The British conquest of 1903

Britain formally took responsibility for “Northern Nigeria” in 1900, with Frederick Lugard as High Commissioner. Salamone, following Heussler’s history of the British in the north, notes how little the British knew about the region: they were driven by competition with France and by the interests of traders and missionaries, and they wanted to govern with few officials and little money.

In early 1903 British columns took Kano and then Sokoto. The caliph Attahiru I withdrew and was killed in battle at Burmi later that year. The caliphate was ended as a sovereign state, and the emirates became parts of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, later joined to the south in 1914.