British expansion into Yoruba speaking territories did not begin with a single declaration over Yorubaland. It began with Lagos, because Lagos controlled shipping, customs revenue, diplomacy, and the legal machinery that could be extended inland.
On 6 August 1861, Oba Dosunmu ceded Lagos to Britain under threat of force, formalised by the Lagos Treaty of Cession. The treaty transferred sovereignty to the British Crown and turned Lagos into a colonial base with officials, courts, and troops. From that point, Britain could shape the coastline and pressure the interior, not only through trade but through the growing authority of colonial administration.
Lagos sat at the meeting point of Atlantic commerce and inland production. Palm produce, kola, textiles, and agricultural goods moved along routes that ended at the lagoon and the coast. Control the port, and you influence prices, toll disputes, credit networks, and diplomacy that organised inland trade.
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Trade routes, tolls, and the language of free trade
By the late nineteenth century, Yoruba country was politically diverse and often tense. Power was spread across multiple centres, and earlier imperial structures had given way to regional rivalries. Routes could be taxed, blocked, or protected depending on who held advantage. For merchants and officials in Lagos, this unpredictability became a justification for intervention.
British authorities framed deeper involvement as keeping the peace and opening trade. In practice, this meant that Britain increasingly defined which tolls were acceptable, which blockades were unlawful, and which rulers were obstructing commerce. When disputes affected routes feeding Lagos, they were treated as matters of security.
Commercial pressure often preceded treaty negotiations, and treaties were backed by the visible presence of force.
Treaties that narrowed sovereignty
Treaties became central to British expansion. They were written in the language of friendship, commerce, and protection, but their effect was to position Yoruba authorities within a British controlled framework.
A widely cited example is the 1888 treaty attributed to Adeyemi, the Alafin of Oyo, which expressed commitment to friendly relations with Britain and development through legitimate trade. Such agreements created formal recognition of British protection and laid the foundation for further intervention in external affairs.
Yoruba rulers negotiated within these constraints, sometimes seeking stability, trade access, or advantage over rivals. Yet once protection was accepted in writing, Britain claimed authority over diplomacy and asserted the right to arbitrate disputes.
1892, the Ijebu expedition
In 1892, British forces launched an expedition against Ijebu, a polity controlling a key gateway between the coast and the interior. Ijebu resistance to British trade demands made it a focal point of conflict.
The campaign resulted in the defeat of Ijebu forces and the opening of trade routes. Official dispatches were published in the London Gazette, documenting the operation. The expedition demonstrated that British power in Lagos could be projected inland with organised force, altering political calculations across neighbouring territories.
1893, protection treaties expand
Following the Ijebu campaign, British officials pursued broader protection treaties with Yoruba states in the early 1890s. These agreements placed external relations under British authority while allowing rulers to remain in office within defined limits.
Under the protectorate framework, Britain claimed responsibility for foreign relations and security. Over time, this authority extended into internal matters, including arbitration of disputes and enforcement of colonial regulations.
Across Yoruba polities, the pattern became clear, reduced diplomatic autonomy, increased British arbitration, and deeper integration into the colonial sphere centred on Lagos.
1895 Ogun Pepe, Oyo under attack
In November 1895, British forces under Captain Robert Lister Bower attacked Oyo in a conflict remembered as Ogun Pepe. The bombardment followed strained relations and disputes over authority.
The assault compelled Oyo’s submission and reinforced British dominance in the region. As a major historical centre, Oyo’s defeat carried political weight beyond the battlefield. It underscored that colonial authority extended inland and would be enforced where necessary.
Railways and administrative consolidation
Infrastructure followed military and diplomatic expansion. Construction of the Lagos to Ibadan railway began in March 1896 and operations commenced in the early 1900s. The railway accelerated movement of export goods to the port and facilitated troop and administrative travel inland.
Rail corridors reduced the cost of enforcement and strengthened colonial integration. Markets along the line became more closely tied to Lagos and to colonial revenue systems.
Administrative restructuring formalised these changes. The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was established in 1900. In 1906, the Lagos Colony was merged into Southern Nigeria, forming the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. This consolidation unified governance, taxation, policing, and legal authority under a single colonial administration.
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What protectorate meant in practice
For communities across Yoruba speaking territories, protectorate status meant:
- External diplomacy shifted to British control.
- Trade routes were reorganised to serve the coastal export economy.
- Military force could enforce compliance and punish resistance.
- Railways increased administrative reach and economic extraction.
- Local rulers remained but operated within colonial boundaries.
From the seizure of Lagos in 1861 to the consolidation of Southern Nigeria in 1906, British expansion followed a sequence, port control, treaty expansion, armed enforcement, infrastructure development, and administrative integration. This sequence reshaped political authority across the South West.
Author’s Note
The story of British expansion into Yoruba country is not one of a single conquest, but of gradual tightening. Lagos provided the base, treaties framed authority, military campaigns enforced demands, railways strengthened control, and administrative mergers completed the structure. By the early twentieth century, what began as coastal intervention had become a system that reorganised diplomacy, trade, and governance across the region.
References
The London Gazette, official dispatches relating to the 1892 Ijebu expedition, including Colonel F. C. Scott’s reports.
Hansard, House of Commons debates, The Jebu Expedition, May 1892.
Treaty text, Treaty between Adeyemi, Alafin of Oyo and Head of Yoruba land, and Her Majesty Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, July 1888, archived teaching document collection, Swarthmore College.
A. A. Inyang, Imperial Treaties and the Origins of British Colonial Rule in Southern Nigeria, 2014.
Z. O. Apata, Ilorin Lagos Relations in the Nineteenth Century, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1991.
Makhill Publications journal article, Bowers Tower, A Historical Monument in Ibadan, discussion of Anglo Oyo tensions and the 1895 bombardment.
Federal Government of Nigeria, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission bulletin feature, Nigeria’s Railway System, Development, Decline and Rebirth, 2021.
University of Lagos institutional repository, K. R. Okanlawon, A Study of Rail Mass Transit in Lagos and its Environs, 2012.
Standard historical summaries of Lagos Colony, Southern Nigeria Protectorate, and the 1906 merger into the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.
