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 travellers 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. Major Dixon Denham and Captain Hugh Clapperton entered the country now known as Northern Nigeria from the north in 1823, crossing the desert from Tripoli. Clapperton in 1826–1827 made a second journey, approaching the same territory from the Guinea coast. Dr Barth, travelling under the auspices of the British government, entered the country from the north and made the journeys, lasting over two years between 1852 and 1855, of which he has left the record that 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 twenty-five 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 trade 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 render possible the ultimate withdrawal of British official influence from the coast, the consulate of Lokoja was abandoned.
It was re-established a few years later to meet the still steadily growing requirements of British trade upon the river. In 1880 the influence of the international “scramble for Africa” made itself felt by the establishment under the recognized protection of the French government of two French firms which opened upwards of thirty 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 interests 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. Formation
of the Royal Niger Company.They yielded the field and allowed themselves to be bought out by the United African Company in 1884. At the Berlin Conference held in 1884–1885 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 meantime established itself in Cameroon and the new British protectorate 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 company 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 Mahommedan rulers who had imposed a military domination upon the indigenous races and were not prepared to open their territories to European intercourse. 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 1890 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. (See Africa, §5.) It was not until 1909 that the whole of the frontier between Nigeria and the French and German possessions had been definitely demarcated. Thus, mainly by the action of the Royal Niger Company, a territory of vast extent, into which the chartered company itself was not able to carry either administrative or trading operations, was secured for Great Britain. In 1897, at a time when disputes with France upon the western frontier had reached a very active stage, the company entered upon a campaign against the Mahommedan sovereign of Nupe. This campaign would, no doubt, have led to important results had the company retained its administrative powers. In the expedition a force of 500 Hausa, drilled and trained by the company, and led by thirty white officers—of whom some were lent for the occasion by the War Office—decisively defeated a force of some thousands of native troops, led by the emir of Nupe himself. The capital town of Bida was taken and the emir deposed. From Bida the expedition marched to Illorin, where again the whole district submitted to the authority of the company. In Illorin the campaign had some lasting effect. In Nupe, on the northern side of the river, as the company was unable to occupy the territory conquered, things shortly reverted to their previous condition. When the company’s troops were withdrawn the deposed emir returned and reoccupied the throne, leaving the situation to be dealt with after the territories of the company had been transferred to the crown.
The complications to which the pressure of foreign nations, and especially of France, on the frontiers of the territories gave rise, became at this period so acute that the resources of a private company were manifestly inadequate to meet the possible necessities of the to the position. Relations with France on the western Transfer of authority to the crown.border became so strained that in 1897 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 defence of the frontiers of the West African dependencies. In these circumstances it was judged advisable to place the territories of the Royal Niger Company, to which the general name of Nigeria had been given, under the direct control of the crown. It was therefore arranged that in consideration of compensation 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 the 1st of January 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 district 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.
The company, during its tenure of administrative power under the charter, had organized its territories south of the confluence, into trading districts, over each of which there was placed a European agent. The executive powers in Africa were entrusted to an agent general with three provincial and twelve district superintendents. There was a small judicial staff directed by a chief justice, and there was a native constabulary of about 1000 men, trained and drilled by white officers. The company kept also upon the river a fleet of about
