Sokoto jihad and the Yoruba wars stimulated the slave trade at a time when the British were actively trying to stop it. 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. 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. [32], In 1880, the British Government and traders demonetised the Maria Theresa dollar, to the considerable dismay of its local holders, in favour of the pound sterling. The British entry into World War I saw the confiscation of Nigerian palm oil firms operated by expatriates from the Central Powers. This scheme proved unpopular and confusing to many involved parties and was phased out. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. Nigeria is a country in West Africa and was colonized by the British. Taxes became a source of discontent in the south, however, and contributed to disturbances protesting British policy. In the name of liberating the Igbos from the Aro Confederacy, the British launched the Anglo-Aro War of 19011902. 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. 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. Instead, the companies had to be content with a monopoly of the export trade in these products. 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. [32] This included a river fleet which it used for retaliatory attacks on uncooperative villages. Updated: 11/12/2021 Create an account The Colonial Civil Service used intermediaries, as the Royal Niger Company had, in an expanded role which included diplomacy, propaganda and espionage. [18], In 1807, the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the Slave Trade Act, prohibiting British subjects from participating in the Atlantic slave trade. Gandhi. Macaulay was despised by the British, but he came to be regarded as the father of modern Nigerian nationalism.. The risings in the midwest of Nigeria and the Niger delta during the early stages of the war cannot be understood except in the context of falling prices for palm products, and the drop in trade due to the exclusion of the . Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1315. The departure of Azikiwe and other Igbo members of the NYM left the organisation in Yoruba hands. While this system had built-in contradictions, over the years the Nigerian system developed into a sophisticated form of local government, especially in the emirates and under the banner of native administration, which became the hallmark of British colonial rule in Africa. 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. 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. The Deputy Governor served as political administrator for company territory and appointed three officials in Nigeria to carry out the work of administration. [73], Africa as a whole was hit by three waves of H1N1 influenza A, the first and second would be the most deadly for the colony of Nigeria. [77] Its revenue quickly increased, from 4,424 in 1901 to 274,989 in 1910. This system, in which the structure of authority focused on the emir to . Even before gaining its charter, the Company signed treaties with local leaders which granted it broad sovereign powers. They later discovered that the demand for . The proliferation of labour organisations fragmented the movement, and potential leaders lacked the experience and skill to draw workers together. opposed early self-rule for colonial Nigeria on the ground of perceived domination by the southerners. His mission failed, but Park and his party covered more than 1,500 kilometres (930mi), passing through the western portions of the Sokoto Caliphate, before drowning when their boats overturned in rapids near Bussa. After the Willink Commission examined and reported on this issue in 1958, independence was granted. With one man in practical control of the Executive and Legislative organs of all the parts, the machine may work passably for sufficient time to enable the transition period to be left behind, by which time the answer to the problemUnitary v. Federal Statewill probably have become clear. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. The protest began in the Frequently African armies of 20, 000 were defeated by European-led armies of 2,000 or less. At the same time it is feasible by degrees to bring them gradually into approximation with our ideas of justice and humanity. The Nigerian Legislative Council was established in 1914 and was given limited jurisdiction; it was replaced in 1922 by a larger one that included elected members from Lagos and Calabar, although its powers also were limited and the northern provinces remained outside its control. Other European powers acknowledged Britain's dominance over the area in the 1885 Berlin Conference. [11], The British led a series of military campaigns to enlarge its sphere of influence and expand its commercial opportunities. [50] In the same year, the British created the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF or WAFF), under the leadership of Colonel Frederick Lugard. The war years brought a polarization between the older, more parochial leaders inclined toward gradualism and the younger intellectuals, who thought in more immediate terms. Colonial Lagos was a busy, cosmopolitan port. Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that the African societies were better established and more populous than those of the Americas, thus creating a more formidable barrier to European expansion. [56], Walter Egerton's sixfold agenda for 1908, as detailed on 29 November 1907, in a telegram to the Colonial Office, is representative of British priorities. Several churches were built to serve the Edo community and a small number of African converts. 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. Colonial official A. J. Harding commented in 1913: Sir F. Lugard's proposal contemplates a state which it is impossible to classify. The pace of constitutional change accelerated after the promulgation of the Richards Constitution. resistance and successfully imposed colonial rule should attest to the point that African military resistance was ineffectual. 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) . According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyage Database, 308,800 were sold across the Atlantic from Lagos in 17761850. David Richardson, "Background to annexation: Anglo-African credit relations in the Bight of Biafra, 17001891"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. I would encourage the society to resist by declaring a war against the Europeans. Balewa was called on to head an NPC-NCNC coalition government, and Awolowo became the official leader of the opposition. . The National Youth Movement used nationalist rhetoric to agitate for improvements in education. The Kikuyu people of Kenya, like most Africans, were laborers with the women doing most work at home while the men found work across the country. 19, no. A lack of interest in extending the NPC beyond the Northern Region corresponded to this strictly regional orientation. Main aim. The Colony was ultimately governed by the British Colonial Office in London. In: The Journal of African History: (1990 . In the south the British occasionally created a political hierarchy where there had been none before; in most cases they ruled through those who were most malleable, whether these people had held traditional positions of authority or not. When direct Portuguese contacts in the region were withdrawn, however, the influence of the Catholic missionaries waned. David Ellis, "African and European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade"; in Ptr-Grenouilleau. They wanted self-government, charging that only colonial rule prevented the unshackling of progressive forces in Nigeria and other states. One continues to wonder how a national history could be attained 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. Among the other major parties, the NCNC took fifty-six seats, winning a majority in both the Eastern and the Western regions, while the Action Group captured only twenty-seven seats. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. Antrobus, Fiddes and Strachey in the Colonial Office promoted amalgamation, along with Lugard. 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 most powerful figure in the party was Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. You are right my brother. ", Tamuno, T. N. (1970). [42], The British had difficulty conquering Igboland, which lacked a central political organisation. It was suspended in 1950 against a call for greater autonomy, which resulted in an inter-parliamentary conference at Ibadan in 1950. However, it is thought that the Nigerians themselves were providing the . The movement brought to public notice a long list of future leaders, including H.O. He aroused political awareness through his newspaper, the Lagos Daily News. [8] British influence in the region began with the prohibition of slave trade to British subjects in 1807. [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. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p. 1921. Others refused recruitment into colonial armies or labor forces.Jun 20 2017. European traders in Nigeria initially made widespread use of the cowrie, which was already valued locally. Revolts took place across Nigeria, but were most frequent in the Niger Delta. 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. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 8(04), 563. doi:10.1017/s0022278x00023909, This page was last edited on 30 January 2023, at 05:21. 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