Did You Know?

Hi friends, it's a pleasure to come your way again. It's your favourite historian who's keen on reminding us of our history.

Last week we looked at the indirect rule policy in Nigeria. We were able to establish that the policy worked better in northern Nigeria than the west, east and the south regions. Not just that, we also looked at the reasons why the British choose to use the indirect rule policy.

This week, I'm excited to remind/enlighten you about the British colonisation of Africa and, indeed, Nigeria.

While teaching in one of the classes, a student asked Madam, why did Nigerians allow the British to take over the way they did? Why didn't they chase them a way? That was an intelligent question. I took time to explain to the class how the British took over the Nigerian territories.

For this week, let's look at the means by which the British used to take over Nigerian territories.

Did you know that the British systematically took over the area known as Nigeria today by different means? Oh yes, it took some processes. Let's say that the British conquered the people in the following ways.

1. Through signing of treaties. Treaties were being signed between the British officials and the local kings. Since the locals had difficulty with reading, most of them didn't understand the terms of the papers that they endorsed. They never knew that it was for them to cede their territories to the colonialists.

2. Conquest through wars/conflicts: Did you know that the British went into conflict with the locals who were not willing to surrender their territories? Yes they did. Remember Oba Ovonramwen of the former Benin empire? The empire was conquered by British forces in 1897. Oba Ovonramwen was exiled and so, the British took over the kingdom, making it their territory. That's a story for another day.

3. Conquest through invitation by the local chiefs. Do you think it was just a mere invitation? No, some of them were threatened and persuaded, they had no choice but to do it in order not to be dethroned or exiled, such as the likes of Oba Ovonramwen and king Kosoko of Lagos. Some of the locals were promised infrastructural development in terms of good roads and education. And so, they felt it was a great idea, and so, they invited the British to come into their territories which they surrendered their territories to.

Fact: Did you know that the British needed to take over the territories in order to get raw materials to produce goods in Britain? Not just that, they needed a dumping ground for their produced goods?

Let's better establish that the British interest in the area known as Nigeria today was basically for commercial purposes.

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​Thank you for reading, I remain your historian friend @eveetim.💕 Feel free to make your contributions in the comment section.

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