The Invasion of Benin
The Maxim Gun was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.
First conceived in 1882 by Hiram Maxim, the gun was the era's most deadly weapon and it is no surprise that its release happened about the same time the Europeans had their 'scramble for Africa' meeting as this deadly weapon was primarily used first on Africans, then elsewhere in Asia and the South Pacific.
Though the inventor of the Maxim Gun was American, the gun was so effective in Britain slaughter at the so-called 'colonies' empire, Queen Victoria bestowed a knighthood on the inventor in 1900.
For the invasion of Benin Empire, the English were particularly eager to use this new weapons of mass destruction, bringing as many as 14 into the kingdom from Gwatto, with twice as much k24 more) waiting on the ships at the port of (Gwatto) should need be.
Following the newly invented and deadly Maxim guns into Benin City on that week in 1897 was '1400 soldiers, more than a hundred marines and officers were brought in from Malta, South Africa and Britain with firepower to match, including:
'a dozen seven-pounder RML mountain guns, each carried with more than three hundred charges and projectiles. Six rocket-tubes and ‘a ready supply of war rockets’ were carried by each division, along with many hundredweights of gun cotton (nitrocellulose) with specialist demolition parties, which were used to destroy defensive stockades, palace walls and even sacred trees.'
The fourteen Maxim guns were adapted to be carried across land, each with 126 belts and countless boxes of 334 rounds (a maxim gun can shoot up to 600 rounds in one minute!) – plus the 24 Maxims waiting on the warships at the coast.
Add to the above the 1300 men carrying “bolt-action riffles for which each man carried a hundred round of ammunition each, with more than twice that number held by the carrier columns.” All these are on record. The British were curiously very selective in what they photographed and inhumanely dismissive of the hundreds of thousands massacred in Benin City. Because we all know these deadly weapons they brought were used on the people.
Further reading:
“The core British troops that fought the war were drawn from Cape Town, Malta, England and within
the Niger Coast Protectorate.43 Admiral Harry Rawson, the head of the naval squadron from Cape
Town after receiving instructions on 15 January, 189744 was at the centre of the preparation
alongside Henry Galway. ‘In twenty-nine days, he collected, provisioned, organised and landed a
Field Force of 1,200 men’.45 Besides, there were the use of the deployment of nine warships in
preparation for the war in addition to Admiral Rawson’s yacht. They were HMS St George,
HMS Theseus, HMS Phoebe, HMS Forte, HMS Philomel, HMS Barrosa, HMS Widgeon, HMS
Magpie, HMS Alecto and Admiral Rawson’s yacht The Ivy.46 Alongside ‘the P&O cruiser
SS Malacca, which had brought a battalion of 310 marines, was fitted as a hospital ship’46
.
These Navy ships were manned by ‘Captain Michael Pelham O’Callaghan who led a flying column
from a flotilla of warships and gunboats, including HMS Philomel, Barrosaand Widgeon, along
Gwato Creek to the west of Benin City, and Captain McGill led another flying column, with
HMS Phoebe, Alecto and Magpie, along the Jamieson River at Sapobar, to the east of Benin
City’.47’
The HMS. Theseus and Forte, came from the Mediterranean Squadron, while the remainder
belonged to the Cape Squadron.48 As part of preparations for the war, most of the ships used,
sailed from considerable distances. H.M.S. St. George sailed from Simons Town,49 Western
Cape, South Africa. HMS Theseus and Forte sailed from Malta, 8000 miles off,50 HMS Alecto
from the Gambia,51 HMS Widgeon at Brass52 and HMS Malacca sailed from England.53 In all,
the Benin Punitive Expedition took place over three weeks between 9 and 27 February 1897, and
involved the mobilisation of around 5,000 men, including European and African soldiers and
supporting roles such as carriers (from Sierra Leone, Lagos and Benin) and scouts and guides.
The attack was organised as a naval operation, led by Vice Admiral Sir Harry Rawson,
Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope, with the Niger Coast Protectorate.54 ‘It
involved a force of 1,400 soldiers, drawn variously from the Protectorate’s Constabulary,
Admiralty seamen, and more than 100 marines and officers brought on ‘special service’ from
Malta, South Africa and Britain’.55 These troops were supported by an estimated 2,500 carriers,
most of whom carried water, plus scouts, and there were also dozens of medics and Protectorate
staff.’56 “This main column comprised 250 Hausa troops from the Protectorate Force, with five
Maxims and two 7-pounders, alongside 120 bluejackets from HMS St George and HMS Theseus
with two rocket tubes, 120 marines, light artillery and marine artillery, and around 1,200
carriers.”57
The makeup of the troops also “included the Mediterranean Squadron and the support of
detachment of the West Indian Regimen.”58 Part of the preparations by the British was the
deployment of spies into Benin, as reported by Phillip Igbafe thus: “Spies and messengers were
drafted into the Benin territory to report on the movement of the Oba and chiefs.”59 The
assembled team of the British military officers and soldiers officially made land fall at
Warregi(Warri) on 6 February, 189760 from where they subsequently commenced their match
towards the city of Benin. While there existed an established British imperialist policy, which
was founded on economic grounds, these were centred on its quest to exploit the vast natural
resources of Benin. A position that was copiously acknowledged by agents of the British
government overseeing affairs of the Niger Coast Protectorate in the years preceding the British
Benin war and British officials based in London. One of such was that of Consul-General
Claude MacDonald, on 16 May 1892, who asserted that: ‘there is no doubt that the Benin
Territory is a very rich and most important one. Minerals, Gum Copal, Gum Arabic, Palm Oil
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