The closing twenty years of the nineteenth century witnessed the seizure of the majority of the African continent by European imperial powers. Between November 1884 and February 1885, an international conference met in Berlin to regulate the rush for territory. Here, Britain laid down her claim to the Nigerian region. Toyin Falola states that, by 1903, British dominance had been “extended at the barrel of the gun.”2 One could concur, as, in 1900, following the transference of the Royal Niger Company (RNC) charter to the British government, its southern and northern territories became the basis of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate - both administered by the British Colonial Office. In 1914, the process was finalised when the north and south were unified to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. The question of what motivated Britain to extend her colonial possessions in West Africa, and impose alien rule over Nigeria, has been examined by many historians, both African and European, and is the subject which forms the basis of this work.