Royal Niger Company

A British chartered company that traded, negotiated treaties, and exercised administrative authority in parts of the Niger region from 1886 to 1900.

George Taubman Goldie: A British entrepreneur who consolidated trading firms in the Niger basin and led the Royal Niger Company. Goldie organized the ventures that became the company and directed its political strategy.
Royal charter: A formal grant from a monarch establishing an organization or conferring specified powers. The charter authorized the company to exercise defined governmental and commercial powers.
Benin Expedition of 1897: A British military campaign that captured Benin City and ended the Kingdom of Benin's independence in 1897. It illustrates the wider armed expansion of British power in the region during the company's era.
Imperial British East Africa Company: A British chartered company that administered and developed British influence in East Africa in the late nineteenth century. Like the Royal Niger Company, it used a charter to advance British imperial interests through private enterprise.
United African Company: A trading company founded by George Taubman Goldie that united British commercial interests on the lower Niger. It was the immediate predecessor of the Royal Niger Company.
Niger Company Treaties: Agreements made by the company with African rulers that it used to assert British influence and territorial claims. Treaties supplied the company's main documentary basis for claiming authority over inland territories.
Northern Nigeria Protectorate: A British protectorate established in 1900 over territories north of the Niger and Benue rivers. It replaced the company's administration in much of the territory it had claimed.
British South Africa Company: A chartered company that governed and exploited territories in southern Africa under British authority. It offers a comparison with another company granted extensive powers to administer African territories.
British colonization of Nigeria: The process by which Britain established colonial rule over territories that became Nigeria. The company's chartered rule formed an early stage of British expansion in the region.
Concession (territory): A grant of rights to use or govern a territory, often made by a state to a company or foreign power. The company's claimed sphere rested on agreements and concessions obtained along the Niger.

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