The establishment of Company power

The Establishment of Company power

Seminar by- Akshita, Jeema and Swetha

Open Ended

What do you think this lesson is about? Give in your thoughts.

Learning objectives

• Voyages of discovery

• The formation of European trading companies in India

• The British East India Company

• The Carnatic Wars

• The conquest of Bengal

• The Marathas

• The Conquest of Mysore

VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY

Lesson objective 1

 

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  Between the 7th and the 14th centuries, Arab traders dominated the trade between the East and the West. They took spices, textiles, sugar, indigo (used for dyeing cloth) and saltpetre (used for making gunpowder) from India by sea to ports on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The goods were then carried over land to Europe. In 1453, Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, fell to the Turks, and the Arabs could no longer take goods safely over land to Europe.

• 
  

   

CONTINUATION

As a result of these voyages of discovery, direct trade routes were established between the West and the East. The Arab domination of the Indian Ocean was replaced by that of the Portuguese, the first Europeans to establish a trading base in India. Soon, the Dutch, the British and the French followed. So for the Europeans, it became essential to find a direct sea route to the East. For this purpose, a series of voyages were undertaken by European explorers, sponsored by the monarchs of Portugal, Spain and England.

 

Multiple Choice

A small question! Between ________and ______ centuries, Arab traders dominated the trade between the East and West.

• 7th and 14th

• 14th and 18th

Formation of European trading companies in India

Lesson objective 2.

RAISE YOUR HAND TO READ

 

The rival European countries soon realised the enormous potential for wealth that lay in trade with India. Individual traders joined to form trading companies, which were supported by their respective governments. Their efforts to control trade with India led to increasingly bitter trade wars between the Dutch, the British, the Portuguese and the French.

 

CONTINUATION

The Portuguese had trading settlements at Goa, Daman, Diu, Salsette, Bassein and Santhome (near Chennai). The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602, and established factories in

 

Masulipatnam, Surat and Cochin.

The French were the last European power to enter India. The first French factory came up at Surat in 1668. France acquired Mahe in Malabar on the west coast in 1724. By 1740, the value of its trade with India was half that of the British East India Company. The French were the last European power to enter India. The first French factory came up at Surat in 1668. France acquired Mahe in Malabar on the west coast in 1724. By 1740, the value of its trade with India was half that of the British East India Company.

Multiple Choice

The Dutch East India Company was formed in _______

• 1603

• 1602

• 1605

• 1606

THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY

Lesson objective 3

RAISE YOUR HAND TO READ

The British East India Company was founded in 1600 by a group of enterprising businessmen. On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter (written statement) to the Company, giving it permission to trade with India, in return for a share of its profits.

From Trading post to Presidency

• The early visits of Company ships to the East were for exploration. The captains of the ships sought out suitable places and asked for permission to trade from local rulers. If trade proved profitable. the captains set up trading posts called factories (named after the officials of the Company, who were called 'factors). In the more successful areas, groups of factories developed, which were known as settlements. Some of these settlements developed into centres to which other factories in the region reported and came to be called presidencies. The presidencies were administered by a governor and a council of senior factors.

   

  
  

READ

Sir Thomas Roe In Jahangir's court-part of a painting by Bichitr from the Tuzk-e-jahangin

 

ambassador to the court of Jahangir. Sir Thomas Roe received permission in 1616 to set up factories in any part of the Mughal Empire.

 

CONTINUATION

British trade with India increased, and so did their power. The city of Calcutta grew from three villages where the Company was given rights to collect tax. Bombay soon became a British stronghold, and replaced Surat as the centre of the Company's activities on India's western coast. By 1709, the Company had an administrative structure in place with presidencies in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay. Traders from the regions around brought their goods to these ports to wait for the Company's annual fleets.

CONTINUATION

The British made official contact with India for the first time in 1606. Captain William Hawkins landed in Surat in 1607, and went to Agra to secure trading privileges. In 1612, a firman was obtained from Mughal emperor Jahangir, giving permission to set up factories at Surat. Surat was nominated as the Company's centre of trade in the East. In 1615, King James I of England sent Sir Thomas Roe

 

From Traders to rulers- The British conquest of India

Starting out as traders operating from small trading outposts, the Europeans soon established powerful colonies in the East. (A colony is a country or region that is politically controlled by another distant country; colonialism is the rule of a country, for a long period, by another one.)

 

CONTINUATION

The European powers fought bitter battles among themselves for control over the lucrative trade with the East, especially India. The Portuguese, however, were unable to retain most of their possessions in India after Spain conquered Portugal in 1580. The Dutch decided to focus their attention on their possessions in the East Indies. That left the British and the French. In Europe, Britain and France were already rivals.

READ

Their conflict in Europe fuelled their efforts to gain supremacy in India. The French and the British took advantage of the rivalry between the Indian rulers. They allied themselves with rival groups and fought three wars between 1746 and 1763, which came to be called the Carnatic Wars. The British defeated the French comprehensively. By the end of the Third Carnatic War, the French retained only Pondicherry and Chandernagore, and they were not allowed to fortify even these. The British were now the main

 

European power in India.

 

Having gained a foothold in the South, the British turned their attention towards Bengal.

CAN ANYONE GUESS THE PERSON?

Open Ended

Why did the Europeans fight bitter battles among themselves?

The Carnatic wars

Lesson objective 4

Raise your hands to read

• In India, the conflict between the French and the British was focussed around the Carnatic region (the south-eastern part of the Indian Peninsula).

CONTINUATION

The three states of this region Hyderabad, Carnatic and Mysore were in constant conflict with each other. The British had a fortified settlement in Madras, and the French had one in Pondicherry.

 

Robert Clive of Britain and Joseph Dupleix of France-adversaries in the Carnatic wars

CONTINUATION

 

The French and the British took advantage of the rivalry between the Indian rulers. They allied themselves with rival groups and fought three wars between 1746 and 1763, which came to be called the Carnatic Wars. The British defeated the French comprehensively. By the end of the Third Carnatic War, the French retained only Pondicherry and Chandernagore, and they were not allowed to fortify even these. The British were now the main European power in India. Having gained a foothold in the South, the British turned their attention towards Bengal.

Multiple Choice

When did Carnatic wars take place?

• 1746 and 1763

• 1706 and 1709

The Conquest of Bengal

Lesson objective 5

RAISE TO READ

• The province of Bengal included present-day Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. It was one of the richest provinces of the subcontinent, known for its textiles and silk. The British started fortifying their factory at Fort William in Calcutta. Sirajuddaulah, the Nawab of Bengal, asked the British to demolish these fortifications.

CONTINUATION

 

Robert Clive, the commander of the British troops, reached Calcutta from the victories in the Carnatic.

 

Carnatic. He handled the situation using military strength and political shrewdness, and retook Fort William in 1757. But alarmed by the events, Clive decided to declare war on Sirajuddaulah.

The Battle of Plassey

• Clive conspired with Mir Jafar, the commander-in-chief of the nawab's army. Clive promised to make Mir Jafar the nawab if he helped him defeat Sirajuddaulah. The armies of Sirajuddaulah and the British met at Plassey in 1757. Finding that Mir Jafar had turned traitor, Sirajuddaulah fled the battlefield. Mir Jafar was made nawab of Bengal by the British.

   

  
  

CONTINUATION

However, when Mir Jafar tried to control the corrupt trading practices of the British, he was replaced by his son-in-law, Mir Qasim, in 1760. Mir Qasim granted the British the right to collect revenues from Burdwan, Midnapur and Chittagong districts of Bengal.

The Battle of Buxar

• Mir Qasim soon grew tired of British control and set about consolidating his power and position. To improve his finances, he tried to force the employees of the East India Company to pay duty for their private trade, which they were using to amass personal wealth. When he was unable to do so, he granted free trade to all Indians as well.

  
  

  
  

   

CONTINUATION

This placed the Indian traders on equal footing with the Company's traders. Mir Jafar was brought back as nawab of Bengal. Though the nawab continued to be responsible for the administration of the province, the revenue from the land now went to the British. This was called the system of dual government, an unfortunate system that ruined Bengal. The Company did not use the revenue it collected to make any improvements in Bengal, which was steadily drained of its wealth. This system continued till 1772, when Warren Hastings became the governor of Bengal and abolished it.

 

CONTINUATION

With the conquest of Bengal ended the first phase of British conquest of India. They were now virtual rulers of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. The nawabs of Awadh and Carnatic were their dependents. The Mughal emperor was their pensioner. The next and final phase of British conquest of India lasted from 1765 to 1857. In these almost 100 years they brought the whole of the Indian subcontinent under their rule. They did this using a combination of methods-wars, alliances and annexations.

CONTINUATION

Mir Qasim fled, while the others signed the Treaty of Allahabad with the British. As a result, all territories were returned to the Nawab of Awadh, except Kora and Allahabad, which were given to the emperor along with an annual pension. In return, the emperor was made to give the diwani of Bengal. Bihar and Odisha to the British. This gave the British the right to collect revenue and administer justice in this region.

CONTINUATION

 

In 1763, Mir Qasim went to Awadh and entered into an alliance with Nawab Shujauddaula and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam, who was there as a refugee after the Third Battle of Panipat. In 1764, the combined forces of Mir Qasim, Shujauddaula and Shah Alam met the British at the Battle of Buxar. Clive defeated them.

 

Multiple Choice

In _________Mir Qasim went to Awadh

• 1755

• 1763

The Marathas

Lesson objective 6

Raise your hand to read

The British were keen on subjugating the Marathas. The Marathas, as you read last year, had become one of the most powerful forces in India by the middle of the 18th century. Under the dynamic leadership of Shivaji, and later the peshwas, the Marathas challenged the might of the Mughals.

CONTINUATION

Their ambitions of building an empire covering the whole of India, however, received a setback when they were defeated by the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.

 At this time, four centres of Maratha power emerged under different chiefs most of Gujarat under the Gaekwads who ruled from Baroda. Berar under the Bhonsles who ruled from Nagpur, part of Malwa under the Holkars who ruled from Indore. and part of Malwa under the Scindias who ruled from Gwalior. The Marathas then took on the rising power of the British in a series of encounters which came to be called the Anglo-Maratha Wars.

The Anglo- Maratha Wars ( 1775- 1818)

• Three Anglo-Maratha Wars were fought between 1775 and 1818. The British supported the ageing Raghunath Rao for the post of peshwa, while the rest of the Marathas, under the leadership of Nana Phadnavis, were in favour of the young Madhav Rao II. This resulted in the first Anglo-Maratha War. After fighting for almost four years, the British were forced to acknowledge Madhav Rao II as the peshwa.

   

  
  

CONTINUATION

After the death of Nana Phadnavis in 1800, the Maratha chiefs started fighting openly among themselves. The British took advantage of this and comprehensively defeated the Marathas in the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1818). The post of the peshwa was abolished, and large parts of the Maratha kingdom were annexed by the British. This marked the virtual end of Maratha rule in India.

Multiple Choice

The Anglo- Marathas wars were fought between _______ and ________

• 1775- 1818

• 1735- 1915

The Conquest of Mysore

Lesson objective 7

The Anglo- Maratha Wars ( 1766- 1799)

• 
  

  The stiffest opposition to British power in South India came from the state of Mysore. In 1761, Hyder Ali, a soldier, seized the throne of Mysore from its ruler, Chikka Krishna Raj. Under Hyder Ali

Multiple Choice

In 1799, the ______ defeated ________ at Seringapatam

• Italians and Mysore

• British and Tipu

Strategies used by the British

Lesson objective 8. As part of his attempts to expand his kingdom, Hyder Ali defeated the forces of the East India Company and besieged Madras in 1769. The British agreed to help Hyder Ali in case of an attack from the Marathas. However, when the Marathas attacked Mysore in 1771, the British failed to come to Hyder Ali's help. An angry Hyder Ali swore never to trust the British again.

 

CONTINUATION

In 1782, Hyder Ali died leaving his son Tipu Sultan to carry on the fight. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-1792), Lord Cornwallis, the governor general at that time, entered into an alliance with the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Their joint forces defeated Tipu Sultan and two of his sons were taken hostage by the British.

 

In 1799, the British defeated Tipu at Seringapatam in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. Tipu died fighting. With the death of Tipu, the British were rid of one of their most bitter enemies. The British annexed half his kingdom and gave Mysore back to the royal family, thereby ensuring their loyalty. This victory over Mysore paved the way for the total control of India by the British.

Subsidary alliances

• Wellesley, the governor-general of India from 1798 to 1805, was an ambitious man. He wanted to make Britain the most important power in India. He waged wars and captured several territories. Another strategy he used to increase Britain's power was to enter into subsidiary alliances with the rulers of various states.

   

  
  

CONTINUATION

n the subsidiary alliance system, an Indian ruler had to maintain British troops in his state, either by giving some of his territory or by paying for the maintenance of the troops. This system allowed the British to maintain a large army at the expense of local rulers. The Indian ruler could not fight or sign treaties with any other power. The rulers who joined this system, like the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Nizam of Awadh, got security but lost their independence. Others who joined the system included the Marathas after the Third Maratha War, and most of the Rajput states.

Annexations

• Annexation means to take control of a neighbouring territory, usually with the use of force. Wellesley annexed the smaller kingdoms of Travancore, Surat and Carnatic using this policy. The annexation was done in stages.

   

  • First, under the pretext of protecting the Indian ruler, the British took virtual control of the state.

   

  
  

CONTINUATION

Over time, the Indian rulers stopped maintaining their army even for self-protection.

 

• To pay for the maintenance of British troops, they collected more taxes, and the law and order situation deteriorated.

 

• The British then annexed the State on grounds

 

of misrule

The Doctrine of Lapse

• Traditionally in India, if a ruler did not have a child, it was an accepted practice to adopt one. But the British refused to recognise such adoptions. So when the ruler of a subsidiary or protected state died without a natural heir, the state could not pass to the adopted child but was annexed to British territory. Satara (1848), Nagpur (1854) and lastly Jhansi (1854) fell prey to this.

Open Ended

Name few strategies used by the British

The British complete their Conquest

Lesson objective 9-  

With the mainland of India under their control, the British now turned their attention to the peripheral states

Punjab- The Anglo-Sikh wars

• Taking advantage of the declining power of the Mughal Empire, the Sikhs established a powerful empire in the 18th century under the leadership of Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh maintained a friendly relationship with the British. After his death in 1839 there was anarchy in Punjab, and the Khalsa (the Sikh army) became powerful.

   

  Maharaja Ranjit Singh

   

  
  

CONTINUATION

The Khalsa distrusted the British. In 1845-1846. the First Anglo-Sikh War was fought. The Sikhs were defeated and the land between the rivers Beas. and Sutlej was annexed by the British. Lingering anger against the British resulted in a revolt by the Sikhs in Multan. Lord Dalhousie, the governor general, declared war on the Sikhs. This was the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848-1849). The Sikhs were comprehensively defeated. Punjab became a vassal state of the British, and its ruler Duleep Singh was pensioned off.

Annexation of Awadh ( 1856)

• After the battle of Buxar, Awadh signed the Treaty of Allahabad with the British. In 1801, a second treaty was signed at the time of Wellesley, and half of Awadh was taken away by the British. Since then the nawabs of Awadh were dependents of the British. In 1856, Dalhousie annexed Awadh without any proper provocation, and its ruler Wajid Ali Shah was deposed. This act of the British was universally condemned and became one of the main causes behind the Revolt of 1857. Thus, by 1856, the whole of India was under British rule.

Open Ended

Describe about Panjab- The Anglo- Sikh wars

Reasons for the success of the British

Lesson objective 10

Raise your hands to read

• Absence of a strong central leadership with the decline of the Mughals, there was no strong central leadership in India to check the activities

   

  of the British. . Lack of unity among the Indian states-the

   

  Indian states were unable to form a united front against the British. The British took advantage of their rivalries to play one ruler against the other while strengthening their own base in India.

   

  
  

   

CONTINUATION

• The weakness of the Indian rulers-many rulers chose to have a subsidiary alliance with the British rather than fight them. They wanted to protect their comfortable lifestyles. They showed little regard for the poor and carried out few reforms for the benefit of the people.

 

Britain's superior army and navy-the British soldiers had better firearms than the Indian soldiers. They were also often better disciplined and better trained than their Indian counterparts.

 

last thing to read!

All these factors contributed to the success of the British in India. Within a span of just around 100 years (1765-1857), the British in India transformed themselves from traders to the builders of the most powerful empire of the 19th century.

LET'S HAVE A DEBATE! 😀

TOPIC- FOR- WITH BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY, AND AGAINST- WITHOUT BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

GROUPS

GROUP1) 1-25, GROUP2) 26-42

THANK YOU! BY AKSHITA, SWETHA, JEEMA