Militarism and Economic Development in Nineteenth Century Yoruba Country: The Ibadan Example

Abstract

The ingredients for economic development were certainly present in the Yoruba country in the nineteenth century: land was available; labour was cheap and some of the towns like Ibadan were well placed for trade. But for this economic growth, militarism was a double-edged weapon. The needs of a military state, such as Ibadan, certainly gave it tremendous impetus; trade, agriculture, arts and crafts developed in response to the demands of the military, who constituted the new leadership. But in the final analysis all these economic activities needed peace for their full development; Ibadan, by the very nature of its birth and its commitment to military ideals and military solutions to the problems confronting the Yoruba country, could not, however, guarantee this peace. On the contrary, in its struggle for power and leadership within that country, it took actions which jeopardized the chances of peaceful economic development in Ibadan and other parts of the Yoruba country. Moreover the intermittent warfare, which characterized this country generally in the nineteenth century, injected an element of discontinuity into its economic growth, and placed some constraint on lasting economic development. The fact that agriculture, trade and industry still flourished in the Yoruba country, particularly in Ibadan, can therefore only be regarded as a pointer to the country's economic potentialities, rather than as an evidence of normal economic growth. But with the restoration of peace at the end of the century, and the introduction of British rule, Ibadan and the rest of the Yoruba country were poised for rapid economic development.