History of Lagos

The site of an old Yoruba settlement named Eko, Lagos was visited by Portuguese traders in 1472 and named for a port in Portugal.

The Portuguese developed Lagos as a major center for the trade of goods and slaves. The city served in this capacity until 1861, when it was annexed by the British, who by this time opposed slavery.

The British governed Lagos as a crown colony. British rule was opposed by several local Yoruba states, and a series of conflicts in the 1870s and 1880s hampered British trade with the interior.

The British conquered these states in the late 1880s and early 1890s, expanding the territory of the colony.

In 1914 Lagos became the capital of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

In 1960 the city became the capital of independent Nigeria.

As Nigeria’s oil industry boomed in the early 1970s, Lagos began developing rapidly.

The population of Lagos ballooned as migrants from all over Nigeria and from neighboring countries flocked to the city.

In accordance with a plan first announced in 1976 to combat Lagos’s explosive growth, the seat of the Nigerian federal government was moved from Lagos to Abuja in December 1991. However, much of the federal bureaucracy continued to operate out of Lagos.