[2] The company existed for a comparatively short time (1800–1900) but was instrumental in the formation of Colonial Nigeria, as it enabled the British Empire to establish control over the lower Niger against the German competition led by Bismarck during the 1890s.

He opposed the failed Niger expedition of 1841 but the success of the Pleiad's first mission in 1854 led to annual trips under Baikie and the 1857 foundation of Lokoja at the Niger–Benue confluence.

[6] A native attack on the UAC's outpost at Onitsha in 1879 was repulsed with help from HMS Pioneer,[5] but the Gladstone administration subsequently denied Goldie's attempt to procure a government charter in 1881, on the grounds that the international rivalry might occasion unnecessary conflict and that the united firm was undercapitalized for the expense of genuine colonial administration.

[6] This monopoly permitted Britain to resist French and German calls to internationalize trade on the Niger River during the negotiations at the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference on African colonization.

[8] Similarly, when King Jaja of Opobo organized his own trading network and even began running his own shipments of palm oil to Britain, he was lured onto a British warship and shipped into exile on Saint Vincent on charges of "treaty breaking" and "obstructing commerce".

[4] Despite treaties extending British control over the tribes of the Cameroons, however, Britain was willing to recognize the German colony that usurped the area in 1885[8] as a check on French activity in the upper Congo and Ubangi watersheds.