Please sit back and enjoy.

The 19th century was a hundred years of rapid change and evolution for the millions of people that lived in the jittery and vast Niger Delta region.

Catalysted by the advent of Europeans and the development of a well-structured trading network, this rapid change spread like an infectious flu, infecting the wide and diverse jungles of what is today southern Nigeria.

It's highways were the already well-developed trading networks established by the peoples of the interior and the coast for their mutual benefit.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Igbo_Trade_Routes_before_1900.svg[/img]

The region was vast and multi-ethnic.

At the coast, in trading cities such as Bonny, Opobo, and Brass, existed the Ijaw (Ijo/Izon).



The Ijaw were the intermediaries between the Europeans and the peoples of the interior. They existed in various independent trading hamlet that were connected commercially.

These trading hamlets formed guilds in order to protect their common interests. For example, people from certain towns were not allowed to trade outside of their allotted "business zone" so as to avoid damaging the business of another.

The Ijaw were usually open to their European visitors. They appreciated them on account of the trade and business which they brought along with them, and as a sign of their friendship, they offered the Europeans land to form trading posts.

Initially, these trading posts were centers in which the Europeans traded guns, cloth, hats, and other manufactured goods. However by the 19th century, the Europeans began using three trading posts as launching points for their interior penetrations.


[img]http://driwancybermuseum.files./2010/12/nigeria-britsh-soldier-arogan-pic.jpg[/img]

To the east of the Ijaw peoples existed the Ibibio peoples (Efik, Annang, Eket, Ibibio, and Oron). Long before the 19th century, the Ibibio peoples (the Efik in particular) were the main figures in the commercial scene of the Delta.

[img]http://www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/moostuff/images/tfamoo/villagescene.jpg[/img]

The Efik, like their Ijaw counterparts, existed in autonomous family-led communities that were interlinked in trade relationships. Among the Efik, the Ekpe institution allowed the facilitation of unhindered trade and mass commercial activity; individuals could lend one another with reassurance that their debts would be paid since there were strong forces to regulate law and commerce in each of the Efik city-states.

Among the Efik city states: two rose to extraordinary prominence: Duke town and Creek town.

I'll continue later.

Like a lighthouse on the "dark" coast of West Africa, Calabar served as a beacon to European traders and merchants.



For hundreds of years, the main commodity in Calabar was slaves from the interior. However, by the 19th century, due to British sanctions on the slave trade, the trade had declined and instead palm oil production resumed in Calabar. Slavery was officially declared illegal in Calabar in 1841 by Obong Eyamba (who was forced to so so by British pressure). However, despite this, brave slave merchants continued to smuggle slaves throughout the creeks of the Efik country.

In the mysterious interior, existed the Igbo peoples.

[img]http://3.bp..com/_GrDAQ4MFcs4/TUgZ053aruI/AAAAAAAACHs/s5vL3IcG8UA/s400/Igboland.jpg[/img]

The Igbo were a large group of peoples who existed in various independent communities that were often linked together commercially. The main occupation of the Igbo was farming, however they were also skilled in trading and palm oil production.

[img]http://3.bp..com/-jx53BnLKBCM/Tpbz4bhpY0I/AAAAAAAAAoY/r2UYxIkD5e8/s1600/figures.jpg[/img]

Due to their large population, the Igbo were the primary source of slaves headed to the coastal cities.

In the Igbo hinterland, a group called the Aro became enormously powerful as a result of the slave trade. The Aro manipulated the slave trade for their own personal gains and expanded it into most corners of the Igbo country.

[img]http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/igbo/iriagha1.JPG[/img]

The Aro were an industrious and businesst-orientated people who set up trading settlements and market fairs wherever they went. Their markets were organzed by Aro families who sought to make enormous profits on slaves. The most famous [Aro dominated] markets in the hinterland were: Agbagwu market, Uzuakoli market, and Bende market.

The Aro, with their well-established commercial relations with Efik and Ijaw businessmen, were the chief suppliers of slaves from the Igbo and Ibibio hinterland. With their feared mercenaries and their numerous allies, the Aro raided dozens of settlements, feeding the coastal cities' insatiable appetites for human merchandise.

Historians speculate that an average of 17,000 people were moved from the Igbo hinterland to the coast every year for 300 years.

This means that 5.1 million people were moved out of the Igbo country over the course of the Atlantic slave trade. As a result of this, it can be said that Igboland was heavily depopulated while the coastal states grew in population and size.