The Portuguese, who visited Benin, which they called Beny, were the first Europeans to do so between the years of 1472 and 1486 AD, when King Ozolua was in power. The Portuguese acknowledged discovering a highly advanced kingdom with an extremely sophisticated system. This trip… The Portuguese, who visited Benin, which they called Beny, were the first Europeans to do so between the years of 1472 and 1486 AD, when King Ozolua was in power. The Portuguese acknowledged discovering a highly advanced kingdom with an extremely sophisticated system. Following this visit and the ensuing correspondence, King John II of Portugal, who ruled from 1481 to 1495, corresponded with the King of Benin on an equal footing. The Portuguese forged diplomatic and commercial ties with Oba Esigie and the Benin Kingdom between 1504 and 1550 AD.
When the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese king responded by dispatching missionaries to spread the gospel among the Binis. In 1 553, the English made their first call. This visit was a sign of things to come, that is England and Benin would soon establish a substantial trade relationship. Bini was dubbed Great Benin by British anthropologist and curator Henry Ling Roth. In the 16th and 17th centuries, other European travelers to Benin brought back stories of the “Great Benin,” an amazing city with opulent architecture and a well-functioning government. The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory.
The state produced works of art in bronze, iron, and ivory with unparalleled skill and developed a sophisticated artistic culture. They carved representations of historical events that they thought were important. Benin also established a strong military infrastructure. The Benin Bronzes are an assemblage of over three thousand brass plaques from the Kingdom of Benin’s royal palace. During the 1897 Benin Expedition, a British force took them and turned them over to the British Foreign Office. The British Museum in London received about 200 of these after that, and the remaining ones were distributed among various collections. Felix von Luschan bought most of them on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin, which is now known as the Ethnological Museum.
Between the United Kingdom and Benin
The Kingdom of Benin maintained its independence at the close of the 1800s, and the British found it annoying that the Oba had a monopoly on trade. Proponents of British annexation of the Benin Empire included Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey, the British vice-consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate. In order to prevent Benin from being annexed by any other European power, Britain had to create a sphere of influence. The race for Africa during this time in world history led to the Berlin Conferences of 1884 and 1885, which divided Africa among the then-existing European powers. The General Act, which partially incorporates the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present,” which states that a nation may only claim a colony if it genuinely possesses the colony, was the agreement reached at the conclusion of the Berlin Conference. In order to assert its claim, it must sign treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and set up a local government. In order to claim this colony exclusively over other European countries, the colonial power had to make direct use of its economic resources.
It became necessary, therefore, to force the local chiefs to sign treaties with the European countries on paper. Therefore, expeditions were sent to force traditional leaders to sign treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control. Britain declared its Sphere of Influence to stretch from Lagos to the River Rio Del Ray, close to Cameroon, by June 5, 1885. Britain dubbed this area of influence the Oil Rivers Protectorate. But it did not include Benin in the middle.
In an attempt to annex Benin Kingdom and establish a British protectorate, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate (later known as the Niger Coast Protectorate), traveled to Benin City in March 1892. Despite his doubts about the British intentions, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), the King of Benin, was prepared to support what he saw as a friendship and trade pact. When it became clear that Gallwey’s treaty was a ruse to turn Benin Kingdom into a British colony, he decided not to support it. As a result, the King issued a proclamation prohibiting all British officials and merchants from traveling to the territories of Benin. Since the “Treaty” was regarded as legitimate and binding by Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities, He considered the King’s response to be hostile since it went against the agreement. The Protectorate made three attempts to impose the Gallwey “Treaty” between September 1895 and mid-1896. (The Massacre in Benin) Vice-Consu Phillips asked permission to invade Benin and remove the Oba in a letter to British Foreign Secretary Lord Salisbury in November. Phillips included the following footnote: “I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool.” Without waiting for a response or approval from London, he left for a military expedition in late December 1896.
He had 250 African soldiers and a few Europeans undercover as porters. The porters’ bags contained weapons that belonged to the force. In order to determine whether or not the visit was amicable, the Benin king chose to allow the British to enter the city. In defiance of the king’s orders, the commander of the Benin Army formed a strike force with the goal of destroying the invaders. The strike force caught Phillips’ column completely off guard on January 4, 1897. Of the British officers that survived the Benin soldiers‘ annihilation, only two survived.
Punitive Expedition to Benin
Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was assigned to command an expedition to seize the Benin king and demolish Benin City on January 12, 1897. The invasion of the Benin kingdom started on February 9, 1897, and was known as the Benin Punitive Expedition. The field commanders were given orders to set fire to every town and village within the kingdom of Benin. The three columns that made up the invasion force consisted of roughly 1200 British Marines, sailors, and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces. After fierce fighting for ten days, they finally arrived in Benin City. Soldiers from Benin routed one column. Looting started as soon as the British invaders took control of the city. Numerous powerful chiefs’ monuments and mansions plundered. Deliberate torching occurred inside residences, places of worship, and palaces.
To pay for the expedition’s expenses, the British Admiralty seized the war booty and put it up for auction. The spread of Benin art to international museums marked the start of a protracted and gradual European reevaluation of the worth of West African art. The early development of modernism in Europe was greatly influenced by the Benin art, which was imitated, and the style incorporated into the works of numerous European artists. Eventually, the British consul-general Moor captured the King of Benin, overthrew him, and sent him to die in Calabar.
The Protectorate of southern Nigeria was finally proclaimed and promulgated by Britain on December 27, 1899, and it went into force on January 1, 1900.
