ABSTRACT
Empires place different peoples in different relations to a shared overlord. They are necessarily collections of anomalies. This was particularly so for the largest empire, that of Great Britain. This chapter looks at two of its most anomalous territories and how the war changed them. During the war their traditional rulers and indigenous elites had vigorously asserted their support of the British war effort and their devotion to British values. At the outbreak of the war, both Lagos and Tonga had significant German communities. Lagos and Tonga each had indigenous rulers. The descendant of King Dosunmo, who had ceded his rule to the British in 1861, still lived in his palace, called himself Eleko (Lord of Lagos), and retained the loyalty of Lagosians. While he received a meagre stipend, he had no role in the administration, which in the language of imperialism was ‘direct’. The Germans of Lagos and of the rest of Nigeria had been deported.
