The+Igbo+People+meet+the+Europeans


 * Europeans' first contact with interior of Igboland tied to slave trade abolishment - certain groups (ex. the African Association) pushed European cultural, commercial, political influence on Africa to establish other forms of trade (through expeditions into Africa with traders, missionaries)
 * Relations between Europeans and Igbo communites strengthened - European demand for palm oil and African demand for European goods increased
 * Relations crumbled after 1875 with an economic depression in the palm oil business, leading to trade disputes
 * "Gunboat diplomacy"
 * Conflict developed regarding security too - European traders would pay tolls for protection from local chiefs
 * 1880s - traders started refusing to pay, causing chiefs to lower security, citizens taking advantage of this by staging widespread robberies and attacks on European trading posts, vessels
 * Result: European and African relations further strained and more violence was generated
 * British government initially ignored British traders asking for military assistance, but an attack on British citizens in Onitsha changed that
 * Captain Burr bombarded Onitsha for two days, then led his men into the town and destroyed all they could find
 * Attack justified by British - it was appropriate for British 'moral force' to stop acts of violence on British citizens