Reduction of Lagos

The Reduction of Lagos or Bombardment of Lagos involved the British Navy's attacks on Lagos in the fourth quarter of 1851 under the pretext of abolishing the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Many intersecting interests including British empire building, British missionary motivations, British mercantile motivations, a deposed monarch's motivations (Akitoye), and Saro recaptive motivations, provided Whitehall with the necessary impetus for military action against the sovereign of Lagos, Oba Kosoko.

In Britain's early 19th century fight against the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, its West Africa Squadron or Preventative Squadron as it was also known, continued to pursue Portuguese, American, French, and Cuban slave ships and to impose anti-slavery treaties with West African coastal chiefs with so much doggedness that they created a strong presence along the West African coast from Sierra Leone all the way to the Niger Delta (today's Nigeria) and as far south as Congo.

In 1849, Britain appointed John Beecroft Consul of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, a position he held (along with his governorship of Fernando Po) until his death in 1854.John Duncan was appointed Vice Consul and was located at Wydah. At the time of Beecroft's appointment, the Kingdom of Lagos (under Oba Kosoko) was in the western part of the Consulate of the Bights of Benin and Biafra and was a key slave trading port.

Oba Kosoko ousted Oba Akitoye from the Lagos throne in 1845 and the now exiled Akitoye recognized the need for British military alliance (and the requirement to give up the slave trade) as a necessary condition for taking back the throne. In December 1850, Akitoye appealed for British aid reminding the British about a similar plea he made back in 1846 promising to embrace legitimate trade if assistance were provided to put him back on the throne.

British missionaries sought the outright abolition of the slave trade because it would ease their evangelical work and would result in legitimate commerces. Similarly many of the liberated Saros (many of whom were Christians) now present in Lagos and Abeokuta were in a precarious situation of being persecuted. Thus Henry Venn presented arguments for British intervention to Lord Palmerston, who in turn commissioned Beecroft to make an assessment.

...
Wikipedia