Following an intriguing slow reveal of an interesting Victorian photograph showing the capture of the Oda’s palace in Benin, pupils create their own living graph to show Benin’s changing fortunes during the frantic decade of the 1890s. They then look for three key turning points in the story of how and why Benin became absorbed into the British Empire. The session then links neatly to the next lesson – Should the bronzes taken in 1897 be returned ?
Image © Look and Learn
Learning objectives
- Pupils grasp that in the years after 1700 Benin lost much of its land but it contained resources valued by Europe.
- In the 1890s almost all of Africa was controlled by European nations, except Benin.
- Pupils understand about events of 1895 when Benin closed trade routes for spices and palm oil.
- Pupils can explain the reasons for the clash between Victorian empire builders and Benin.
