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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Benin royalist movement and its political opponents: controversy over restoration of the monarchy, 1897-1914 |
Author: | Osadolor, Osarhieme Benson |
Year: | 2011 |
Periodical: | International Journal of African Historical Studies (ISSN 0361-7882) |
Volume: | 44 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 45-59 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | political conflicts traditional rulers indirect rule power Benin polity |
Abstract: | With the fall of the Benin Empire in February 1897, the political system of one of the most powerful precolonial empires was overturned by the imposition of British colonial rule. The period of the interregnum from 1897 to 1914, the first phase of British colonial rule in this kingdom, saw the first conflict of ideas and institutions used by the British to dominate Benin. This paper assesses how the ideas of Benin political groups and the political elite shaped their actions within the parameters set by colonial rule. The colonial period represented the abrupt termination of the independence and sovereignty of African States. The political campaign of the royalists to restore the Benin monarchy was confronted with the inevitable change arising from colonial domination on the one hand, and the reconfiguation of power among the Benin chiefs on the other. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |