British Conquest of India- 1

European Maritime Expansion and the Search for New Routes

• Trade between Europe and India has ancient roots; during the Middle Ages this trade and commerce with South-East Asia moved along several well-established routes.
• The Asian section of the trade was largely handled by Arab merchants and sailors, while merchants from Italian city-states dominated Mediterranean and European links. The trade remained highly profitable.
• The old land and coastal routes between East and West came under Ottoman control after the conquest of Asia Minor and the capture of Constantinople in 1453, making European access to Asian goods more difficult.
• West European states therefore sought new, direct sea routes to India and the Spice Islands (the East Indies in present-day Indonesia).
• Early leadership in maritime exploration came from Portugal and Spain, whose governments sponsored long ocean voyages of discovery.
• In 1492 Christopher Columbus (sailing for Spain) sought a western sea route to India but instead discovered the Americas.
• In 1498, Vasco da Gama of Portugal successfully found an all-sea route from Europe to India by sailing round Africa via the Cape of Good Hope and reaching Calicut. The cargo he returned with sold for many times the cost of the voyage.
• These navigational discoveries opened a new chapter in global trade: the 16th-18th centuries saw a large rise in world commerce and transformed relations between Europe and Asia.

Portuguese Domination and New European Competitors

• Portugal retained a near monopoly of the lucrative Eastern trade for roughly a century and established coastal bases at Cochin, Goa, Diu and Daman in India.
• Under the viceroyalty of Alfonso d'Albuquerque (who captured Goa in 1510), Portuguese power extended across the Asian seaboard from Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to Malacca and the Spice Islands.
• By the late 16th century, rising commercial and naval powers-especially the Netherlands, England and later France-challenged the Iberian monopoly.
• The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602. Its principal interest was the Indonesian archipelago (spice islands); in India the Dutch set up depots and factories at Surat, Broach, Cambay (Khambhat), Ahmedabad, Cochin, Nagapatnam, Masulipatam, Chinsura, Patna and Agra.
• An English association for eastern trade was formed in 1599 by a group of merchants called the Merchant Adventurers and was granted a royal charter on 31 December 1600, creating the English East India Company.
• In 1608 Captain Hawkins was sent to Emperor Jahangir's court to seek favours; subsequently the Company obtained a royal farman allowing it to open trading factories at several places on the west coast.
• In 1615 Sir Thomas Roe, the English ambassador, secured an imperial farman permitting the English to trade and establish factories throughout the Mughal Empire. A farman is a royal edict or imperial order.
• In 1662 the Portuguese handed the island of Bombay to the English crown as part of a royal dowry. Over time, Portugal lost all its Indian possessions except Goa, Diu and Daman.

The Growth of the East India Company's Trade and Influence, 1600-1714

• From the start, the Company combined trade, diplomacy and the threat or use of force to protect and expand its commercial interests.
• The first English factory in South India was opened at Masulipatam in 1611.
• The Company's focus soon shifted southwards: in 1639 it obtained a lease of land from a local raja where it founded Madras and constructed a fortified trading settlement, Fort St. George.
• In Eastern India the Company established factories in Orissa from 1633, and was given permission to trade at Hugli (Hooghly) in 1651.
• In 1698 the Company acquired the zamindari (land-holding rights) of the three villages Sutanati, Kalikata and Govindpur, around which it built Fort William. These villages developed into the city known as Calcutta.
• In 1717 the Company obtained from Emperor Farrukh Siyar a farman that confirmed earlier privileges (including those of 1691) and extended privileges to Gujarat and the Deccan.
• During the first half of the 18th century Bengal was governed by strong Nawabs such as Murshid Quli Khan and Alivardi Khan, who maintained firm control over European traders and checked their attempts to misuse granted privileges.

The Anglo-French Struggle in South India (1744-1763)

• The mid-18th century witnessed open warfare between English and French companies for commercial supremacy, political influence and territorial control in India.
• The French East India Company was formed in 1664 and established important bases at Chandernagore (near Calcutta) and Pondicherry (on the Coromandel Coast). The French also controlled islands such as Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
• The French Company depended heavily on the French government for subsidies, loans and other support.
• Dupleix, the French Governor-General at Pondicherry, pursued a deliberate policy of intervening in local Indian succession disputes: by backing one claimant against another with modern European military support he aimed to secure commercial and territorial advantages.
• In the 1740s and 1750s succession and power struggles in the Carnatic (southeast India) and in Hyderabad created opportunities for Dupleix to intervene on behalf of French allies.
• British officers such as Robert Clive used these events to propose aggressive moves, for example attacking Arcot to relieve pressure elsewhere.
• By 1754
• the French government, tired of the expenses of the Indian campaigns and anxious about its American colonies, recalled Dupleix; this weakened the French position in India.

British Occupation of Bengal and its Political Consequences

• The period from the late 15th century up to the mid-18th century marks a decisive shift: European maritime discovery brought a new phase in East-West trade; competition among European powers extended into Indian politics; and by a combination of warfare, diplomacy and fiscal control the English East India Company moved from a commercial organisation to a territorial authority in Bengal and beyond.
• The events and institutions described-farmans, dastaks, factories, Fort William, the Diwani and major battles like Plassey and Buxar-are key milestones in the British conquest and subsequent colonial administration of India.
• The Portuguese and later Dutch, English and French entry into Indian Ocean trade transformed global commerce and shifted political power in India from local courts to European trading companies.
• The East India Company's combination of commercial activity with diplomacy and military force allowed it to convert trading privileges into territorial and administrative control.
• Key military victories-most notably Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764)-gave the Company financial resources and legitimacy to act as a political power, laying the foundations for direct colonial rule in the decades that followed.
• Control over Bengal's revenues (the Diwani) allowed the Company to maintain a standing army and to fund further conquests; it also began a period in which Bengal's prosperity was weakened by exploitation.
• Understanding this period is essential for comprehending later administrative, economic and infrastructural changes introduced under British rule, and for appreciating how commercial interests were converted into imperial governance.
• Farman: an imperial edict or decree issued by a Mughal emperor granting privileges or rights.
• Dastak: a pass or permit issued by the Company to its servants, often exempting specified goods from local customs duties.
• Zamindari: rights of land revenue collection and local administration held by zamindars (landholders) under various arrangements.
• Diwani: the right to collect revenue and administer fiscal affairs of a territory; in 1765 it gave the Company de facto financial control over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
• The beginnings of British political ascendancy in India are commonly traced to the events surrounding the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when the Company's forces defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal.
• The 1717 farman (granted to the Company) became a recurring source of conflict: it reduced revenue for the Bengal government and allowed Company servants to use dastaks (pass documents) to evade customs duties on Company trade. A dastak was an internal pass that exempted Company goods from certain taxes.
• In 1756 Siraj-ud-Daulah, who succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan, insisted that Europeans should trade on the same terms that existed earlier under Murshid Quli Khan; he ordered the demolition of fortifications at Calcutta and Chandernagore and forbade mutual hostilities between the European companies.
• The Company, however, insisted on trading freely in Bengal irrespective of the Nawab's orders; this challenged the Nawab's sovereign rights.
• Siraj-ud-Daulah seized the English factory at Kasimbazar, marched on Calcutta and captured Fort William on 20 June 1756.
• English officials fled to Fulta (Falta) near the sea, where their naval superiority protected them. While awaiting reinforcements from Madras they organised intrigues and sought allies among powerful local figures.
• Key Indian figures who entered into the conspiracy against Siraj included Mir Jafar (a commander), the Mir Bakshi, Manik Chand (officer-in-charge at Calcutta), Amichand (a rich merchant), Jagat Seth (the leading banker of Bengal) and Khadim Khan (a commander with troops).
• Reinforcements from Madras under Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive retook Calcutta in early 1757 and forced the Nawab to accept English demands.
• The armies met at Plassey (about 30 km from Murshidabad) on 23 June 1757. The engagement is often described as a "battle only in name" because conspiracy and defection inside the Nawab's camp were decisive.
• As the Bengali poet Nabin Chandra Sen later wrote, the battle was followed by "a night of eternal gloom for India".
• After Plassey the English installed Mir Jafar as a puppet Nawab and began to extract large sums in return for their support.
• The immense revenues of Bengal enabled the Company to build and maintain a strong standing force, which financed further territorial expansion in India.
• When Mir Jafar proved unable to satisfy Company demands, in October 1760 they compelled him to abdicate in favour of his son-in-law, Mir Qasim.
• Mir Qasim initially rewarded the Company with grants: he gave the zamindari of Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong and presented large gifts totaling 29 lakhs of rupees to Company officials.
• However, Mir Qasim later sought to assert independence and reform administration and taxation to remove Company advantages; he therefore became a threat to Company interests.
• A contemporary British historian, Percival Spear, described these years as "the period of open and unashamed plunder", noting how Bengal's prosperity was being damaged by rapacious policies.
• Mir Qasim was defeated in a series of engagements in 1763 and fled to Awadh, where he formed an alliance with Shuja-ud-Daulah (the Nawab of Awadh) and the fugitive Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.
• The allied forces confronted the Company's army at the Battle of Buxar on 22 October 1764 and were thoroughly defeated; this battle is one of the most decisive in Indian history because it demonstrated the military superiority of Company forces over combined armies of major Indian powers.
• The victory at Buxar firmly established British control over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and placed Awadh at the Company's mercy.
• In 1763 the Company had restored Mir Jafar to the throne and extracted large sums. On Mir Jafar's death they placed his second son, Nizam-ud-Daulah, on the throne and concluded a new treaty on 20 February 1765.
• From Shah Alam II, who retained a nominal position as Mughal emperor, the Company secured the Diwani-the right to collect the revenue of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. The grant of Diwani transferred fiscal authority to the Company and was a turning point that converted commercial power into political and administrative control.
• The war between Britain and France in the global context ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, consolidating British dominance in India.
• The crucial military engagement was the Battle of Wandiwash (22 January 1760), when the English general Eyre Coote defeated the French commander Lally. Within a year the French lost most of their Indian possessions.