VIII – History Ch-2 From Trade to Territory

 

Chapter -2

From Trade to Territory

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Topic:  European traders in India 

 

 European traders in India

v  The  new  sea  route  via  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  discovered  by  Vasco  da  Gama  in  1498  Thereafter,  many  trading  companies  came  to  India.

v  As a result, the English, French, Portuguese and the Dutch came to India for trade.

v  They established  their  trading  centres in different part of the country.

v  The European  traders initially came to India for trading purposes.

Conquest of Bengal

 

v  Kingdom of Bengal included today’s Bengal , Bihar and Orissa

v  The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli in 1651.

Causes of battle of Plassey

 

v  Bengal was losing huge amount of revenue due to farman  given by Aurangzeb

v  British were misusing their rights by selling Dastak.

v  They were not paying taxes to the Nawab.

v  They were humiliating the nawab and his officials

v  They were writing disrespectful letters to Nawab.

v  These conflicts led to confrontations and finally resulted in  famous Battle of Plassey.

 

Battle of Plassey

 

v  In 1757 AD the armies of the company and Nawab clashed in  The  battle of Plassey

v  In the battle Nawab Siraj ud daula was defeated and killed  under the leadership of Robert Clive.

Causes of defeat of Nawab

 

v  The major cause  was the non participation of Nawab’s Commander in chief Mir Jafar.

v  He entered in the negations with the British .

Result

The East India Company got the free trading rights in Bengal  British gained the economic and political control.

Battle of Buxar

 

v  After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar became the nawab.

v  When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir

Qasim in his place.

v  The combined forces of Mir Qasim , Suja ud daula  ( Nawab of Awadh) And Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II met at Buxar in 1764 AD

v  English commander Hector Munro defeated them.

Consequences

 

v  Mir Jafar was reinstalled. The Nawab had to pay Rs 500,000 every month but the Company wanted more money to finance its wars, and meet the demands of trade and its other expenses.

v  It wanted more territories and more revenue. By the time Mir Jafar died in 1765

v  East India company emerged as the political power. Company established the dual government in Bengal . 

Dual government

 

v  Battle of buxar established the dual government in Bengal .

v  1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal.

v  In dual government the British got the right to collect revenue  or diwani rights

v  Nawab of Bengal got the Nizamat rights which included the  maintenance of law and order.

v  The outflow of gold from Britain slowed after the Battle of Plassey, and entirely stopped after the Battle of Buxar

v  Now revenues from India could finance Company expenses. These revenues could be used to purchase cotton and silk textiles in India, maintain Company troops, and meet the cost of building the Company fort and offices at Calcutta.

Carnatic wars

 

v  The series of three wars fought between the British and French from 1746 to 1763 in India is known as Carnatic wars

v  French were eliminated from the political scene of India after these wars.

 

Anglo Mysore wars

v  Haider Ali was the founder of Mysore.

v  Mysore had grown in strength under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799). 

Causes

 

v  In 1799 Tipu Sultan died fighting and British captured the Srirangpatnam.

v  In 1785 Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.

v  He also established a close relationship with the French in India, and modernized his army with their help.    

v  The enmity between the British and Mysore caused four wars between 1766 to 1799are known as the Anglo Mysore wars.

Result

 

v  In the last – the Battle of Seringapatam – did the Company ultimately win a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam, Mysore was placed under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state

Instrument of British Expansion

Subsidiary Alliance

 

v  Subsidiary alliance was introduced by Lord Wellesley.

v  The Indian rulers were persuaded by Wellesley to sign a friendly treaty with the British.

v  Any Indian ruler who entered into the subsidiary alliance with the British were  called  'the  protected  state'  and  the  British  were  referred  to  as  'the paramount  power.

Main provisions of subsidiary alliance –

 

v  The British agreed to maintain subsidiary forces of the ally

v  The British officer called resident was placed I the court of Indian ruler

v  The ally ruler could not maintain any relation with any other ruler without British permission

v  In return they took over the part of territory of the ally

v  The states brought under British control by this system were Nizams of Hyderabad, Tanjore, Awadh.

v  It  increased  the  military  strength  of  the  Company  in  India  at  the  expense  of  the  protected  states.

Doctrine of Lapse

 

v  Lord Dalhousie  was the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.

v  Lord Dalhousie introduced the doctrine of lapse as a means extending the British empire.

According to this doctrine

v  If the ruler of the protected state died with natural male heir his state would lapse to the British Empire.

v  One kingdom after another was annexed simply by applying this doctrine:

v  Satara (1848), Sambalpur(1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854) became victim to this policy.

The Annexation of Awadh

 

v  Awadh was annexed on the ground of mis governance.

v  Dalhousie  annexed  it  in  1856.

v  British  said they were “obliged by duty” to take over Awadh in order to free the people from the “misgovernment” of the Nawab

v  Nawab  Wajid  Ali  was  granted  a  pension  of  12  lakhs  rupees  per  year and sent to Bengal.

Administration under British 

British Presidencies

v  British territories were broadly divided into administrative units called Presidencies.

v  There were three Presidencies:

Bengal, Madras and Bombay.

v  *Each was ruled by a Governor. The supreme head of the administration was the Governor General.

v  Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General,

v  They formed four agencies to administer the country

v  These were civil services, the army, the police, the judiciary. 

Judiciary under British

 

v  1772 a new system of justice was established.

v  Each district was to have two courts – a criminal court (faujdari adalat) and a civil court (diwani adalat).

v  Maulvis and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for the European district collectors who presided over civil courts.

v  The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but under the supervision of the collectors.

v  Under the Regulating Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established, at Calcutta.

District Administration

 

v  The Collector was  the head of the district . As the title suggests, his main job was to collect revenue and taxes and maintain law and order in his district with the help of judges, police officers and darogas.

v  His office – the Collectorate – became the new centre of power and patronage that steadily

v  replaced previous holders of authority.

 

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