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Lagos was originally called Eko, which means " Cassava farm". It was founded by the royal family that came from Benin City . The founding king was Ado. He begat Gabaro, Akinsemoyin, and Erelu Kuti.

Eko was the land area where the king's palace was built. The indigenous people settled down in the southern part of Eko called "Isale Eko", Isale literarily meaning bottom, but must have been used to indicate Downtown (as in Downtown Lagos).

Erelu Kuti begat Ologun Kutere, who became king, and Shokun his brother, who was given a Chieftancy house behind the king's palace called "Onile-gbale" (Land owner-sweeps your land).

The King dynasty started henceforth and the king's brother started his own chieftancy family behind the palace building.

Modern-day Lagos was founded by Portugal in the sixteenth century, and was a major centre of the Slave Trade until 1851, when the United Kingdom , which had abolished slavery in 1807, captured the city. It was formally annexed as a British colony in 1861. The remainder of modern-day Nigeria was seized in 1886, and when the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was established in 1914 Lagos was declared its capital. Lagos experienced rapid growth throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a result of Nigeria's economic boom prior to the Biafran War . In 2002 much of Northern Lagos was destroyed as a result of the Lagos Armoury Explosion , in which a poorly maintained military base in Ikeja exploded, starting fires and a panicked evacuation of the cities Nothern suburbs in which over 1,100 people died and 20,000 were displaced

Lagos was the capital of Nigeria from 1914 - 1976; then the capital was moved to Abuja . However, most government functions (especially the head of state) stayed in Lagos since Abuja was not developed enough. Abuja is a capital like Washington, DC in USA and Brasilia in Brazil in that it was built from scratch specifically to be a capital. In 1991, the head of state and other government functions finally moved to the newly built capital in a mass exodus (many sources incorrectly claim this year to be when Lagos ceased being the capital). The change resulted in Lagos losing some prestige and economic leverage. However, it has retained its importance as the country's largest city and as an economic centre.