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Colonial monopoly:
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, became the first British Governor of Bengal.The
war resulted in the defeat of the French forces and limited French imperial
ambitions, also stunting the influence of the industrial revolution in
French territories. Robert Clive, the Governor General, led the Company
to an astounding victory against Joseph François Dupleix, the commander
of the forces in India, and recaptured Fort St George from the French.
By the Treaty of Paris (1763), the French were forced to maintain their
trade posts in small enclaves in Pondicherry, Mahe, Karikal, Yanam, and
Chandernagar without any military presence. Although these small outposts
remained French possessions for the next two hundred years, French ambitions
on Indian territories were effectively laid to rest, thus eliminating
a major source of economic competition for the Company. Contrastingly,
the Company, fresh from a colossal victory, and with the backing of a
disciplined and experienced army, was able to assert its interests in
the Carnatic from its base at Madras and in Bengal from Calcutta, without
facing any further obstacles from other colonial powers.
Local resistance:
However, the Company continued to experience resistance from local rulers.
Robert Clive led company forces against French-backed Siraj Ud Daulah
to victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, thereby snuffing out the
last known resistances in Bengal. This victory estranged the British and
the Mughals, who had been served by Siraj as an autonomous ruler. But
the Mughal empire was already on the wane after the demise of Aurangazeb,
and was breaking up into pieces and enclaves. After the Battle of Buxar,
Shah Alam, the ruling emperor, gave up the administrative rights over
Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Clive thus became the first British Governor
of Bengal. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, the legendary rulers of Mysore
(in Carnatic), also gave a tough time to the British forces. Having sided
with the French during the war, the rulers of Mysore continued their struggle
against the Company with the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. Mysore finally fell
to the Company forces in 1799, with the slaying of Tipu Sultan. With the
gradual weakening of the Maratha empire in the aftermath of the three
Anglo-Maratha wars, the British also secured Bombay and the surrounding
areas. It was during these campaigns, both of Mysore and of the Marathas,
that Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, first showed the abilities
which would lead to victory in the Peninsular War and at the Battle of
Waterloo. A particularly notable engagement involving forces under his
command was the Battle of Assaye. Thus, the British had secured the entire
region of Southern India (with the exception of small enclaves of French
and local rulers), Western India and Eastern India. The last vestiges
of local administration were restricted to the northern regions of Delhi,
Oudh, Rajputana, and Punjab, where the Company's presence was ever increasing
amidst the infighting and dubious offers of protection against each other.
Coercive action, threats and diplomacy aided the Company in preventing
the local rulers from putting up a united struggle against it. The hundred
years from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 were
a period of consolidation for the Company, which began to function more
as a nation and less as a trading concern.
Regulation of the company's affairs:
Monopolistic activity by the company triggered the Boston Tea Party.
Financial troubles
Though the Company was becoming increasingly bold and ambitious in putting
down resisting states, it was getting clearer day by day that the Company
was incapable of governing the vast expanse of the captured territories.
The Bengal famine, in which one-sixth of the local population died, set
the alarm bells ringing back home, and prompted Adam Smith's quotation
at the beginning of this article. Military and administrative costs mounted
beyond control in British administered regions in Bengal due to the ensuing
drop in labour productivity. At the same time, there was commercial stagnation
and trade depression throughout Europe following the lull in the post-Industrial
Revolution period. Britain became entangled in the rebellion in America
(one of the major importers of Indian tea), and France was on the brink
of a revolution. The desperate directors of the company attempted to avert
bankruptcy by appealing to Parliament for financial help. This led to
the passing of the Tea Act in 1773. This Act gave the Company greater
autonomy in running its trade in America. Its monopolistic activities
triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, one
of the major events leading up to the American War for Independence.
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