| Punitive Expedition |
Website Links For Expedition |
Information AboutPunitive Expedition |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PUNITIVE EXPEDITION OF 1897 | |
| history of benin | |
| history of colonialism | |
| military history of the united kingdom | |
| british empire | |
| conflicts in 1897 | |
| benin city | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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The Punitive Expedition of 1897 was a military excursion by a British force of 1,200 under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson that captured, burned, and looted the city of Benin , incidentally bringing to an end the highly sophisticated West Africa n Kingdom Of Benin . In 1896 a small armed force from the Oil River Protectorate led by the governor entered now view it as more of an overt act of colonial domination, especially in light of the fact that the British colony of Nigeria was set up in much of the land that had previously been controlled by Benin. The sack of Benin distributed the famous Benin Bronzes and other works of art into the European art market, as the British Admiralty auctioned off the confiscated patrimony to defray costs of the Expedition. Most of the great Benin bronzes went first to purchasers in Germany , though a sizable group remain in the British Museum , London . The Benin bronzes catalyzed the beginnings of a long reassessment of the value of West African culture, which had strong influences on the formation of Modernism . EXTERNAL LINKS
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