The British Empire

India
The Background history of the British India
- During the 16th century, European merchant wanted to trade with world’s
wealthiest region: India.
- At that time, the Indian subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal Emperor
who were Muslim warlords from Central Asia and conquered India during
the 1550s.
- The Mughal Emperor granted each province to a prince(nawab), to rule on
his behalf.
- European merchants competed for their valuable trade in Indian sugar,
saltpeter, indigo dye, and most important high quality cotton and silk.
- However, European merchants first had to gain permission from the
Mughal Emperor and his local nawab.
- First, the Portuguese, than the Dutch, and finally the English and French
were all given permission to trade and built factories along India’s coastline.
Emperor Akbar Prince ( Nawab)
The role of the East India Company
- In 1600, Queen Elizabeth gave a royal charter to the East India
Company.
- In the 17th century, the East India Company was given permission
to trade in India at three major factories: Bombay, Madras and
Calcutta(Kolkata).
- The East India Company’s factories were built solely for trade.
- The British merchants paid much attention to their coastal
fortresses.
East India Company
Queen Elizabeth I Bombay, Madras and Calcutta
Diamon Pitt
- Thomas Pitt travelled to India in 1674 to make his fortune.
- He conducted own private trade outside the East India Company
business.
- In 1701, Pitt acquired a 410 carat diamond, then the largest in the
world and sold it in 1717 to the French royal family for five times
its original price.
- Merchants who made their fortune in India were nicknamed
‘nabobs’ (provincial Governor), and this deal with made ‘ Diamon
Pitt’ one of the richest nabobs in England.
Thomas Pitt 410 carat Diamond
The Afghan invasion and the British Expansion

- By the 1740s, the central power of the Mughal Emperor in India

was breaking down.
- Afghan armies invaded India from the north and across Indian,
Nawabs were braking from Mughal authority and establishing their
own independent kingdoms.
- The East India Company began to fortify its costal factories, built its
own army, recruiting troops and the British officer to lead them.
- During 1750s, the Company involved in the power struggle of
competing Indian nawabs who were backed by the French East India
Company.
Young Army officer Robert Clive

- In 1756, Bengal gained a new nawab, Siraj ud-Daulan, who seized

the British trading post of Calcutta.
- The news of the lost of Calcutta spread to Madras.
- The East India Company army officer named Robert Clive decided
to take action.
- Clive marched his army 1000 miles north from Madras to relieve
Calcutta.
- Clive persuaded Siraj’s commander to betray his own nawab.
Robert Clive The Battle of Plassey
The Battle of Plassey

- At the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757, Clive’s combination of Indian

soldiers and European weapons proved brutally effected.
- With just 3000 troops, Clive defeated Siraj’s army 50000 men.
- Clive then installed Mir Jafar as a ‘ puppet’ nawab of Bengal.

The Treaty of Allahabad

- At the treaty of Allahabad in 1765, the Mughal Emperor was placed under
the direct rule of East India Company, with Robert Clive as Governor.
- The East India Company got the right to tax 20 million people, making
around £3 million a year.
- The Company got territories and taxation more profitable than trade.
The Treaty of Allahabad
The consequences of the Treaty

- According to Treaty of Allahabad, the Company Army grew to over 100,000

men and expansion of its power across India.
- Clive acted with a great deal of independence from the British Government
and company directors back in London.
- Many of whom were opposed to the growing political power of the East
India Company.
- By 1815, the East India Company ruled much of the north – East India,
spreading from Bengal towards Delhi, from Calcutta to the Carnatic and
growing potion of the south- west India.
- Around 40 million Indians were under British rule, including from 1803
onwards- the Mughal Emperor himself. The Governor General of the East
India Company was now the de facto ruler of much of India.