The expedition avenged the killing of a British delegation the previous month and ended the centuries-old independence of the Kingdom of Benin. British troops set fire to the royal palace and much of the city, seizing thousands of the kingdom's famed bronze and ivory artworks, which were later sold at auction to museums and collectors across Europe.
The Kingdom of Benin had thrived for centuries as one of West Africa's most sophisticated states, ruled by an Oba whose palace walls were lined with intricately cast bronze plaques depicting centuries of royal history. British officials had long wanted to bring the kingdom under direct colonial control, and a botched diplomatic mission in January 1897, in which Benin warriors killed most of a British delegation that had ignored a religious ceremony's travel restrictions, gave London its pretext.
When British forces entered Benin City on this day, they found it largely deserted, the Oba having fled, but they burned much of it regardless and looted the royal palace's treasury of bronzes systematically. More than 2,500 pieces—the so-called Benin Bronzes—were shipped back to Britain, where many were sold to cover the expedition's costs and ended up scattered in museums from London to Berlin to Chicago.
The destruction of Benin City effectively ended the kingdom's independence, folding it into British Nigeria. More than a century later, the Benin Bronzes remain one of the most contested groups of objects in the ongoing global debate over the restitution of colonial-era looted art, with Nigeria formally demanding their return from institutions including the British Museum.
Key people: Oba Ovonramwen