Advent of Europeans & British Expansion: Notes for UPSC, SSC & Railway Exams
European trading companies in India, Carnatic wars, Plassey and Buxar, wars with Mysore, Marathas and Sikhs, Subsidiary Alliance, Lapse and land revenue.
60-second revision
Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498; Albuquerque took Goa from Bijapur in 1510.
English East India Company chartered 31 December 1600; first factory at Surat (1613).
Battle of Colachel (1741): Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeated the Dutch.
Battle of Wandiwash (1760): Eyre Coote defeated the French under Lally.
Plassey (23 June 1757): Clive beat Siraj-ud-Daulah. Buxar (22 October 1764) led to the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) and the diwani.
Subsidiary Alliance: Lord Wellesley; Hyderabad was the first to accept (1798). Tipu died in 1799.
Doctrine of Lapse: Lord Dalhousie; Satara (1848) was the first state annexed.
Land revenue: Permanent Settlement (Cornwallis, 1793), Ryotwari (Munro and Read), Mahalwari (Holt Mackenzie, 1822).
The European companies
Power
Arrival / company
Main settlements
Remember
Portuguese
Vasco da Gama at Calicut, 1498
Goa, Daman, Diu, Cochin
Almeida (first viceroy, "blue water" policy); Albuquerque took Goa from Bijapur, 1510
Lost to Travancore at Colachel (1741) and to the English at Bedara (1759)
English
East India Company, charter 31 December 1600
Surat (1613), Madras (1639), Bombay, Calcutta (1690)
Bombay came to Charles II in dowry and was given to the Company in 1668
Danes
Danish East India Company, 1616
Tranquebar, Serampore
Sold their settlements to the British in 1845
French
Compagnie des Indes Orientales, 1664
Pondicherry (1674), Chandernagore, Mahe, Karaikal
Dupleix; lost the Carnatic wars
The English got their foothold step by step: William Hawkins reached Jahangir's court in 1608, Captain Best defeated the Portuguese at Swally in 1612, a factory at Surat came in 1613, and Sir Thomas Roe secured wider trading rights in 1615. In 1717 the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar granted a farman allowing duty-free trade in Bengal on payment of a fixed sum, which became a constant source of friction.
Anglo-French rivalry: the Carnatic wars
War
Years
Result
First
1746–48
Linked to the War of Austrian Succession; ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; Madras returned to the English
Second
1749–54
Succession disputes in Hyderabad and the Carnatic; Clive's defence of Arcot; Dupleix recalled; Treaty of Pondicherry
Third
1756–63
Battle of Wandiwash (1760), Eyre Coote beat Lally; Treaty of Paris (1763); French power in India ended
Bengal: Plassey and Buxar
At Plassey on 23 June 1757, Robert Clive defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, helped by the treachery of Mir Jafar, who was made Nawab. Mir Qasim, who replaced him, tried to rule independently and joined Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. Hector Munro defeated all three at Buxar on 22 October 1764. By the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) Shah Alam granted the Company the diwani (right to collect revenue) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Clive's dual government, in which the Company held revenue rights while the Nawab kept administration, lasted until Warren Hastings ended it in 1772.
Mysore, Maratha and Sikh wars
War
Years
Key points
1st Anglo-Mysore
1767–69
Hyder Ali; Treaty of Madras
2nd Anglo-Mysore
1780–84
Hyder died 1782; Tipu continued; Treaty of Mangalore
3rd Anglo-Mysore
1790–92
Cornwallis; Treaty of Seringapatam; Tipu lost half his territory
4th Anglo-Mysore
1799
Wellesley; Tipu killed at Srirangapatna
1st Anglo-Maratha
1775–82
Treaty of Salbai (1782)
2nd Anglo-Maratha
1803–05
Followed the Treaty of Bassein (1802), by which Peshwa Baji Rao II accepted the Subsidiary Alliance
3rd Anglo-Maratha
1817–18
Lord Hastings; Peshwaship abolished
1st Anglo-Sikh
1845–46
Treaty of Lahore
2nd Anglo-Sikh
1848–49
Punjab annexed by Dalhousie (1849)
Tools of expansion
Subsidiary Alliance (Lord Wellesley, from 1798): the Indian ruler kept British troops at his cost, accepted a British Resident and could not deal with other powers without British consent. Hyderabad was first; Mysore, Awadh, the Peshwa and others followed.
Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie): a dependent state whose ruler died without a natural heir passed to the British; adopted sons could not inherit. Satara (1848) was first, then Jaitpur, Sambalpur, Jhansi and Nagpur.
Annexation for misrule: Awadh was taken in 1856 on the ground of maladministration.
