The East India Company 

was a private company which, after a long series of

wars and diplomatic efforts, came to rule India in the 19th century.

Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, the original company

comprised a group of London merchants who hoped to trade for spices at islands
in present day Indonesia. Ships of the company's first voyage sailed from England
in February 1601.

After a series of conflicts with Dutch and Portuguese traders active in the Spice
Islands, the East India Company concentrated its efforts on trading on the Indian
subcontinent.

The East India Company Began to Focus on Importing From

India
In the early 1600s the East India Company began dealing with the Mogul rulers
of India. On the Indian coasts, English traders set up outposts which would
eventually become the cities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

Numerous products, including silk, cotton, sugar, tea, and opium, began to be
exported out of India. In return, English goods, including wool, silver, and other
metals, were shipped to India.

The company found itself having to hire its own armies to defend trading posts.
And over time what began as a commercial enterprise also became a military and
diplomatic organization.

British Influence Spread Across India in the 1700s

In the early 1700s the Mogul Empire was collapsing, and various invaders,
including Persians and Afghans, entered India. But the major threat to British
interests came from the French, who began seizing British trading posts.

At the Battle of Plassey, in 1757, forces of the East India Company, though greatly
outnumbered, defeated Indian forces backed by the French. The British, led by
Robert Clive, had successfully checked the French incursions. And the company
took possession of Bengal, an important region of northeastern India, which
greatly increased the company's holdings.

In the late 1700s, company officials became notorious for returning to England
and showing off the enormous wealth they had accumulated while in India. They
were referred to as "nabobs," which was the English pronunciation of nawab, the
word for a Mogul leader.
Alarmed by reports of enormous corruption in India, the British government
began to take some control over company affairs. The government began
appointing the company's highest official, the governor-general.

The first man to hold the governor-general position, Warren Hastings, was
eventually impeached when members of Parliament became resentful at the
economic excesses of the nabobs.

The East India Company In the Early 1800s

The successor to Hastings, Lord Cornwallis (who is remembered in America for
having surrendered to George Washington during his military service in the
American War of Independence) served as governor-general from 1786 to 1793.
Cornwallis set a pattern which would be followed for years, instituting reforms
and rooting out the corruption which allowed employees of the company to
amass great personal fortunes.

Richard Wellesley, who served as governor general in India from 1798 to 1805
was instrumental in extending the rule of the company in India. He ordered the
invasion and acquisition of Mysore in 1799. And the first decades of the 19th
century became an era of military successes and territorial acquisitions for the
company.