Berlin Conference Navigation Act and the Niger

Britain's grant of a charter to Goldie's Royal Niger Company was described as 'the cheapest and most effective way' of meeting the obligations imposed on her by the Navigation Act of the Berlin Conference (1885). The Berlin Act, along with the Brussels Act of 1890, obligated Britain to intervene more actively in the domestic governance of 'protected' peoples, undermining the earlier narrow legalistic concept of the protectorate. This combination of international and financial pressures drove the evolution from nominal protection toward full colonial administration.