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The impact of britain taking over the east indian company
Role of the east india company
The role of british east india company in india's history
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All great empires start with a seed, a seed that then turns an empty field into an oasis of life. That seed was the East India Company and from that seed, the East India Company transformed England into what it is most famous for today, a vast empire that ruled the majority of Eurasia. The East India Company started out by looking for a means to new trade and connecting to untouched and unknown places. It can be said that the trade routes and posts that were established in India were the true beginning of the empire. After trade had evolved and became more and more popular amongst European superpowers, the competition increased. The Company stood its ground and instead of only keeping away the competition, The East India Company made alliances with the rivals to strengthen their roots. To defend their newly gained property and its people, they generated armies that had the advanced weaponry and skill of the British Empire. Through alliances, the utilization of armies, and the domination of world trade, the East India Company produced a foundation for the British Empire.
Before the Company had advanced into a well-developed trading and land acquiring machine, it started off as curiosity. In 1580’s, Francis Drake had just finished his voyage around the world and England had defeated the Spanish Armada. After these historic events, England decided to journey into the notorious East. One of the first explorers of the East was a London merchant named John Midenhall. In 1599, he set sail for India and stayed there for seven years before returning back to England. But the most momentous event that occurred in the history of the East India Company was in 1600 when Queen Elisabeth allowed the Company to charter a fifteen year v...
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...The East India Company began to lose its trade power because of the Regulating Act of 1773, and eventually lost Indian power to other trade countries wanting to gain more money. The Bengal Mutiny of 1857 marked the ending of the East India Company. The British Crown superseded the East Company after the Company’s 200 year reign in India. Three years later, the East India Company headquarters in London was destroyed (East of India Web).
The East India Company created a basis for the British Empire and eventually got destroyed by the empire that made it. The Company established factories throughout India, and shaped the Indian Government using their factories. Armies were trained and utilized to defend their territory and trade in India. The Company’s legacy in India tragically fell to the British Crown and ended a trade domination that was much more than just trade.
The East India Company enjoyed the exclusive legal right – a privilege granted by the British government – to import products from the Far East into Britain. Chinese tea, which was said to be more valuable than gold, was the company’s most lucrative commodity, accounting for over 90 percent of its commercial profits.
In the early 19th century, the British East India Company established more trade warehouses and thoroughfares in the Indian subcontinent. This occupation of Indian lands was welcomed by some groups and fiercely opposed by others. While met by more opposition, the British Empire expanded into the other Indian Ocean territories up to the end of the century. Because the trans-Atlantic slave trade was profitable for African elites and brought many valuable goods to West Africa, when it was effectively shut down after 1808 by British patrols, people along this coast were eager to keep the European trade lines alive. The imposition of this “legitimate trade” (any non-slave trade) saw a huge rise in African exports of gold and palm oil.
One country that had imperialism was India. By the mid-1880s, the British East India Company controlled three fifths of India. The cause of British domination was that the land was very diverse and the people could not unite and that the British either paid local princes or used weapons to get control. Positive effects of imperialistic rule in India were that the British set up a stronger economy and more powerful industries. They built roads and railroads. British rule brought peace and order to the countryside. They revised the legal system to promote justice for the Indians regardless of class. Indian landowners and princes, who still owned territory grew rich from exporting cash crops such as cotton and jute. The British introduced the telegraph and the postal system as a means of communication. These improvements and benefits from British rule eventually lead to Indian nationalism. The exposure to European ideas caused an Indian nationalist movement, the people dreamed of ending Imperial ...
The British considered Indian civilization to be inferior and implemented their western ways, overriding ancient Indian customs. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that British imperialism in India resulted in both positive as well as negative reforms in political, economic and social aspects of its new colony. To begin with, one can observe that the British colonizers did indeed improve Indian civilization by developing means of communication and transport. They built a great number of bridges, over 40,000 miles of railway and paving an astounding 70,000 miles of road (Doc. 4. The adage of the adage.
Two important sources that will be used during this investigation are Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann and Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World by Niall Ferguson. Summary of Evidence After the Battle of Plussey in 1757, Britain gained much control over India. The British East India Company exercised power in this region instead of the Queen of England. The Company brought British soldiers and missionaries to the foreign land. The military in India was comprised of European troops and Indian troops, resulting in a variety of weapons present.
Royally chartered companies monopolized international trade in the early days of the English empire. The monopolies were an effort to control the high economic risks of maritime shipping and multi-year voyages by restricting the supply of goods to maintain high prices and incentive the development of trade. Merchants banded together in joint stock companies to pool the risk and engage in capital intensive enterprises, such as the slave trade. Queen Elizabeth chartered the British East India Company (EIC) in 1600 to establish trade with Asia. Its charter granted the company a “monopoly on all English trade to the east of the Cape of the Good Hope,” a legally enforceable trade agreement that covered territory stretching from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of North America. The company’s first “factory” (trading station) in India was established at Masulipatnam in 1611. Charles II chartered The Royal African Company in 1672 to develop the English slave trade in Africa. He granted it a monopoly on the trade of slaves from Africa to the colonies and provided a robust legal framework with which to enforce
There is a point of time in certain a country’s history where they become dominant and more powerful than ever before. During this elongated process a country becomes an empire. The British and the Ottomans were states that succeeded in this process, but becoming an empire such as theirs required vast amounts of political and social maneuvering to expand their boundaries, called imperialism. Imperialism is, “a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force”. By becoming a modern nation enjoying economic prosperity and political stability, the British and the Ottomans created an imperialistic impact over the globe with distinctive motivations and approaches especially during the transition period of gaining ample amount power and influence globally.
In the 1600's the English took advantage of the crumbling Mughals. In 1757, Robert Clive led an unquestionable victory against the Indian Forces at the Battle of Plassey. After that battle, the East India Company was the leading force in India. Eventually, the company governed directly or indirectly areas that included modern day Bangladesh, most of southern India and almost all of the land along the Ganges River in the north. Until the 19th century, the East India Company ruled with little to no interference from Britain. The company had even established their own army. The company staffed its army with British and Indian Soldiers, or Sepoy, with the Sepoys eventually out numbering the British soldiers ten to one. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the governor of Bombay referred to the Sepoy army as “a delicate and dangerous machine, which a little mismanagement may easily turn against us.” (British Imperialism in India.)
In 1857 the British had invaded the nation of Hindustan (India). Many feel that if it were not for the British Empire, India would still be an under developed country. The British established a government system that before did not exist. It was a three level system including the imperial government located in London, the central government located in Calcutta, and later on provincial governments scattered throughout the regions of what was known as the British Raj1. Alt...
There is no doubt that British imperialism had a large impact on India. From positive affects to negative affects, British colonized India. It all started around the 1600’s when the British East India Company entered India. Only as traders, they entered what was known as the Mughal Empire. Around the 1757 Battle of Plassey the Mughal empire fell (Carrick) and it was only a matter of time until the British Raj took their once in a lifetime chance.
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.
For more than 200 years before the Indian Mutiny of 1857, there had been a British presence in India. They began as merchant ventures and their holdings on the land were relatively small. Over the years they had expanded, creating forts for protection and larger trading stations. Eventually, to make certain that there would be stability and a successful trade business, Britain deployed many of its armed forces there and also raised forces of natives, thus becoming an active power in 18th Century India. Sometimes by their design but also sometimes by accident, the area of British control began to increase. Their expansion lasted until nearly the entire sub-continent was apart or effected by the empire by the year 1857.
perceive the strategic threat posed by the East India Company. The British from the beginning followed a
India was the first major Asian civilizations to fall victim to European predatory activities (Duiker 31). With conquering India, the British had various purposes behind it. Their main purpose was to achieve a monopolistic trading position (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). The second purpose was the control of India; this was a key element in the world power structure, in terms of geography, logistics and military manpower (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). When the East India Company continued to trade under the British, huge armies were created, largely composed of Indian sepoys (Marshall). The armies were used to defend the Company’s territories protect the Indian states (Marshall).
Imperial Britain was the most powerful empire of its time. The British would capture any country that they felt had resources to offer. There is no argument that the British made their impact on the way India is today. India, before Britain, was a country filled with groups of independent princedoms but this all changed under British rule. The British introduced English to the Indians and later on started educating the Indians in a Western Fashion. In addition to the language they brought to India, they also brought industrial advances with them. Even though the British took harsh measure to gain rule of India, India would not be as developed as it is now without the British and would not be one of the world 's largest industrial countries