Hello friends, I would like to explain here How British Empire take over India?
Let us see How British Empire take over India? in every detail and step by step, by which we can understand in better and simple language the How British Empire take over India?
How does British Empire take over India?
In 1686, the British East India Company declared war on the Mughals. Aurangzeb was on the throne at the time. This war is said to be a big blunder. because the army of the East India Company was quite small and weak in comparison to the Mughal army. so it was not surprising that the Mughals defeated the East India Company very easily. The EIC factories in India were seized. Many EIC officers were arrested and the incumbent Governor of the company had to bow down to Aurangzeb.
About 300 years later, East India Company, this foreign company, established control over the entirety of the Indian subcontinent. Even the biggest company that you can think of now, Apple, Google, Facebook, and East India Company was much bigger and more powerful than any of these, companies. How was this possible? Come, let’s try to understand this today. When the east India Company was founded by some merchants. It was a joint stock company, the object to create this company was to trade in spices.
So in 1608, EIC merchants reached India and landed in present-day Surat Gujarat. The Mughals were running over the country. The army of the Mughals was very powerful. The officers of the company knew that it’d be futile to fight them. So they decided on trying to establish a friendship. So that they could get permission to trade. They tried to appease the local ruler. The captain of the ship met the Mughal emperor Jahangir. He tried to ask him for permission to set up a factory but Jahangir refused to grant permission. Because of the presence of Portugues trousers in Surat. The Portuguese traders had good relations with the Mughals.
So Jahangir had no reason to enable their competitors, the English, British traders. so they decide to establish a company in another place. That was not under the Mughal rules. In 1611 they were successful when they set up their first business in Andra Pradesh. they were permitted by the local ruler. over the next years, the EIC establish more factories, and they were mostly restricted to the areas around Goa. East India Company become the biggest player in the Indian subcontinent.
After this win, in 1615, The EIC requested the English king James I, to send a royal representative to the Mughal emperor. So on behalf of the English crown, Sir Thomas Roe was sent. He did what Hwakins couldn’t. he give many gifts to Jahangir and Gahanjir was impressed by the gifts. So Jahangir issued a royal order that is. The English were permitted to set up factories in Surat. thereafter several other factories were established. the Company’s business was flourishing. Their profits were increasingly good.
In the cities where the factories were set up, economic prosperity was seen in abundance. More people were attracted to these cities. The EIC slowly formed a monopoly in these cities. They start building fortifies bases. Till then, most of the factories of the EIC were on the Western and South-Eastern coasts of the Indian subcontinent. They now wanted to establish their factories all over Mughal territories. Commercially, it was an immensely successful region at the time. The ambitions of the company knew no bounds.
The company wants to get political powers too. The simple reason for this was, to create ease of trading. So they requested the English King to bestow more powers on them. To enable them to generate more profits. Around the year 1670, the English king Charles II, Oversee civil and criminal jurisdiction in their territories. Not only this, they could have a private army from alliances and even declare wars. the English monarchy granted these powers to the EIC, which meant that the EIC could then become an agent of Imperialism.
How British Empire take over India ?
In 1682, EIC tried to negotiate with the Mughal Governor of Bengal. Shaista Khan. The company wanted the governor to issue a royal edict to enable them to trade easily in Bengal. they clearly said No . in the arrogance of the newfound power, enabling the EIC to have its private army, he declared war against the Mughals. it was in 1986. It was a questionable decision from the perspective of the East India Company. Because their army was worthless when facing the Mughal army. The EIC faced a bitter defeat.
Josiah’s child had to bow down and ask for Aurangzeb’s forgiveness. There’s a historical painting of this scene. As you can on the screen. Aurangzeb forgave the East India Company but levied a fine on them of Rs.150,000. Rs 150,000 then is about Rs 350 million now. After this fine, trading privileges of the East India Company were restored. And the factories that were seized, were returned. The officials of the company had a lot of patience. They quietly kept on working within their limits.
But they were waiting for the right opportunity. An opportunity that would allow them to set up factories in Bengal as well and to get a stronghold over Bengal. They got the opportunity in 1707 when Aurangzeb passed away. After Aurangzeb’s death, the Mughal empire was greatly weakened. There were constant struggles. There was infighting among the Mughals, to take the throne and be the next emperor. So the local Nawabs, the local kings, and landlords established their sovereign control over their regions.
They split off from the Mughal Empire. During this time, the Marathas, Rajputs, Jats, and Rohillas, emerged as regional powers. The Maratha Empire was founded some years before this. Even during Aurangzeb’s reign, the Marathas were a threat to the Mughals. Between 1680 to 1758, there were many Maratha-Mughal wars, but after Aurangzeb’s death, Marathas easily defeated the Mughal forces and extended their territory to the North. Meanwhile, the Mughals faced a new threat in the form of Persians.
In 1739, the Persian ruler Nadir Shah attacked India when he plundered and looted treasures taking them back with him. Some years later, in 1748, the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani, invaded Mughal territory. The Mughals joined forces with the Rajputs and Sikhs to defeat Nadir Shah. But then came financial problems in the Mughal Empire after fighting so many wars. The regional governors who were paying their portion of the revenue to the Central Mughal government stopped paying them. And the Indian subcontinent became decentralized into various regions.
In the midst of it all, the East India Company was focusing on themselves. They were investing in new technologies and setting up new factories and more soldiers were recruits were recruited from Great Britain to join the private army of the East India Company. They were strengthening their private army. East India Company was training local Indians as well. (How British Empire take over India ?)
The local Indians would work for the East India Company for employment and join the army. The Indians who were a part of the East India Company’s army were known as sepoys. With the frequent coronation of new Mughal emperors, the East India Company continued pressurizing the Mughal throne. They continued their efforts to get trading privileges in Bengal. They tried negotiating with the new rulers. They tried manipulating them. And finally, in 1717, the then Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar, granted tax-free trading rights to the East India Company in Bengal.
Not only this, according to the new royal edict, East India Company could even issue a data, a kind of a trade permit, with which all custom duties and transit duties could be waived off, on the goods traded by the East India Company. This was a huge win for the company. Not only did they get permission to establish factories in Bengal, but they also started using this Dastak system for their gains. With the help of the special trade permit, they were paying no taxes. This meant that the revenue previously generated from Bengal, for the Mughal Empire, was now lost.
The financial problems sams of the Mughal Empire Worsened. Some months later, in the same year 1717, the former Mughal Governor of Bengal, Muesid Quli Khan, forsook the Mughal Empire and declared Bengal to be under his sovereign control and declared himself the Nawab of Bengal. Murshid Quli Khan understood the tactics of the EIC. So he ordered the East India Company to stop their ways and pay taxes. The EIC officials claimed that the demand was unfair. That they were being treated unjustly.
The East India Company then decided to get involved in local policies to ensure their profits. Friends, before we move ahead in the story, during this era when the Mughals were slowly getting weaker, many things were happening simultaneously in India. The European competitors of the British East India Company such as the Dutch and the Canes were also benefiting from the weakening of the Mughal Empire, and setting up their businesses in the Indian subcontinent. The French emerged as new players when they entered India.
These European powers wanted to expand their influence in India. And to get control over the Indian territories. The British East India Company wanted to do the same. The French gained territory in India rapidly when they established colonies in pondicherry and Bengal’s Chandernagore. The British and the French were the dominant powers in the Indian subcontinent. In the early 1740s, a French leader Joseph Francois Dupleix was the Governor General of the French Indian territories.
He wanted to establish a French Empire in India. With the change in the motivation of the European forces in India, the motivation of the East India Company changed as well. There was enmity between France and Britain already. Between 1740 and 1748, they fought the war of Austrian Succession in Europe. Some years later, the two countries fought the seven Years’ War in 1756. When these two powers were trying to expand their power in North America, The enmity between France and Britain was so much, not only did they fight in Europe and North America they fought a was in India as a wall.
Between 1746 and 1763, the Carnatic wars were fought in Southern India. England won these wars, and the French lost their political influence. only the territories of Pondicherry and Chandenagore remained with them. Friends, it is interesting to note the effect on the contemporary Indian rulers of the wars between the British and French. The local Indian rules were also fighting with each other for power. They saw that the Europeans had better armies, highly tried soldiers, and discipline officers, they decided to form alliances with them to use European resources in their battles.
But the Indian rulers didn’t understand How British Empire take over India? and did not understand that taking help meant that they would become dependent on the Europeans. That they would start interfering in domestic politics and leading to the erosion of domestic power. The European powers could benefit from this plan. They could bribe the opposition leader of an Indian ruler to support them with their army, put them on the throne, and establish a puppet ruler. To understand this with an example, let us get back to the story of the Bengali Nawabs and the East India Company.
In 1756, Siraj-ud-Daulah became the new Nawab of Bengal. As I mentioned earlier in the video, the East India Company was constantly disrespecting the authority of the Nawabs. But Siraj-ud-Daulah had enough . He didn’t want to tolerate it anymore. Siraj-ud-Daulah marched to Calcutta with his army. and attacked Fort William in the Bengali capital l Murshidabad. He jailed several hundred British officers, and a majority of those British officers died. Because they were cramped into a tiny jail cell.
This incident is named the Black Hole Tragedy of Calcutta. The British were infuriated with this. They decided to removed Siraj-e -Daulha from power at any cost. Here, they used the tactics they had learned in the Carnatic wars. They decided to use the rivals of the Nawab to remove him from the throne. The thing was, not Is it illegal to watch porn in Indieveryone was pleased with Siraj-ud-Daulah being on the throne. In the opposition, was the family of Jagath Seth. A powerful family of bankers, merchants m and moneylenders based in Murshidabad.
They were one of the richest families in Bengal of the time. And had a significant influence on the court of the Nawabs. Apart from this, the commander of Siraj-ud-Daulah’s army, Mir Jafar, harbors a desire of becoming a Nawab. Under the leadership of Robert Clive, the East India Company, Joined hands with the Seth family and sith Mir Jafar. And planned to remove Siraj-ud-Daulah from the throne. He approached the French, Known rivals of the British, and joined forces with them to fight their common enemies together. (How British Empire take over India ?)
This was was fought in June 1757, This is known as a Bettle of Plassey. The battle of Plassey is an important turning point in history. Because after this, the British gained political power. Some years later, their puppet Nawab, Mir Jafar, started getting into disagreements with the East India Company. He goes to defeat the East India Company. When the East India Company got to know about this, they removed Mir Jafar from the throne. And his son-in-law Mir Qasim became the new Nawab of Bengal.
Again, the company hoped that he would be a puppet Nawab. But as before, he too got into disagreements with the British Is it illegal to watch porn in India East India Company. He saw how the company was misusing its powers. He too wanted to be free of the British. So in 1763, he took his army to war with the British forces. But the British forces had become very powerful. They defeated Mit Qasim. The British then removed Mir Qasim from the throne and called Mir Jafar back.
Qasim left Bengal and realized that the war could not be won alone. He approached the Nawab of Awadh Shuja-ud-Daula, They allied and decided to eradicate the British influence. Their alliance fought the British in 1764, The British won this battle as well. After this war, the East India Company decided that none of their puppet Nawabs behaved the way they wanted. So they decided to be the new ruler of Bengal, so in 1675 Robert civil became the Governor and commander-in-chief of Bengal.
All revenue from Bengal in the form of Taxes collected would go to the East India Company alone. This company had many sources of revenue. Their revenue grew manifold. They could buy new products to trade and strengthen their military powers. The Bengal area was fully under British control. By this point in time, the East India Company had the funds, resources, and power to expand its territory. In the regions in the Indian subcontinent not under British control, the British appointed Residents there.
They tried to indirectly interfere in local politics. second, the local rulers of the other states, the East India Company pressurised them to enter into a subsidiary Alliance with the East India Company. According to the subsidiary Alliance, the East India Company had promised that the company would not interfere in the internal affairs of the rest of the areas. But this was an empty promise. With this technique, a large amount of area came under the indirect control of the East India Company.
How does British Empire take over India?
In 1798, Hyderabad was the first state to form a subsidiary Alliance with the company. If this both techniques failed, the EIC used their brute military force They took an army and occupied new areas. The East India Company become the most powerful entity in the Indian subcontinent. Later on, a fourth technique was used to get control over the remaining areas. The Doctrine of Lapse. According to this Doctrine, if an Indian ruler died, and they didn’t have a natural male heir the kingdom would automatically lapse and become a part of the EIC’s territory The EIC was constantly reforming so that they could easily regulate the different territories in the country.
By the early 1800s, the; last remaining major power was the Maratha Empire and the Mysore Kingdom. And the British Raj began. The Mughal Empire ended after 1857. (How British Empire take over India ?)
So, friends, this was an interesting story by which you can understand How British Empire take over India?