The Benin Kingdom was located in the western Niger Delta. A variety of councils and societies made up of chiefs and counselors supported the oba, the traditional leader. The Edo-speaking Bini people lived in the kingdom. In the latter half of the fifteenth century, the kingdom was one of the first on the coast that Europeans encountered. Benin and the British were in constant communication. The consular authority and travelers’ accounts had a significant impact on the history of relations in the late nineteenth century.
The former represented a policy that relied on individual authority and ill-defined political goals while highlighting the benefits of free trade. Britain’s informal empire in the region was first established on the island of Fernando Po in the 1840s, and it later became entrenched in Lagos after 1851. Travelers included consul Richard Francis Burton, who went to Benin in 1862 and painted a possibly distorted picture of human sacrifices and moral decay, according to later scholarship. This visit was a key factor in creating the British perception of the kingdom at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Niger Coast Protectorate, another British colony in the Niger Delta in addition to the Royal Niger Company, was a department of the Foreign Office with its administrative seat in Old Calabar and several centers in coastal commercial hubs like Warri and Sapele. In 1892, deputy consul Gallwey signed a treaty with Oba Ovonramwen, who had been ruling since 1888, extending the consular jurisdiction to the kingdom. As some experts say, Benin leaders most certainly misread the deal.
The Bini middlemen in the trade of rubber and palm oil, which was in high demand in the European market following the Dunlop company’s invention of the pneumatic tire in 1887, were thus avoided, according to the British interpretation of it as the kingdom’s formal submission to British economic requirements to permit free trade.
The protectorate put growing pressure on Benin to permit economic activity on its territory based on the terms of the treaty. The oba and Benin leaders appear to have perceived these at the same time as a rising propensity to infiltrate the kingdom and topple its rule. A temptation that had been prevalent on the West African coast existed in the protectorate to use force to overcome Benin’s opposition.
Ralph Moor, the protectorate’s consul general, spoke with the Foreign Office in the years before 1897, signaling his desire to employ force against the Benin Kingdom as early as 1895. The Foreign Office rejected the idea and forbade Moor and acting consul James R. Philips from advancing their careers by carrying out tasks akin to Gallwey’s. There is no doubt that these individual professional objectives played a significant role in the expedition’s attack by soldiers from Benin in January 1897, which resulted in the deaths of seven Europeans, including Philips.
On the one hand, Philips’s mission was conducted without the Foreign Office’s approval, a matter that was being pushed by Moor in London, even if it was first sent as a peaceful diplomatic envoy. On the other hand, its obvious goal was not stated and most definitely was not informed to the authorities in the Benin Kingdom.
The British group was informed that the oba could not meet them because the Ague festivities, a significant event, were in progress and outsiders were not permitted to visit the king. Philips continued moving forward despite warnings. Later investigations revealed that Philips most likely survived the assault and was sent to Benin City, where he most likely passed away from his injuries or was executed, contrary to assertions made at the time.
Since the consul had already prepared a military attack and the acting consul had started an unlawful diplomatic mission, both Moor and Philips went outside the bounds of their authority. Political and military officials in Benin misread the situation since they were the only ones who heard about the arrival of a sizable party.
Although it was not proven that they were armed, ongoing worries in the past led them to prepare to protect the independence of the kingdom from an impending assault. A rapid wave of events led to the public outcry in England and the ensuing punitive expedition. When British forces took over Benin City two months later, the oba and the majority of his chiefs left. To recoup the expense of the mission, the city was set on fire and stripped of its ivory supply.
Some of the most elegant and valuable works of art from royal Africa are bronzes, which were either donated to the British Museum or sold at auction. The museums in Berlin and Vienna made numerous purchases of artifacts.
Images of murder and human sacrifice that were depicted in accounts of the city were used to support the British invasion in discussions at the time. The bulk of the Benin Kingdom chiefs and the oba returned, and Alfred Turner was chosen to start the British government. His initial goal was consolidation and the expression of peaceful purpose; this strategy was successful. In addition to a prosecution of the oba, Moor pushed on a trial of the chiefs who were thought to be accountable for the fatalities in the Philips party.
The oba was deposed and ultimately exiled to Tenerife, while two chiefs received death sentences. Three war chiefs put up a fierce fight, including Ologbose, who had received a death sentence for his involvement in the ambush, and it took British military force until 1899 to finally overcome them. The Southern Nigerian Protectorate is now in charge of a protracted reorganization that began with Ologbose’s death sentence.
The native council, which was made up of former oba’s court officials, served as the colonial government’s administrative intermediaries. The new oba, who was installed in 1914, symbolized the revised British strategy in the area—an effort to impose indirect authority.
In many respects, the punitive expedition against the Benin Kingdom was a typical illustration of British expansionist policies in West Africa throughout the 1890s and 1900s. The Ijebu campaign in 1892, Jaja’s removal in 1894, or the Ashanti war in 1896 are three instances of small-scale operations against autonomous nations and political subdivisions that defied British interests. Many comparable activities, including the Aro campaign from 1902 to 1911, which saw further similar unlawful actions stopped by legal steps, were taken in order to consolidate colonial southern Nigeria.
These extremely contentious battles were mostly carried out by former protectorate officials who were replaced by colonial officials. However, the theft of the Benin bronzes from the palace is still a contentious matter and a painful reminder of 1897 and forceful imperial invasion and oppression.
