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Jul 1, 1497
Vasco De Gama Sails for India
In 1947, Vasco De Gama sailed to explore the East African Coast. When he reached Calicut,India in 1948, he and his crew were amazed with the spices, rare silks, and the gems he saw in Calicut shops. When he returned back to Portuguese, the things they brought back were 60 times worth the trip and now the Portuguese had a direct route to India -
Establishment Of The British East India Company
Around the 1600's, the British set up trading post in Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. Before, the Mughal empire had the traders under control.By 1707 the empire was collapsing. -
Decline of The Mughal Empire
When the Mughal Empire was declining, the British controlled the Indian territory. Soon, the British had controlled almost all of India. -
Industrial Revolution In Britain
Before the Industrial Revolution in Britain began, people who usually worked almost anything by hand. When the Industrial Revolution in Britain started to form, more machines began to do other peoples work. Soon, the industrial revolution began to spread throughout in England, North America, and the continental Europe. -
Sepoy Rebellion
When it was gossiped that the sepoys used beef and pork fat cartilages on their new Enfield rifles which the cartilages had the ends bitten off, both the Muslims and the Hindus refused to accept the cartilages. More and more people started to refuse and as a result, the British and the Indian's had tried to slaughter each other's armies. The Indian's lost to the British because they had weak leadership and the Muslims and the Hindu's did not cooperate enough which had caused a split between th -
British Overcome French and Take Control of India
When Robert Clive led the troops in a winning victory against the Indian forces that were allied with the French in 1757, the East India Company had the power over India until 1858. The battle was called The Battle of Plassey. -
British Colonized India
When the turning point happened in India, the mutiny resulted to British taking control over India.The term refers to Raj referring to British rule after India lost control to the British during Queen Victoria's crowning. -
Creation of The Indian National Congress (INC)
In 1885, the people of India grew tired of how they were always treated 'second class' from the British. They created a nationalist called “The Indian Nationalist Congress”. -
Mohandas Gandhi's Leadership of The INC
When the massacre at Amritsar had happened, it was time for a leader of the independence movement which Mohandas Gandhi led. He teachings had millions of people following him soon they began calling him “Mahatma” meaning great soul. -
Gandhi's Travels Stressing Non-Violent Resistance
Since the British failed into punishing the officers who killed people at the Amritsar Massacre, Gandhi had called on Indians to buy any British goods, attend government schools, pay British taxes, or to even vote. Gandhi had asked people to weave their own clothing which he also did himself. As a result, the boycott had British cloth sales decrease sharply. -
Creation Of The Muslim League
In 1906, there was an organization called the Muslim League to protect the Muslim interest. The leader of the league, Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted to have the Muslims to resign from the Congress Party. -
Rowlatt Acts
When the nationalist showed violence to show British how much they have hated their rules, the British passed a law called Rowlatt Acts which had stated that government can jail any protesters without having trial and stay in jail for 2 years. The Western-educated Indians felt that the denial of trial violated their own rights. -
Amritsar Massacre
In 1919, Muslims and Hindus went to Amritsar to protest the Rowlatt Acts which had about 10,000 people and they protested by fasting,praying, and listening to political speeches. When the British heard about the news, one of the commanders at Amritsar told his troops to open fire which then killed 400 Indians and 1,200 of them were wounded in just 10 minutes. Indians all over India were outraged and instead of being loyal British, they changed to nationalist. -
The Salt March
When the Indians wanted to buy salt, the Indians people could only buy salt from the British and they also had to pay taxes. To show that they were against it, they walked about 240 miles to go to the seacoast and they began making their own salt. The protest was called the Salt March. -
Government Of India Act
In 1935, the British passed a law called the Government of India Act which had stated that there will be self-government and having limited democratic elections, but not total independence. -
WWII Riots Between Hindus and Muslims
When the British decided to hand over the power, they didn't know if the Hindus or the Muslims should get the power. In August 1946, a four day of clashes in Calcutta had more than 5,000 people dead and more than 15,000 hurt. -
Partition
The British had decided that the idea of Partition meaning to have India and the Hindus separated into two regions would be a good idea. -
Indian/Pakistan Independence
When the two regions were divided, more than 500 independent native princes had to choose which region they would join in a short period of time. Millions of Indian citizens such as Hindus, Muslims, and the Sikhs had to decide where to go. -
Gandhi's Death
When everyone in India was deciding where to go to relocate, many violences occurred such as the Muslim killing the Sikhs who were moving to India and Hindus and Sikhs killing Muslims who were going to Pakistan. When Gandhi visited Delhi to have ask for a fair treatment of Muslim refugees, he was shot by a Hindu extremist who thought Gandhi was too protective of the Muslims.
