Punitive Expedition of 1897

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 highly sophisticated 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.

Contents 1 Background 2 British military action 3 War booty 4 See also 5 Notes and references 6 External links

[edit] Background

In 1896 a small armed force led by a British officer, Lt James Phillips, British Acting Consul in the Niger-Delta, was sent to Benin under the authority of Ralph Moore, governor of Britain's West African Niger Coast Protectorate, to demand an end to the customs duties collected from British traders by Oba Ovonramwen, ruler of the then independent Kingdom of Benin. ^[1][2] Oba Ovonramwen advised the British that the meeting would have to be postponed due to the annual yam planting and fertility festival taking place in the capital, but Phillips did not want to wait for an official invitation and decided to go anyway.^[3] Phillips entered the Kingdom of Benin without official escorts and was thus not met by representatives from the royal court as he advanced towards Benin, the capital. Just before entering the capital, the British delegation was ambushed by a group of warriors. Only two persons in Phillips' party survived. Shortly thereafter, a British force consisting of 1,200 men was formed to revenge the ambush.

[edit] British military action

Despite resistance from Oba Ovoranmwen’s forces, the British columns reached the capital within 17 days and took control of the Kingdom of Benin. The Oba was sent into exile. In the capital, the British found blood stained altars and the remains of hundreds of men and women sacrificed in religious rituals. In Victorian England, the punitive expedition was therefore considered justified.^[3]. Historians of the postcolonial era now view the expedition as an overt act of colonial domination, especially in light of the fact that the British colony of Nigeria was set up in the land that had previously been controlled by the Kingdom of Benin.^[2]

[edit] War booty

After the destruction of Benin, the British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty of art to defray the costs of the Expedition.^[3] 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."^[4][5] Most of the great 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. ^[6]

[edit] See also

• Scramble for Africa
• Colonialism

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ The BBC. "The Benin expedition of 1897". Making History. Beyond the Broadcast, British Broadcasting Corporation, December 2000. Retrieved 6 Sep. 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} Jones, Jonathan. "Spoils of War". The Guardian, 11 Sep. 2003. Retrieved 6 Sep. 2006.
3. ^ ^{a b c} 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.
4. ^ "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.
5. ^ Akenzua, Edun (2000). "The Case of Benin". Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix 21, House of Commons, The United Kingdom Parliament, March 2000.
6. ^ 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

• The British Museum (2000). Stories of royalty in brass. Collections Multimedia Public Access System, The British Museum, 2000. Retrieved 6 Sep. 2006
• Gott, Richard (1997). The Looting of Benin. The Independent, 22 Feb.1997. Republished at ARM Press Cutting. (See also related GIF image of the article Battle royal for Benin relics). Retrieved 9 Oct. 2006.
• Soni, Darshana (1997). The British and the Benin Bronzes. ARM Information Sheet 4, Campaign for the Return of the Benin Bronzes, 1997. Retrieved 9 Oct. 2006.