EUROPEAN GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY

ABSTRACT

It is necessary at the outset to emphasize that the contemporary international political system should not be held as a model. Past interactions and past relationships which constituted the earliest international political systems were not global in nature. They were in contemporary terminology regional and local. Our global concept of today are the results of revolution in communications, technology and politics. It is the recognition of this fact that will enable us to understand the interstate relationship of “Chinese, Edo, Greek City States and the Italian City States. It is in this light that the relationship between Udo and Edo should be seen before the political subjugation of the former by the latter. Edo and Udo are situated within a geographical area of about fourth-eight kilometers apart. At a time when communication was by foot and canoe in the riverine areas, with all its hazardous effects, such a distance was great. Various traditions exist in both Udo and Edo which attempted to account for their origin. We shall consider some of them as much as they connect Udo.This study attempts to start examining the stories of the origin of Benin and Udo peoples which some dated to 900 A.D and will be more concerned with the European involvement. However, a brief look at what happened after Esigie helps to complete the picture more weight was laid on Benin – Udo Relations from origin to separation. It is this light that the relationship between Udo and Benin should be seen before the political subjugation of the former by the latter. We are going to examine Benin-Udo wars, the European factors in an environment where the major weapons of wars were mainly spears, bow and arrows, such aid from the Europeans however little one might see it from today’s points of view could make remarkable differences as the early 16th Century during Benin – Udo.