RYDER, A. F. C.2024-11-222024-11-2219690 582 64639 1https://nigeriareposit.nln.gov.ng/handle/20.500.14186/1678This book is the outcome of research undertaken while I was associated with the Scheme for the Study of Benin History and culture, begun in 1956 under the directorship of Dr. K. O. Dike, the Benin Scheme was one of the earliest interdisciplinary projects devoted to the study of the history of Africa south of the Sahara. By bringing together anthropologists, historians, ethnographers, archaeologists, and concentrating their attention upon an African state renowned for the depth of its historical tradition and the richness of its cultural heritage, the scheme purposed to demonstrate that the past of an African people may be reconstructed in exactly the same manner as that of any other people for which similar evidence is available, and that the lack of certain conventional materials of historical research did not preclude research that measured up to the standards of modern historiography.The Benin Kingdom—an historical perspective The era of Portuguese monopoly: 1. First contacts 2. The beginning of trade 3. The island trade and the first mission 4. The resumption of royal trade 5. The end of Portuguese monopoly: the second mission English and Dutch beginnings: 1. The English 2. The Dutch The Capuchin missions: 1. Spanish missionaries 2. Italian missionaries The Dutch at Ughoton: 1. Trade in the main river (1650-1700) 2. Establishment at Ughoton 3. Trade and conflict 4. Efforts to diversify trade 5. European rivals and Dutch decline 6. We’re here because we’re here The slave-trade era: 1. English and French in the mid-eighteenth century 2. Landolphe’s enterprise in the main river 3. The last years of the slave trade British encroachment: 1. Trade and the flag in the Benin River 2. The first consular visit to Benin 3. Retreat into the heartlands 4. The growth of commercial and consular pressures 5. The Protection Treaty of 1892 6. The dispute over trade 7. Consul-General Moor’s campaign against Benin 8. The massacre and punitive expeditionenBook