Port Harcourt was founded in 1912 by Frederick Lugard, governor of both the Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.[19][20] Its purpose was to export the coal that geologist Albert Ernest Kitson had discovered in Enugu in 1909.[21] The colonial government caused the people of Diobu to cede their land, and in 1912 the building of a port-town was started.[22] Other villages that were later absorbed into the city included Oroworukwo, Nkpogu, and Rumuomasi;[23][24][25] In the creeks to the south of the original port were the fishing camps and grounds of the Okrika–Ijaw group.[18]
During the First World War, Port Harcourt was used as a point for military operations against the Central Powers in German Kamerun.[3][26] After the discovery of crude oil in Oloibiri in 1956, Port Harcourt exported the first shipload from Nigeria in 1958. Port Harcourt became the center of the Nigerian oil economy[27] and it subsequently reaped benefits of its associations with the petroleum industry by undergoing modernization and urbanization.[3] Port Harcourt’s growth is further due to its position as the commercial center and foremost industrial city of the former Eastern Region; its position in the Niger Delta; and its importance as the center of social and economic life in Rivers State. After the Republic of Biafra seceded from Nigeria in 1967 Port Harcourt fell to Nigerian forces on 19 May 1968. From an area of 15.54 km2 in 1914, Port Harcourt grew uncontrolled to an area of 360 km2 in the 1980s
