Resumen de From conquest to independence: the nigerian colonial experience
This paper is a panoramic discussion of the imposition and character of colonial British administration in Nigeria. It begins by examining the factors and circumstances which facilitated the intrusion of the British in the Nigerian area. The most important event in this development was the conquest of the Lagos in 1851 and its formal incorporation as a colony ten years later in 1861. Concomitantly, British influence spread into the hinterland from Lagos and from the lower reaches of the Niger. Such, however, was the character of the British penetration that when in 1900 political control was formally established over the Nigerian area it took the tripartite form of three autonomous administrations. These three became subsequently amalgamated in 1914 to form the Nigerian state; yet the tripartite administrative traditions were not obliterated and they remained as latent forces modifying the country�s historical development. Thus, at the twilight of the colonial period, Nigerian nationalism, developing as it was to terminate British colonialism, became negatively adulterated by ethnic nationalism resting on the strong pillars of the tripartite traditions fostered by British colonial rule. The Nigerian state therefore emerged from colonialism with the problem of forging political unity.
