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This article reviews the economic impact of England on Nigeria during the period in which Nigeria formed part of the British Empire. Observers differ sharply in their evaluation of this impact. A vigorous defense of Great Britain's role in terms of the economic welfare of Nigeria may be found in the writings of various historians, political observers, and economists. On the other hand, critical voices have been raised against the economic consequences of English rule-most significantly from within Great Britain and Nigeria and in recent years from behind the Iron Curtain. Observers who allege Nigeria's economic betterment under British rule tend to stress the commercialization and over-all economic growth, which took place. Their antagonists focus attention instead on alleged allocational injustices in Nigeria's terms of trade. Because the controversy is nourished in part by omissions of pertinent data, an attempt is made in the following pages to facilitate objective evaluation by providing a more complete statement of factual evidence than is usually available.

This article focuses on the social history of Great Britain. The author remarks that the second Boer war was a disaster for Great Britain. She might have recovered from its consequences if Campbell-Bannerman had been spared for a few more years. The last months of the British Queen Victoria's long reign were clouded and dreary. The change, in three or four years, from the rejoicings of 1897 was so startling that shrewd parliamentarians. It was then she realized, at first reluctantly, that her trade in the markets of the world was threatened by the growth of American and German industries. The cross purposes of the U.S., Germany and Great Britain for this period are so patent in the records that a reflective reader might ask if their spokesmen knew from one day to another what new shift would cancel out the aim of yesterday. While Great Britain was smarting under the affliction of the war in South Africa, the work of peaceful penetration was going on apace in Morocco. Both Great Britain and Germany maintained that their interests in Morocco were commercial only and, although English and German individuals were represented upon the directorates of the great concessionaire companies, they were in no way acting in the interests of their governments.