Editing History of Nigeria (section)

==== The Royal Niger Company sells its land ====
[[File:Nigeria1914gbr.jpg|thumb|Nigeria 1914]]
Ten years after the "[[Scramble for Africa]]" - in the 1890s - it became increasingly clear that colonial rule in Africa was not a profitable endeavour and that the exploration and development of the continent, which had originally been initiated by the private sector, could only be continued through state-military measures and/or taxpayers' money. The above-mentioned marginal utility theory had given way to the theory of "shrinking markets", a term coined by the economic theorist [[Werner Sombart]]. According to this theory, colonies were supposedly a necessary measure for industrialised countries to maintain sales and food supplies. The theory was adopted by both "left-wing" theorists such as [[Nikolai Bukharin|Bukharin]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg|Luxemburg]] ("exploitation" of the colonies) and "right-wing" thinkers such as Rosenberg and [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] ("[[Lebensraum]]").<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zitelmann |first=Rainer |date=2021-06-21 |title=Why Hitler Wanted to Conquer New 'Lebensraum in the East' |url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-hitler-wanted-conquer-new-%E2%80%98lebensraum-east%E2%80%99-188255 |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=The National Interest |language=en |archive-date=2024-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221061914/https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-hitler-wanted-conquer-new-%E2%80%98lebensraum-east%E2%80%99-188255 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Why they don't tell you about Hitler's "Shrinking Markets" problem | date=8 July 2019 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go2OFpO8fyo |access-date=2023-12-02 |language=en |archive-date=2023-11-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231124194727/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go2OFpO8fyo |url-status=live }}</ref> The RNC's concession was revoked in 1899,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Falola |first=Toyin |title=A History of Nigeria |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-68157-5 |pages=101 |language=en}}</ref> and on 1 January 1900 it ceded its territories to the British government for the sum of £865,000. The ceded territory was merged with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, which had been under British control since 1884, to form the Southern Nigeria Protectorate,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chisholm |first=Hugh |title=Goldie, Sir George Dashwood Taubman |journal=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge |volume=11 |issue=12 |pages=211–212}}</ref> and the remaining RNC territory of around 1.3 million square kilometres became the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. 1,000 British soldiers were stationed in the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, 2,500 in the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and 700 in Lagos. The RNC was taken over by [[Lever Brothers]] in 1920 and became part of the [[Unilever|Unilever Group]] in 1929. In 1939, the latter still controlled 80 per cent of Nigerian exports, mainly [[Cocoa bean|cocoa]], [[palm oil]] and [[Natural rubber|rubber]].<ref name=":10">{{Citation |title=New Generational Nationalists: BASIC NIGERIAN HISTORY #32 | date=30 November 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmP6lO_fDs8 |access-date=2023-12-02 |language=en |archive-date=2023-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202192540/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmP6lO_fDs8 |url-status=live }}</ref>