Transcript Developing the East India Company 1757-1833

Developing the
East India Company 1757-1833
The Transition from Trade to Empire
From Plassey to the 2nd Charter Act
• Although the EICo had
administered its factory areas in
India—beginning with Surat early
in the 17th century, and including
by the century's end, Fort William
(Calcutta), For St George (Madras)
and the Bombay Castle—its victory
in the Batle of Plassey in 1757
marked the real beginning of the
Company rule in India.
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Wars and the expansion of
territory
• The victory of Plassey was consolidated in 1764 at
the Battle of Buxar (in Bihar), when the defeated
Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II, granted the
Company the Diwani ("right to collect landrevenue") in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
• The Company soon expanded its territories around
its bases in Bombay and Madras: the AngloMysore Wars (1766–1799) and the Anglo-Maratha
Wars (1772–1818) gave it control over most of
India south of the Narmada River
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• Earlier, in 1773, Britsh Parliament
granted regulatory control over East
India Company to the British
government and established the post of
Governor General with Warren Hastings
as the first incumbent.
• In 1784, the British Parliament passed
Pitt’s India Acts which created a Board of
Control for overseeing the administration
of East India Company.
• Hastings was succeeded in 1784 by
Cornwallis, who promulgated the
‘Permanent Settlement of Bengal with the
zamindars.
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• At the turn of the 19th century,
Governor-General Wellesley
(Lord Mornington) began what
became two decades of
accelerated expansion of
Company territories. This was
achieved either
– by subsidiary alliances between
the Company and local rulers or
– by direct military annexation.
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Subsidiary Alliances
• The subsidiary alliances created
– the Princely States (or Native States) of the
Hindu Maharajas and the Muslim Nawabs,
prominent among which were: Cochin
(1791), Jaipur (1794), Travancore (1795),
Hyderabad (1798), Mysore (1799), CisSutlej Hill States (1815), Central India
Agency (1819), Kutch and Gujarat
Gaikwad territories (1819), Rajputana
(1818), and Bahawalpur (1833).
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Annexed regions
• The annexed regions included
– the North Western Provinces (comprising
Rohilkhand, Gorakhpur, and the Doab) (1801),
Delhi (1803), and Sindh (1843). Punjab, Northwest
Frontier Province, and Kashmir, were annexed
after the Anglo-Sikh Wars in 1849; however,
Kashmir was immediately sold under the Treaty of
Amritsar (1850) to the Dogra Dynasty of Jammu,
and thereby became a princely state. In 1854
Berar was annexed, and the state of Oudh two
years later.
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Charter Act 1813
• In this act, the British parliament renewed the
Company's charter but terminated its
monopoly, opening India to both private
investment and missionary work. With
increased British power in India, supervision
of Indian affairs by the Crown and Parliament
increased as well; by the 1820s, British
nationals could transact business under the
protection of the Crown in the three Company
presidencies.
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Charter Act 1833
• In
this
act,
British
parliament revoked the
Company's trade license
altogether, making the
Company a part of British
governance, although the
administration of British
India
remained
the
province
of
Company
officers.
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