ABSTRACT
The British occupied the Niger basin gradually and in roughly six distinct stages that spanned the nineteenth century (Anene 1966, Dusgate 1985, Tamuno 1966, 1972). (i) The Yoruba Kingdom of Lagos was bombarded, annexed and made a Crown colony in the period 1851–61. (ii) The period 1861–90 witnessed the consolidation of British authority and the transformation of the Lagos Crown colony. (iii) In the period 1890–1914, the British embarked on a systematic alteration of the authority patterns that were established in the Crown colony. (iv) Officially, colonial rule was proclaimed in the rest of the Niger basin in the period 1896–1913. (v) Lugardism evolved in the upper Niger in the period 1900–12, and (vi) the period 1914–60 marked the transformation of colonial authority patterns in the entire Niger basin on the aegis of the Nigerian supra-national state.
