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Jan 1, 1497
Vasco De Gama sails for India
He explored the East African coast and in 1498 and he reached the port of calicut which is located in the southwestern coast of India. He was amazed by the spices, rare silks, and gems and he returned to Portugal in 1499 with cargo that was worth 60 times the cost of the trip. This gave Portugal a staright sea route to India. -
Establishment of the British East India Company
The British government controlled the East India
Company in London and India and in the 1600s the East India Company had trading posts at Bombay, Madras, and in Calcutta. The company also had its own army led by British officers and staffed Sepoys. -
Decline of the Mughal Empire
By the end of Aurangzeb's reign over 2 million people died in a famine while he was waging war. His increased taxes for the war casued more rebellion and in 1661 he gave European traders the port of Bombay. He wasn't threatened by them and didn't know by doing this he gave them the first foothold in future Empires. -
Industrial Revolution in Britain
there were more machine made goods in Britain in the1700s and before the revolution people did alot by hand. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill which made more seeds grow and boosted crop yields. Crop ratation kept the land fertile because of the different plants being grown each season. -
British overcome French and take controlof India
1757 Robert Clive led East India Company troops to victory over French and Indian forces at the battle of Plassey. From the win until 1858 the East India Company was the leading power in India. for British made goods India was the most valuable of its colonies. -
Sepoy Rebellion
In 1857 the Sepoys heard that the cartriges of their Enfield rifles were greased with beef and pork fat. Hindus thought cows were sacred and Muslims didn't eat pork so this upset them. 85 of the 90 Sepoys didn't use the cartriges and the ones that didn't were jailed. on May 16th 1857 the Sepoys rebelled and took over New Delhi and it took over a year for the British to get back the city. -
British colonized India
The British government took complete control of India. They promised that the Indan states that were free would stay the way they are but over time they got more and more control over the states. -
Creation of the Indian National Congress (INC)
In the 1800s Indians wanted to modernize and growing nationalism led to the founding of the Indian national congress in 1885 and the muslim league in 1906. Hindus and Muslims worked togethr to try to get independence from Britain even though they were divided. -
Creation of the Muslim league
The Muslim league was founded in 1906 to protect muslim interests. People from the league thought that people from the Hindu congress party cared more for Hindu interests. Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted all Muslims to resign from the congress party. The muslim league didn't want independence if they were going to be ruled by the Hindu dominated congress party. -
Amritsar Massacre
10,000Muslims and Hindus went to Amritsar to protest against the rowlatt acts in 1919 and they intended tofast, pray,cand listen to political speeches. The British thought it was a nationalist outburst and the british commander at Amritsar thought the indians were going against the bon. He ordered his troops to fire on the crowd and ended up killing 400 indians and wounding 1,200. -
Rowlett Acts
Some nationalists act violent to show that they didn't like British rule and so the British passed laws in 1919 that allowed the government to put protesters in jail for up to 2 years without trial. This went against the indians personal rights. -
Mohandas Ganghi's leadership of the INC
Ghandi got the INC to follow a policy of noncooperation with the
British government when they didn't punish the officers responsible for the Amritsar Massacre. In 1920 the congress influenced civil disobediance, not following an unjust law. -
Gandi's travels stressing nonviolent resistence
Gandhi got the INC to influence disobedience in 1920 and he got Indians to not buy British goods, go to government schools, not pay taxes, andnot vote in elections. He also got them to boycott British cloth and cloth gave the British alot of money. Throughout the 1920s the British arested many Indians and protests usually ened up in violence. -
The salt March
In 1930 Gandhi organized a march to go against the salt acts. These laws made Indians only be able to buy salt from the British government and also pay salt taxes. To go against these laws Gandhi and his followers walked 240 miles to the coast to make their own salt and not have to pay for the salt. -
Government of India act
British parliament passed the Government of India act in 1935. It gave a local self government and limmited democratic elections but not total independence. This act increased tensions between Muslims and Hindus because Muslims thought Hindus would controll India if they got independence because there were more Hindus than Muslims. -
WW2-Riots between Hindus and Muslims
Riots broke outin 1946 and four days of battling in Calcutta leftmore than 5,000 dead and more than 15,000 hurt. -
Partition
The partition that was proposed by the Muslims made India safe. The Northwest and Eastern parts of India became West Pakistan and East Pakistan in 1947. -
Indian and Pakistan Independence
On July 16, 1947 the British passed an act that made India and Pakistan independent in one months time. 500 independent princes had to choose which nation they wanted to go with. Everything had to be divided and Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs had to also decide where to go. -
Gandhi's Death
Gandhi went to the capital of New Delhi to try to get treatment for Muslim refugees. A Hindu thought he was trying to protect Muslims so he shot and killed Gandhi on January 30, 1948.