Introduction

Abstract

This chapter outlines how Nigeria’s involvement in the world economy in the first globalization unexpectedly impacted on British politics during the Great War. It considers the complex and contingent interactions of several major narratives: the development of the Nigerian export economy; the relationships between the expatriate firms; the grievances of the smaller and indigenous firms; the emergence of democratic politics in Lagos; the Colonial Office’s attempt to defend Nigerian interests against those who would subordinate them to British; and the place of oleaginous products in the wartime world economy. It focuses on the political crisis in Great Britain which began with a parliamentary debate over neutral participation in the sale of German properties on 8 November 1916, and ended with the fall of Asquith.