When was lagos founded

Navigation menu Personal tools English. Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read View source View history. Submit Wiki Content Report a Problem. Nigeria Wiki Topics. Beginning Research. Research Strategies Record Finder. Nigeria Background. Under British rule, Lagos never became a fully colonial city. Commerce continued to expand and many European traders and missionaries came to the city, but there was never any mass European settlement.

Throughout the 19th century the city was plagued by overcrowding and sanitary problems. From that point the small European community was segregated and given preference in sanitary measures. In the twentieth century, Lagos became a center for resistance to colonial rule. Revolts in against water rates and the alienation of indigenous land in and served to unite native African elites and working class residents.

The period between the World Wars saw further organization with the emergence of nationalist groups such as the Nigerian Youth Movement formed in The topography of Lagos is dominated by its system of islands, sandbars, and lagoons. The city itself sprawls over three main islands: Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, and Victoria Island, connected to each other by a system of bridges.

Lagos emerged during the colonial period as a heterogeneous town populated by groups of people of various origins. This gave the town its eclectic character, with increasing social stratification and contrasting lifestyles. The historical core of the town, Lagos Island, developed from the main sub-communities who lived in relatively distinct districts. The European community represented a small group people by This community established the physical foundations of the city, which consisted of warehouses and government buildings built along the Marina and around the racecourse.

Lagos became the obvious place to develop as the capital of the new Colony and Southern Protectorate inaugurated in , and after naturally became the main location of the first capital of United Nigeria. The period after was an important period of further development on Lagos Island, of buildings still in existence such as the Supreme Court There was also the first Government Secondary School, Kings College, both of which were located by the racecourse in which polo was played in the central area of the course, and which from the time it was laid out in was a central feature of British colonial Lagos.

Unlike most other port cities of the Atlantic coast, in which segregation schemes were introduced between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for decades there was no official segregation scheme in Lagos. After Lagos was made the capital in , a classification of Nigerian cities was proposed in It was impossible to relocate either the Western companies or the African traders and inhabitants beyond the historical core of the city.

The building that became the Government House, and then State House after independence, went through a number of transformations; the version most recognized was built in time for Lugard to occupy as Governor-General in Governor Carter had the vision to push through the railway, the great project of the s, which opened its first stretch to Ibadan as the century turned. The year saw the opening of the Iddo rail terminus, but also the first version of Carter Bridge carrying pedestrians and, afterwards, the steam tram , which gave the development of Lagos Island, as the hub of the capital, a tremendous boost.

As development continued in Lagos, British architecture prevailed and new types of buildings were introduced. These were usually either imported 18th century houses of the English countryside or prefabricated constructions with deep verandas and overhanging eaves. After the bubonic plague of the late s, the Lagos Executive Development Board was set up in and was responsible for some of the earliest planned developments on the Mainland such as Yaba. These were also added to and partly reconstructed in the later colonial period, as was the new model suburb of Surulere.

Much of the history of Lagos is that of its economy, in the context of political, social and cultural change.