The Punitive Expedition to Benin

In 1892, the Royal Niger Company signed a trade treaty with the Obah, or king of Benin. In just a few years, it was decided that the Obah wasn't as cooperative as Britain would have liked. The British response was what came to be known as a punitive expedition. This expedition to Benin involved 10 Royal Navy ships and 1400 soldiers armed with the recently invented Maxim machine gun. They had no trouble taking the kingdom of Benin, they massacred the population, burned the city.