Today we will be discussing the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria.

All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed resources such as palm oil to maintain that.

Palm oil of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta. Malaysia’s dominance came a century later.

By 1870, palm oil had replaced slaves as the main export of the Niger Delta, the area which was once known as the Slave Coast. At first, most of the trade in the oil palm was uncoordinated, with natives selling to those who gave them the best deals. Native chiefs such as former slave, Jaja of Opobo became immensely wealthy because of oil palm. With wealth comes influence.

However, among the Europeans, there was competition for who would get preferential access to the lucrative oil palm trade. In 1879, George Goldie (1846 – 1925, pictured below) formed the United African Company, which was modeled on the former East India Company. Goldie effectively took control of the Lower Niger River. By 1884, his company had 30 trading posts along the Lower Niger. This monopoly gave the British a strong hand against the French and Germans in the 1884 Berlin Conference. The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference.

When the Brits got the terms they wanted from other Europeans, they began to deal with the African chiefs. Within two years of 1886, Goldie had signed treaties with tribal chiefs along the Benue and Niger Rivers whilst also penetrating inland. This move inland was against the spirit of verbal agreements that had been made to restrict the organisation’s activities to coastal regions.

By 1886, the company name changed to “The National Africa Company” and was granted a royal charter (incorporated). The charter authorized the company to administer the Niger Delta and all lands around the banks of the Benue and Niger Rivers. Soon after, the company was again renamed. The new name was “Royal Niger Company”, which survives, as Unilever, till this day.

To local chiefs, the Royal Niger Company negotiators had pledged free trade in the region. Behind, they entered private contracts on their terms. Because the (deceitful) private contracts were often written in English and signed by the local chiefs, the British government enforced them. So for example, Jaja of Opobo, when he tried to export palm oil on his own, was forced into exile for “obstructing commerce”. As an aside, Jaja was “forgiven” in 1891 and allowed to return home, but he died on the way back, poisoned with a cup of tea.

Seeing what happened to Jaja, some other native rulers began to look more closely at the deals they were getting from the the Royal Nigeria Company. One of such kingdoms was Nembe, who’s king, Koko Mingi VIII, ascended the throne in 1889 after being a Christian schoolteacher. Koko Mingi VIII, King Koko for short, and like most rulers in the yard, was faced with the Royal Nigeria Company encroachment. He also resented the monopoly enjoyed by the the Royal Nigeria Company, and tried to seek out favourable trading terms, with particularly the Germans in Kamerun.

By 1894 the the Royal Nigeria Company increasingly dictated whom the natives could trade with, and denied them direct access to their former markets.

In late 1894, King Koko renounced Christianity, and tried to form an alliance with Bonny and Okpoma against the the Royal Nigeria Company to take back the trade. This is significant because while Okpoma joined up, Bonny refused. A harbinger of the successful “divide and rule” tactic.

On 29 January 1895, King Koko led an attack on the Royal Niger Company’s headquarters, which was in Akassa in today’s Bayelsa state. The pre-dawn raid had more than a thousand men involved. King Koko’s attack succeeded in capturing the base. Losing 40 of his men, King Koko captured 60 white men as hostages, as well as a lot of goods, ammunition and a Maxim gun. Koko then attempted to negotiate a release of the hostages in exchange for being allowed to chose his trading partners. The British refused to negotiate with Koko, and he had forty of the hostages killed. A British report claimed that the Nembe people ate them. On 20 February 1895, Britain’s Royal Navy, under Admiral Beford attacked Brass, and burned it to the ground. Many Nembe people died and smallpox finished off a lot of others.

By April 1895, business had returned to “normal”, normal being the conditions that the British wanted, and King Koko was on the run. Brass was fined £500 by the British, £26,825 in today’s money, and the looted weapons were returned as well as the surviving prisoners. After a British Parliamentary Commission sat, King Koko was offered terms of settlement by the British, which he rejected and disappeared. The British promptly declared him an outlaw and offered a reward of £200 (£10,730 today) for him. He committed suicide in exile in 1898.

About that time, another “recalcitrant King”, the Oba of Benin, was run out of town. The pacification of the Lower Niger was well and truly under way.

The immediate effect of the Brass Oil War was that public opinion in Britain turned against the the Royal Nigeria Company, so its charter was revoked in 1899. Following the revoking of its charter, the the Royal Niger Company sold its holdings to the British government for £865,000 (£46,407,250 today). That amount, £46,407,250 (NGN12,550,427,783.81 at today’s exchange rate) was effectively the price Britain paid, to buy the territory which was to become known as Nigeria.

Written by Chika taken from this web link..,http://africasacountry.com/…/historyclass-who-sold-nigeria…/

K

Palm oil of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta

I am hearing this (FAKE) claim for the first time.

So dis is how kidnapping started in the Niger- Delta

The British were too full of themselves... How I wish they never were liberated from their colonization by Rome... Imagine coming to your lands, run you off, tag you an outlaw and steal your resources... God punish them and their crown...

So what is the person's name?

I have heard this before, how sad that many people in Nigeria don't know about our colonial history

Our problem is not the white man but our very own greed. Africans can sell their mothers, kids and fathers for some pocket change.
Imagine some Niggers taking the white/foreign mans side to rob and rape our land. Yet we are quick to blane the goat when he enters our open farm to eat our yam

kingog123:


Consult ur dictionary..... don't disgrace us

Duh! Palm oil did not originate from ''Niger Delta''. It is, by origin, from all over the southern part of West and Central Africa.

DuchessLily:
So what is the person's name?

Lord aberdare who was then governor of the company...

Copied ans saved. Our fore-fathers really suffered for this land and today we are seeing betreyers only trying to amass wealth and frustrate a fellow brother/region

kingog123:


Bros consult your dictionary again

A dictionary is not an agricultural science or evolutionary biology or botany text book. Which school did you attend, if any?

The same idiots destroyed our Crude oil are now back to exploit our non oil export while the APC children of hate celebrate the 4.5 trillion naira deal

The same idiots destroyed our Crude oil are now back to exploit our non oil export while the APC children of hate celebrate the 4.5 trillion naira deal.

Let me get this. . .

The sale of the region now known as Nigeria, happened cos of the attrocities committed in the south by the now Niger Deltans and the British.

In other words, the North had no part to play in any of the transactions.

Mexense:
Let me get this. . .

The sale of the region now known as Nigeria, happened cos of the attrocities committed in the south by the now Niger Deltans and the British.

In other words, the North had no part to play in any of the transactions.

And to continue the history........ The Royal Niger Company recruited Lugard to lead the West African Fronteer Force to protect the interests of the company as well as personnel. It was with this Army that Lugard took over the area now known as Nigeria. Lugard appreciated that he was dealing with different ethnic groups with different norms so he used the River Niger as a demarcation point and at the suggestion of his then girlfriend, later wife, Flora Shaw, called those North of the River "Nothern protectorate of Nigeria" and those in the south "Southern Protectorate" Both having two separate Governors. Lugard became the Governor of the Northern Protectorate and in 1914, for purely administrative and economic convenience and without seeking the approval of the indigenes made one of the worse decisions in history by amalgamating the North and South Protectorates. Lord Lugard then became the first Governor General.

Hmmm

I'm beginning to think that the present day northern Nigeria, prior to being bought/or sold and then labelled Nigeria was given as an offer.
Something like ' buy the economically sound south and we'll add the dry land up there free'