THE BRITISH INVASION OF BENIN AND ITS AFTERMATH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter one
Background to Study - - - - - - - - -
Chapter Two
The British Invasion - - - - - - - - - - -
Chapter Three
 impact of the British Invasion - - - - - - - -
Chapter Four
Benin Artifacts in the International Society - - - - - - -
Chapter Five
Conclusion - - - -
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
A Brief History about Benin Empire
The origin of the Benin’s that later built the Benin Empire is wrapped in the distant past of which much have been written about. Hence, Benin history is an elusive story, being an amalgam of travelers, account, oral tradition, art history and archeology.
It is imperative to note that the heartlands of Edo revolves around Benin City, on which the famous old Benin Empire held sway for over two thousand years and contrary to the beliefs of what the earlier writer have written about the history of Benin, modern historians are now beginning to accept the fact that earlier beliefs as to the origin of Benin are neither supported by archeologitycal or ethological facts.7
The origin of Benin, revolves around two hypothesis, the dramatic hypothesis by Jacob Egharevba, who suggested that the people of Benin migrated from Egypt, many, many years ago in order to find a secured shelter in the part of the world, and after a short stay in Sudan and Ile-Ife, which the Binis called Ube.
While the other, is the Snail Shell Hypothesis, which said that the Benin Empire was founded by the youngest son of God (Osanobua), who was sent to live in the world with his elder brothers including the fist king of Ife. Osanobua asked them, (his sons) to chose one thing that was dearest to them, other choose wealth, magical skills, but the youngest son choose a snail shell, which contained sand and with that sand he created the Benin Empire.8
An insight about the Benin Kingdom will not be complete without looking at the political and economic aspects of the Benin Kingdom.
The Political Aspects: The political aspect of the Benin Kingdom is centered around the Oba. The Oba is seen as the Supreme Being, a god, as he was called by his people, and the Oba was believed to have come from the sky (heaven). The Oba is an embodiment of he culture of the Benin people, everything revolves around the Oba, for example, a matured man is referred to as “Okpioba” meaning (Oba’s man) while a matured woman will be referred to as “Okhuoba” meaning (Oba’s woman), even in their salutations, the Benin people did not fail to reverence their oba, their good morning is “Obowie” (meaning king of the morning) while their good afternoon is “Obavan (meaning – king of the noon) and their good evening is “obaota” (meaning king of the evening). The Oba’s political power is highly respected and feared by the people. The Oba’s decision in any matter was unalterable, and the Oba was able to govern the people with the help of the chiefs. The government of the Benin Empire was administered in the name of the Oba.9
The Economic Aspects: The main occupation of the Benin people was agriculture although certain crops and livestock featured prominently in some areas than others. The Benin people cultivated a number of crops such as; yam, maize, melon, plantain, groundnut, etc. They also engaged in hunting games, using dogs and locally made guns, although they were a number of prominent rivers in the areas, the people were not good at fishing and so they depended on their neighbor for fish.10
They made trade exchange with their neighbors and Europeans. Though these exchange the Oba and some prominent chiefs was able to require horses and some other items. The Benin people produced iron work and wood carving. According to Igbafe,
The common people of Benin were organized into occupational groups of craftsmen and professional, who supplied the Oba’s specific need in return for monopoly rights from the obtain their various trade.11
The Benin territory took a great boost through their trade exchange with Europeans, especially with Portugal, as Igbafe pointed out:
European trade with Benin stimulated the growth of trade between Benin and the hinterland as a result of the new and heavy demand for certain products, most notable of which was cotton. The trade also increased the general level of production for most Benin indigenous weaving industry experience a book period during, which demands constantly outstripped supply, Benin traders therefore took towards the hinterland for additional supply.12
In a way of conclusion, the Benin Empire, although without no exact history, still has an history and it is among one of the greatest empire of all time.
 Statement of Research Problem
The British invasion has been a topic of much speculation among writers and historians and a lot of books have been written about it, but what previous historians an writers refused to write about the impact of the British invasion on the Benin Kingdom, and this will be my major concern for this topic.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of this work is to examine the British invasion of the Benin kingdom in 1897, or analyze the invasion while the objective of this work is to undertake an analysis
of the positive and negative impact and to attend an appraisal of the impact of the British invasion in subsequent Benin history.
Methodology
In order to carry out this work, relevance will be placed on primary and secondary materials. Primary materials will include oral interviews conducted in Benin of Benin traditional historians, while secondary materials will include articles, journals and textbooks.
Literature Review
In order for this work to be carried out effectively, literature’s are relevant to this
work.          
Among them is the work of E.B. Eweka “evolution of Benin Chieftaincy Titles, in which he discussed the origin of the Benin people, but the book failed to give us a more detailed and prescribed history of the origin of the Benin people, although the book is still of great importance to this topic.1
Jacob Egharevba, work, “A short history of Benin, this work, have as more detailed and prescribed explanation of the origin of he Benin people and it also gave us an insight about the British invasion of Benin empire, but the book did not provide us with a more detailed account about the British invasion, which is where the topic will be based on, but this book is still of great importance to this work.2
While Joseph I. Osagie, ITAN,: Journal of Department of History and International Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2003, talks about the economic activities of the Benin kingdom and other communities before British invasion, although this journal did not talk about the
political and social activities of the Benin Kingdom before the British invasion, it is still of great importance to this topic.
Daniel .N. Oronsaye, in his work titled, “The history of ancient Benin Kingdom and Empire,” gives us a more detailed description about the origin and history of the Benin Kingdom, how the Oba dynasty came about and also described he power of the Oba, although this book did not talk about the British invasion, it is still of great importance to this topic.3
Leo .E. Otoide, article, titled, “prelude to the British punitive expedition” to Benin: An Analysis of the Gallway Treaty of 1892,” this article have a detailed description of what led to the British invasion of the Benin Empire, starting with the misunderstanding about the Gallway treaty, that lead to the Benin massacre which led to the British invasion. This work is of immense importance to this topic.4   The other category of works include, Osariemen B. Osadolor, “The Benin royalist movement and the political opponents,”5 which talks about the impact of the British invasion of Benin Kingdom, and Philip A. Igbafe, “Nemesis of Power” which gave a more concrete explanation about the political impact of the.
Chapterization
Chapter One:
Background to the study: This talks about the project proposal and a brief history of the                                                                                                      
Benin kingdom
Chapter Two:
The British Invasion of the Benin Kingdom in1897: This talk about the events that led to the invasion and the invasion itself.
Chapter Three:  
Political impact of the British invasion: This talk about the impact of the British invasion
in the political sphere.
The economic impact: This also talks about the impact of the British invasion
in the economic sphere.
Chapter Four:
Benin Artifact in International Society: This explains the reaction of the international society to the Benin arts which the British took from the invasion.
Chapter Five:
Conclusion: This is a summary of all the chapters and a conclusion of the work.
Significance of Study
The reason for this topic is to give detailed understanding about the British invasion and also concrete explanation about what led to the British invasion and its impacts, the Political and Economic impact.
Endnotes
1.    E.B. Eweka, Evolution of Benin Chieftaincy Titles,(Benin City:Uniben Press,1992), pp 1-9.
2.    Jacob Egharevba, A Short History of Benin,(Ibadan:Ibadan University Press,1968), pp. 1-7.
3.    Daniel N. Oronsaye, The History of Ancient Benin Kingdom and Empire, (Benin City:Jeromlaiho Publisher,1995), pp. 60-68.
4.    Leo E. Otoide, Prelude to the British Punitive Expedition to Benin:An Analysis of the Gallway Treaty of 1982( Ibadan:longman,2000), p.20.
5.    Philip Igbafe, The nemesis of Power,(Benin City:Macmillan Nigeria,  1991), pp. 1-4.
6.    P.A. Igbafe, The Pre-colonial Economic Foundations of the Benin Kingdom (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1980), p.22.
7.    Alan Ryder, Benin and the Europeans: 1485– 1897, (London:Longman Group Limited, 1969), pp. 1-2.
8.    Egharevba, A Short History of Benin, pp. 10-11.
9.    Jacob U. Egharevba, Benin law and Custom,(Ibadan:Ibadan University Press,1946), pp.21-2
10.    Joseph I. Osagie, ITAN:Journal of the Department journal of History and       International Studies,Vol.3, No.1,2002.83.
11.    Igbafe, The Pre_colonial Economic foundations of the Benin  kingdom,pp.24-26.
12.      Ibid., p.28.

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