Niger Coast Protectorate

{{Short description|1891–1900 UK possession in Western Africa}}

{{Infobox country

| native_name =

| conventional_long_name = Oil Rivers Protectorate
(1884–1893)
Niger Coast Protectorate
(1893–1900)

| common_name = |

| status = Protectorate

| status_text =

| empire = United Kingdom

| year_start = 1884

| year_end = 1900

| event_start =

| date_start =

| event_end =

| date_end = 1 January|

| p1 = Aro Confederacy

| flag_p1 =

| p2 = Kingdom of Benin

| flag_p2 =

| p3 = Akpakip Oro

| flag_p3 =

| p4 = Akwa Akpa

| flag_p4 =

| p5 = Kingdom of Bonny

| flag_p5 =

| s1 = Southern Nigeria Protectorate

| flag_s1 = Flag of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1900–1914).svg

| image_flag = Flag of the Niger Coast Protectorate (1893–1899).svg

| flag =

| flag_type = |

| image_coat = Badge of the Niger Coast Protectorate.svg

| symbol =

| image_map =

| image_map_caption = |

| national_motto =

| national_anthem = God Save the Queen {{center|File:United States Navy Band - God Save the King.oga}}

| common_languages = English, Igbo, Ibibio-Efik, Edo, Ijaw and others

| religion = Christianity, Igbo religion, Edo religion

| currency = Pound sterling

| capital = Old Calabar|

| leader1 = Victoria

| year_leader1 = 1884—1900

| title_leader = Monarch

| era = New Imperialism

| representative3 = Ralph Moor

| title_representative = Consul General

| year_representative2 = 1891–1896

| representative2 = Claude Maxwell MacDonald

| year_representative1 = 1884–1891

| representative1 = Edward Hyde Hewett

| area_km2 =

| today =

| HDI_year =

| HDI =

| GDP_PPP_year =

| GDP_PPP =

| area_rank =

| demonym =

| year_representative3 = 1896–1900

}}

The Niger Coast Protectorate was a British protectorate in the Oil Rivers area of present-day Nigeria, originally established as the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1884 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the following year. It was renamed on 12 May 1893, and merged with the chartered territories of the Royal Niger Company on 1 January 1900 to form the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.

File:Niger Coast Scott 44.jpg on a stamp of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 1894]]

This covered the eastern coast of what it today Nigeria, and in theory extended inland as far as Lokoja. It was established to better regulate and control the large trade in palm oil that was coming through both Calabar and the Niger Delta, and which had given the various rivers in the area the name of oil rivers.

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