<P> The largest application of Indirect rule was in British Asia, in hundreds of pre-colonial states, first seen at work under the East India Company's system of subsidiary alliances in the Indian subcontinent . The areas thus brought into the British sphere of influence became known as the Indian Princely States . Subsequently, the same principle was applied in strategic regions on the sea routes to India, especially in the Persian Gulf protected states . </P> <P> In the British colonies, the laws were typically made by a British Governor and legislative council, but in the protectorates and princely states local rulers retained their traditional administrative authority and ability to legislate, subject to British control of certain areas . Indirect rule was particularly effective in enabling the British to exploit natural resources and raw materials of vast subordinate nations . The establishment of naval and military bases in strategic points around the globe maintained the necessary power to underpin such control . </P> <P> Indirect rule was cheaper and easier for the European powers, and in particular it required fewer administrators, but it did have a number of problems . In many cases, European authorities empowered local traditional leaders, as in the case of the monarchy of Uganda, but if no suitable leader could be found (in the traditional Western sense of the term), the Europeans would simply choose local rulers to suit them . This was the case in Kenya and Southern Nigeria, and the new leaders, often called "warrant chiefs", were not always supported by the local population . The European ruling classes also often chose local leaders with similar traits to their own, despite these traits not being suited to native leadership . Many were conservative elders, and thus indirect rule fostered a conservative outlook among the indigenous population and marginalised the young intelligentsia . Written laws, which replaced oral laws, were less flexible to the changing social nature, old customs of retribution and justice were removed or banned, and the removal of more violent punishments in some areas led to an increase in crime . Furthermore, leaders empowered by the governments of European powers were often not familiar with their new tasks, such as recruitment and tax . </P> <P> From the early 20th century, French and British writers helped establish a dichotomy between British Indirect rule, exemplified by the Indian princely states and by Lord Lugard's writings on the administration of northern Nigeria, and French colonial direct rule . As with British theorists, French colonial officials like Félix Eboué or Robert Delavignette wrote and argued throughout the first half of the 20th century for a distinct French style of rule that was centralized, uniform, and aimed at assimilating colonial subjects into the French polity . French rule, sometimes labeled Jacobin, was said in these writings to be based on the twin ideologies of the centralized unitary French government of the Metropole, with the French colonial ideology of Assimilation . Colonial Assimilation argued that French law and citizenship was based on universal values that came from the French Revolution . Mirroring French domestic citizenship law, French colonial law allowed for anyone who could prove themselves culturally French (the "Évolués") to become equal French citizens . In French West Africa, only parts of the Senegalese "Four Communes" ever extended French citizenship outside a few educated African elite . This was contrasted with British Indirect Rule, which never foresaw subject Protectorates becoming legally assimilated into "the home nations". </P>

Advantages and disadvantages of indirect rule in nigeria
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