The British Conquest of Kano and Sokoto

In 1903 forces of the Royal West African Frontier Force under Frederick Lugard, high commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria since 1900, attacked Kano and Sokoto, the wealthiest emirate and the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate. According to the Library of Congress country study, Lugard set out to conquer the whole region and obtain the emirs' recognition of the protectorate, using force where diplomacy failed; Borno gave in without a fight. Lugard considered clear military victories necessary because the surrender of these centres would weaken resistance elsewhere.

British claims to the Niger basin had been recognised at the Berlin Conference of 1885, on condition of effective occupation (Library of Congress country study). The Royal Niger Company held the Niger and Benue but had no real control of the north, and its charter was ended on 31 December 1899 because it was not considered sufficient for the conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate. From 1900 Frederick Lugard, high commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, set out to conquer the region and obtain recognition of British rule from the emirs (country study).

The conquest ended the independence of the Sokoto Caliphate. Under Lugard's policy of indirect rule, emirs who accepted British authority were kept in office and kept their titles, but answered to British officers, who could depose them; caliphate officials became salaried district heads responsible for peace and tax collection (country study).

The fall of Kano and Sokoto completed the British conquest of northern Nigeria. The emirs kept their titles under indirect rule, and the country study notes that in the north the colonial government took careful account of Islam, kept out Christian missions and harmonised its limited educational efforts with Islamic institutions, a policy that left the north and south developing differently.