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East India comes in East
In 1600, the east India Company acquired a charter (written grant) from Queen Elizabeth I granting it the sole right to trade in east. With this charter the company had no fear of competition as no other company of England could trade in east except the east India Company. With this charter company could venture across new oceans, looking new lands for goods at cheaper rate such as spices, silk and cotton clothes and sell them at higher price in Europe. -
East India expands territory in Bengal
The first English factory was setup on the banks of river Hugli in 1651. The company made its warehouses and by 1696 it began building a fort around the settlements. It also got diwani of three villages in 1698 with the help of some corrupt officers. One of the village was Kolkata. Meanwhile the company also persuaded Emperor Aurangzeb for Farman.This Farman granted the company the right to trade “duty free”. This trade resulted in the loss of revenue in bengal. -
Battle of plassey
Sirajuddaulah became nawab of Bengal after the death of Alivardi Khan. He ordered Britishers to pay revenue and stop fortification.With the help of his 30,000 soldiers, he destroyed English factory at Kasimbazar and also established his control .All these incidents resulted into battle of Plassey in which East India company defeated Sirajuddaulah.The main reason behind his defeat was that army led by commander Mir Jafar never took part in the battle because he was bribed by Robert Clive. -
the battle of Buxar
Mir jafar became nawab of Bengal. The company was granted undisputed right to free trade in Bengal. But after sometime, when nawab refused further rights, he was dethroned by the Britishers and now the next nawab was Mir Qasim. After sometime, he also started complaining of the misuse of the powers given to the company. This led to battle of buxar. -
Company officials became nawabs
So, once again Mir jafar came to the throne as nawab of Bengal, this time he was asked to pay Rs 5,00,000 per month to the company but this was insufficient as it wanted more money to finance its wars. When Mir jafar died in 1765 the company decided of becoming nawab itself, so, in year 1765 the Mughal emperor declared company as the diwan of Bengal province. The revenue it received through diwani was of a great help. After some time they company officials becam nawabs. -
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Threat from Mysore
Mysore had grown into a strong state under Haider Ali .Tipu sultan was a strong ruler in Mysore.Tipu controlled the trade and stopped the export of pepper, sandalwood and cardamom . He also stopped local merchants to deal with Britishers. He employed French to his army to modernize.Britishers tried to suppress the power of Mysore. For this, four wars were fought between Britishers and Mysore all are known as Anglo Mysore war. Tipu was killed in the war at Sringapatnam. -
Robert Clive's suicide
Robert Clive before becoming governor of Bengal in 1764 had become very rich in India because of this he was cross examined by the British parliament in 1772 because the parliament was suspicious of his vast wealth. Finally, he was acquitted from all the charges laid against him but he committed suicide in 1774. -
Awadh and Hyderabad lost their territory
The company had a different way to expand it's territory. One such way was ‘subsidiary alliance’. According to this, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces. They had to keep company’s army and pay for it. If they failed to do so, the part of their territory was taken away as penalty . In 1801, Lord Wellesley forced Nawab of Awadh to give over half of his territory due to nonpayment of maintenance to the British army. Same happened with Hyderabad also. -
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Anglo-maratha war
The company started facing problems from the Marathas who were aiming to rule over India through Delhi which was taken as the seat of power. So, there were a number of wars fought between the both. For instance, the second Anglo Maratha war resulted into the British gaining control over Orissa, north of Yamuna including Agra and Delhi. The third Anglo – Maratha war totally crushed the Maratha power and Britishers got complete control over territories, south of the Vindhyas. -
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Policy of paramountcy
East India company, under the leadership of Lord Hastings, initiated a policy of paramountcy . They started annexation of territories of India. During this process they also faced some resistance at some places like Rani Chinnamma, led a movement against them. The company became worried about Russia who it thought could give a competition to the company. It tried to secure the North-West frontier of India by fighting a war with Afghanistan. It also took over Sind and Punjab -
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Doctrine and its effects
this was a type of annexation that took place under the governorship of Lord Dalhousie . Under this doctrine, any Indian king who doesn’t had a natural male heir had to give away his territory to the Britishers. With this policy the company took control over Satara , Sambalpur, Udaipur and Jhansi . Jhansi as you all know is famous for its brave Queen Rani Lakshmibai. She was the widow of Raja Gangadhar Rao. Jhansi was also annexed by the Britishers. Such incidents led to the revolt. -
Administration
The first Governor General of Bengal was Warren Hastings. Hastings divided administration into three Presidencies namely Bombay, Madras and Bengal. He also codified laws with the help of Hindu pundits and Muslim Muftis in order to do justice as per the prevailing laws in India. He also established courts such as faujdari and diwani and also appointed collectors to collect revenue and maintain law and order. -
Revolts because of army
Britishers was also dependent on a strong army. British army had sawars and paidals who were trained in archery and sword with fighting. With the passage of time, new warfare techniques were introduced such as musket and match locks there arose a need of developing new techniques among Indian soldiers which sometimes was against the feelings of the Indian sepoys. This created a discontent among Indian soldiers which in became one of the reasons of revolt against them