Punitive Expedition of 1897

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This article is about the British military conflict. For the U.S. military conflict, see Pancho Villa Expedition.

The Punitive Expedition of 1897 was a military excursion by a British force of 1,200 under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson that captured, burned, and looted the city of Benin, bringing to an end the West African Kingdom of Benin. During the conquering and burning of the city, most of the country’s treasured art, including the Benin Bronzes, was either destroyed, looted or dispersed.

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[edit] Background

In March 1892, Captain Gallwey, the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin kingdom and make it a British Protectorate. Although the king of Benin, Omo n’Oba Ovonramwen, was skeptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. The Benin king refrained from endorsing the Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a deceptive ploy intended to make Benin kingdom a British colony. Consequently the Benin king issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the Benin king’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

In 1894 after the invasion and destruction of Brohimie, the trading town of Nana, the leading Itsekiri trader in the Benin River District by a combined British Royal Navy and Niger Coast Protectorate forces, Benin kingdom increased her military presence on her southern borders. This vigilance, and the Colonial Office refusal to grant approval for an invasion of Benin City scuttled the expedition the Protectorate had planned for early 1895. Even so between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’. Major P. Copland-Crawford, vice-Consul of the Benin district, made the first attempt, Mr. Locke, the vice-Consul assistant, made a second one and the third one was made by Captain Arthur Maling, the commandant of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force detachment based in Sapele.

In March 1896, following price fixing and refusal by Itsekiri middle men to pay the required tributes, the Benin king ordered a cessation of the supply of oil palm produce to them. The trade embargo brought trade in the Benin River region to a standstill, and the British traders and agents of the British trading firms quickly appealed to Protectorate’s Consul-General to ‘open up’ Benin territories, and send the Benin king (whom they claimed was an ‘obstruction’) into exile. In October 1896 Lieutenant James Robert Phillips (RN), the Acting Consul-General visited the Benin River District and had meetings with the agents and traders. In the end the agents and traders were able to convince him that ‘there is a future on the Benin River if Benin territories were opened’.

[edit] Benin Preemptive Military Action

In November Phillips made a formal request to his superiors in England for permission to invade Benin City, and in late December 1896 without waiting for a reply or approval from London Phillips embarked on a military expedition with a Niger Coast Protectorate Force consisting of 250 African soldiers and five British officers, a trader and an interpreter. His mission was to depose the king of Benin City, replace him with a Native Council and pay for the invasion with the ‘ivory’ he hoped to find in the Benin king’s palace. Unfortunately for Phillips, some Itsekiri trading chiefs sent a message to the Benin king that ‘the white man is bringing war’. On receiving the news the Benin king quickly summoned the city’s high-ranking nobles for an emergency meeting, and during the discussions the Iyase, the commander in chief of the Benin Army argued that the white men were on a hostile visit and hence they must be confronted and killed. The Benin king however argued that the white men should be allowed to enter the city so that it can be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The Iyase ignored the king’s views, and ordered the formation of a strike force that was commanded by the Ologbose, a senior army commander, which was sent to Gwato to destroy the invaders.

On January 4 1897, the Benin strike force composed mainly of border guards and servants of some chiefs caught Phillips' army totally unprepared at Ugbine village near Gwato. Since Phillips was not expecting any opposition and was unaware that his operation had lost its element of surprise, the contingent’s weapons were locked up in the head packs of the African soldiers who were posing as carriers. Only two British officers survived the annihilation of Phillips' invasion force, which became known as the ‘Benin Preemptive Strike’.

[edit] British massacre

On January 12 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, commanding the squadron at the Cape of Good Hope was appointed by the British Admiralty to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on February 9 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began,. The field commanders were instructed by their commander-in–chief to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages, and hang the king of Benin wherever and whenever he was captured. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces , and composed of three columns; the ‘Sapoba’, ‘Gwato’ and ‘Main’ Columns. The ‘Sapoba’ column, and the ‘Main column’ reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting but the ‘Gwato’ column was routed at Gwato.

[edit] War booty

Immediately the British invaders secured the city, they began an orgy of looting and destruction. It was an exercise that was carried out by all members of the expedition. Monuments, and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted and destroyed, and finally on the third day the looted Benin king’s palace was deliberately set ablaze. Most of the loot were kept by the looters, and 2500 (official figures) religious artifacts, Benin visual history, mnemonics and artworks were taken to England.

The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty of art to defray the costs of the Expedition.[1] The expected revenue from the looted art was discussed already before Phillips set out on his ill-fated journey to the city of Benin in 1896. In a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: "I would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King's house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool."[2][3]

In late 1897 the art was auctioned in Paris, France, to raise funds to pay for the expedition. Most of the Benin bronzes went first to purchasers in Germany, but a sizable group is now back in London at the British Museum. The dispersement of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe. [4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ European traders in Benin to Major Copland Crawford. Reporting the stoppage of trade by the Benin King 1896 Apr. 13, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
  2. ^ The Benin massacre. By:, Alan Maxwell Boisragon.. Publisher:, London : Methuen, 1897. OCLC Number:, 15306437 ..
  3. ^ Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Reporting on the abortive Expedition into Benin. 1895 Sept.12 Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu
  4. ^ Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Forwarding supplementary roll of men entitled for reward for the Benin Expedition. 1896 Feb. 5 Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu
  5. ^ "J.R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King." 17 Nov. 1896. Despatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
  6. ^ Akenzua, Edun (2000). "The Case of Benin". Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix 21, House of Commons, The United Kingdom Parliament, March 2000.
  7. ^ Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick (1999). Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-253-33503-5.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Home, Robert (1982). City of Blood Revisited: A New Look at the Benin Expedition of 1897. London: Lex Collins, 1982. ISBN 0-8476-4824-9.
  2. ^ "J.R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King." 17 Nov. 1896. Despatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
  3. ^ Akenzua, Edun (2000). "The Case of Benin". Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix 21, House of Commons, The United Kingdom Parliament, March 2000.
  4. ^ Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick (1999). Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-253-33503-5.

[edit] External links