Nigeria

By the end of the 18th century British enterprise had almost entirely displaced that of other nations on the Niger coast. But the principal trade of all Europeans was still in slaves. After the abolition of the slave-trade in the 19th century palm oil formed the staple article of commerce, and the various streams which drain the Niger coast near the mouth of the great river became known as the "Oil rivers." The opening up of the interior was in the meantime promoted, chiefly by the efforts of British trav ellers and merchants. Mungo Park traced the Niger from Segu to Bussa, where he lost his life in 1805. From Bussa to the sea the course of the river was first made known in 1830 by the brothers Richard and John Lander. Maj. Dixon Denham and Capt. Hugh Clapperton entered the country now known as North ern Nigeria from the north in 1823, crossing the desert from Tripoli. Clapperton in 1826-27 made a second journey, approach ing the same territory from the Guinea coast. Dr. Barth, travel ling under the auspices of the British Government, entered the country from the north and between 1852 and 1855 made the journeys whose record still remains the principal standard work for the interior. Macgregor Laird first organized in 1832 the navigation of the River Niger from its mouth to a point above the Benue confluence. During the next 25 years expeditions were despatched into the interior and a British consul was posted at Lokoja. Possession was also taken, in 1861, of Lagos island, with the object of checking the slave traffic still being carried on in that region. But the deadly climate discouraged the first efforts of the British Government, and, after the parliamentary committee of 1865 had recommended a policy which would ren der possible the ultimate withdrawal of British official influence from the coast, the consulate of Lokoja was abandoned, but re established a few years later to meet the still steadily growing requirements of British trade upon the river.

The Royal Niger Company.

In 188o the international "scramble for Africa" led to the establishment under the recog nized protection of the French Government of two French firms which opened upwards of 3o trading stations on the Lower Niger. The establishment of these firms was admittedly a political move which coincided with the extension of French influence from Senegal into the interior. Nearly at the same time a young Englishman, George Goldie-Taubman, afterwards better known as Sir George Goldie (q.v.), having some private interests on the Niger, conceived the idea of amalgamating all local British inter ests and creating a British province on the Niger. To effect this end the United African Company was formed in 1879 and trade was pushed upon the river with an energy which convinced the French firms of the futility of their less united efforts. They yielded the field and allowed themselves to be bought out by the United African Company in 1884. At the Berlin Conference held in 1884-85 the British representative was able to state that Great Britain alone possessed trading interests on the Lower Niger, and in June 1885 a British protectorate was notified over the coast lands known as the Oil rivers. Germany had in the mean time established itself in Cameroons, and the new British protec torate extended along the Gulf of Guinea from the British colony of Lagos on the west to the new German colony on the east, where the Rio del Rey marked the frontier. In the following

year, 1886, the United African Company received a royal charter under the title of the Royal Niger Company. The territories which were placed by the charter under the control of the corn pany were those immediately bordering the Lower Niger in its course from the confluence at Lokoja to the sea. On the coast they extended from the Forcados to the Nun mouth of the river. Beyond the confluence European trade had not at that time penetrated to the interior.

The interior was held by powerful Mohammedan rulers who had imposed a military domination upon the indigenous races and were not prepared to open their territories to European inter course. To secure British political influence, and to preserve a possible field for future development, the Niger Company had negotiated treaties with some of the most important of these rulers, and the nominal extension of the company's territories was carried over the whole sphere of influence thus secured. The movements of Germany from the south-east, and of France from the west and north, were thus held in check, and by securing international agreements the mutual limits of the three European Powers concerned were definitely fixed. The principal treaties relating to the German frontiers were negotiated in 1886 and 1893; the Anglo-French treaties were more numerous; those of i890 and 1898, which laid down the main lines of division between French and British possessions on the northern and western frontiers of Nigeria, having been supplemented by many lesser rectifications of frontier. It was not until 1909 that the whole of the frontier between Nigeria and the French and German pos sessions had been definitely demarcated. Thus, mainly by the action of the Royal Niger Company, and with the employment of a force of 500 Hausa trained under European officers, a terri tory of vast extent, into which the chartered company itself was not able to carry either administrative or trading operations, was secured for Great Britain.

The Protectorate.

Owing to pressure of foreign nations on the company's frontiers, a situation had arisen which the resources of a private company were inadequate to meet. In 1897 rela tions with France on the western border became so strained that Mr. Chamberlain, who was then secretary of state for the colonies, thought it necessary to raise a local force, afterwards known as the West African Frontier Force, for the special de fence of the frontiers of the West African dependencies. In these circumstances it was arranged that in consideration of compensa tion for private rights the company should surrender its charter and transfer all political rights in the territories to the Crown. The transfer took place on Jan. 1, 1900, from which date the company, which dropped the name of "royal," became a purely trading corporation. The southern portion of the territories was amalgamated with the Niger Coast protectorate, the whole dis trict taking the name of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, while the northern portion, extending from a line drawn slightly above 7° N. to the frontier of the French possessions on the north and including the confluence of the Niger and the Benue at Lokoja, was proclaimed a protectorate under the name of Northern Nigeria.