ABSTRACT
The earliest settlements in what is now Nigeria are indicated by stone tools dating back 12,000 years. Microlithic and ceramic industries were developed by pastoralists in the savanna from at least the fourth millennium B.C. and were continued by grain farmers in the stable agricultural communities that subsequently evolved there. British influence and control over what would become Nigeria grew through the 19th century. A series of constitutions after World War II granted Nigeria greater autonomy; independence came in 1960. Following nearly 16 years of military rule, a new constitution was adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed. The first geodetic surveys of Nigeria were performed by the British Royal Engineers in 1910-1912. The geodetic and cadastral surveys of colonial Nigeria appear to be of exceptional quality, particularly considering the enormous financial strains of funding such work during the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.
