How Did The British Affect Indian Ocean Trade

The Indian Ocean proved to be the mine from which the Europeans, in particular the British mined the resources to fund their hegemony over the world. Before the Europeans appearance the Indian Ocean was by all accounts a largely peaceable and open trading route for south east Asian states. The Portuguese were the first intruders, beginning to arrive in the first half of the sixteenth century, they recognised immediately how lucrative the existing trade was and could be. Soon after, attracted by the knowledge of the Portuguese’s profit, the Dutch and the English arrived. They brought with them an aggressiveness most of the existing Indian Ocean trading system had not witnessed before. Takeover of ports, impositions of taxes and tariffs, enforcing

There were several reasons for the British assuming the dominant position, the first of these is mainly due the allowance of Private British Traders. The English private traders constituted by far the largest and most enduring European group in the Indian Ocean . Another reason was the British controlled textile industry, the British set up factories, mainly in India, which enabled them to control the industry from its primary source to the finished product. Piracy also proved useful for the British, although a nuisance, the suppression of piracy gave the British an excuse to expand their powers throughout the Indian Ocean . The British did not only use aggressive tactics, they also employed diplomacy, even if the negotiations were done with the might the British empire looming over the deals. The British capitalised on the declining Mughal empire, and managed to secure over the Dutch, over two thirds of India. India would prove to be a significant military and economic base for the British. The British were not without competition, during the eighteenth century they were engaged in numerous wars. The French had entered the Indian Ocean and made an attempt to take control from Britain over trade, colonies and the Indian empire. Then there were the wars of Spanish Succession, the Seven-year war and revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The Italians and Austrians attempted to take a slice of British power too, along with Russia, the British crushed their attempts. This solidified British power as master of the Indian Ocean and the dominant European power . The British used their mobility to their advantage, enabling them to concentrate resources and military technology, and adapt it to specific situations. All of these factors contributed to the rise of the British Empire which lasted into the twentieth