Early
(500 BC – 1500)
The Nok civilisation
of Northern Nigeria
flourished between 500 BC and AD 200, producing life-sized terracotta figures
which are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further
north, the cities Kano
and Katsina have a recorded
history dating to around 999 AD. Hausa
kingdoms and the Kanem-Bornu Empire
prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa.
The Kingdom of Nri
of the Igbo people
consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to
the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri,
and the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture. Nri and
Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the
Umeuri clan. Members of the clan trace their lineages back to the patriarchal
king-figure Eri.
In West Africa, the oldest bronzes made using the lost-wax process
were from Igbo Ukwu, a city
under Nri influence.
The Yoruba kingdoms of Ife
and Oyo in southwestern
Nigeria became prominent in the 12th and 14th centuries, respectively. The
oldest signs of human
settlement at Ife's current site date back to the 9th century, and its material
culture includes terracotta and bronze figures.
Middle
Ages (1500–1800)
Oyo, at its territorial zenith in the late 17th to early
18th centuries, extended its influence from western Nigeria to modern-day Togo.
The Edo Kingdom of Benin is
located in southwestern Nigeria. Benin's power lasted between the 15th and 19th
centuries. Their dominance reached as far as the city of Eko (an Edo
name later changed to Lagos by the Portuguese)
and further.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Usman dan Fodio
directed a successful jihad
and created and led the centralised Fulani
Empire (also known as the Sokoto Caliphate).
The territory controlled by the resultant state included much of modern-day
northern and central Nigeria; it lasted until the 1903 break-up of the Empire
into various European colonies.
Benin City in
the 17th century with the Oba of Benin in
procession. This image appeared in a European book, Description of Africa,
published in Amsterdam in 1668.
Benin City in
the 17th century with the Oba of Benin in
procession. This image appeared in a European book, Description of Africa,
published in Amsterdam in 1668
For centuries, various peoples in modern-day Nigeria
traded overland with traders from North Africa. Cities in the area became
regional centres in a broad network of trade routes that spanned western,
central and northern Africa. In the 16th century, Spanish and Portuguese
explorers were the first Europeans to begin significant, direct trade with
peoples of modern-day Nigeria, at the port they named Lagos
and in Calabar.
Europeans traded goods with peoples at the coast; coastal trade with Europeans
also marked the beginnings of the Atlantic
slave trade.
The port of Calabar on the historical Bight
of Biafra (now commonly referred to as the Bight of
Bonny) become one of the largest slave trading posts in West Africa in the era
of the transatlantic slave trade. Other major slaving ports in Nigeria were
located in Badagry,
Lagos on the Bight of Benin
and on Bonny Island on
the Bight of Biafra. The majority of those enslaved and taken to these ports
were captured in raids and wars. Usually the captives were taken back to the
conquerors' territory as forced labour; after time, they were sometimes
acculturated and absorbed into the conquerors' society. A number of slave
routes were established throughout Nigeria linking the hinterland areas with
the major coastal ports. Some of the more prolific slave traders were linked
with the Oyo Empire in the southwest, the Aro
Confederacy in the southeast and the Sokoto Caliphate in
the north
Slavery
also existed in the territories comprising modern-day Nigeria; its scope was
broadest towards the end of the 19th century.
According to the Encyclopedia of African History, "It is estimated
that by the 1890s the largest slave population of
the world, about 2 million people, was concentrated in the territories of the Sokoto Caliphate. The
use of slave labor was extensive, especially in agriculture."
A changing legal imperative (transatlantic slave trade
outlawed by Britain in 1807) and economic imperative (a desire for political
and social stability) led most European powers to support widespread
cultivation of agricultural products, such as the palm, for use in European
industry.
British Nigeria (1800–1960)
The slave trade was engaged in by European state and
non-state actors such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal
and private companies, as well as various African states and non-state actors.
With rising anti-slavery sentiment at home and changing economic realities, Great Britain outlawed the international
slave trade in 1807. Following the Napoleonic
Wars, Great Britain established the West
Africa Squadron in an attempt to halt the international
traffic in slaves. It
stopped ships of other nations that were leaving the African coast with slaves;
the seized slaves were taken to Freetown, a
colony in West Africa originally established for the resettlement of freed
slaves from Britain. Britain intervened in the Lagos Kingship power struggle by
bombarding Lagos in 1851, deposing the slave trade friendly Oba Kosoko, helping
to install the amenable Oba Akitoye,
and signing the Treaty between Great Britain
and Lagos on 1 January 1852. Britain annexed Lagos as
a Crown Colony in August 1861 with the Lagos
Treaty of Cession. British missionaries expanded their
operations and travelled further inland. In 1864, Samuel
Ajayi Crowther became the first African bishop of the Anglican Church.
In 1885, British claims to a West African sphere
of influence received recognition from other European
nations at the Berlin Conference.
The following year, it chartered the Royal
Niger Company under the leadership of Sir George
Taubman Goldie. In 1900 the company's territory came under
the control of the British government, which moved to consolidate its hold over
the area of modern Nigeria. On 1 January 1901, Nigeria became a British protectorate,
and part of the British Empire,
the foremost world power at the time. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries
the independent kingdoms of what would become Nigeria fought a number of
conflicts against the British Empire's efforts to expand its territory. By war,
the British conquered Benin in
1897, and, in the Anglo-Aro War
(1901–1902), defeated other opponents. The restraint or conquest of these
states opened up the Niger area to British rule.
In 1914, the British formally united the Niger area as
the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Administratively, Nigeria
remained divided into the Northern
and Southern Protectorates and Lagos Colony.
Inhabitants of the southern region sustained more interaction, economic and
cultural, with the British and other Europeans owing to the coastal economy.
Christian missions established Western educational
institutions in the Protectorates. Under Britain's policy of indirect rule and
validation of Islamic tradition, the Crown did not encourage the operation of
Christian missions in the northern, Islamic part of the country. Some children of the southern elite went to Great Britain to pursue higher
education. By independence in 1960, regional differences in modern educational
access were marked. The legacy, though less pronounced, continues to the
present-day. Imbalances between North and South were expressed in Nigeria's
political life as well. For instance, northern Nigeria did not outlaw slavery
until 1936 whilst in other parts of Nigeria slavery was abolished soon after
colonialism.
Following World War II, in response to the growth of
Nigerian nationalism and demands for independence, successive constitutions
legislated by the British government moved Nigeria toward self-government on
a representative and increasingly federal basis. By the middle of the 20th
century, a great wave
for independence was sweeping across Africa. Nigeria achieved
independence in 1960.
Independent Federation and
First Republic (1960–1966)
Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom as a
Commonwealth Realm on 1 October 1960. Nigeria's government was a coalition of
conservative parties: the Nigerian
People's Congress (NPC), a party dominated by Northerners and
those of the Islamic faith, and the Igbo and Christian-dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons
(NCNC) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Azikiwe became Nigeria's maiden Governor-General in
1960. The opposition comprised the comparatively liberal Action
Group (AG), which was largely dominated by the Yoruba
and led by Obafemi Awolowo.
The cultural and political differences between Nigeria's dominant ethnic groups
– the Hausa ('Northerners'), Igbo ('Easterners') and Yoruba ('Westerners') –
were sharp.
An imbalance was created in the polity by the result of
the 1961
plebiscite. Southern
Cameroon opted to join the Republic of Cameroon while
Northern
Cameroons chose to remain in Nigeria. The northern
part of the country was now far larger than the southern part. In 1963, the
nation established a Federal Republic,
with Azikiwe as its first president.
When elections were held in 1965, the Nigerian National Democratic Party
came to power in Nigeria's Western Region.
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