Summary

Modern Indian History Class 09

Last class revision(5.01 PM).

Advent of European(5.15 PM):

Traditionally European trade with the east was done via the silk route(a land route to china and a spice route a sea route to the east)
Traders from Venice and Geneva dominated European trade with the east and earned huge profits by selling to the rest of Europe.
Arabain sea part of the trade was dominated by Arab traders.
In 1453 Ottoman empire conquered Constantinople and locked European trade with the east, triggering a search for a northwest trade route to the east.
This led to the age of discovery in the 16th century, whereby man of the world was gradually developed and there were advances in shipping and knowledge of geography.
In 1492, Columbus discovered Central America.
In 1498, Vasco-de-Gama discovered a route via the cape of good hope to India and reached Calicut.
In 1500, Amerigo Vespucci discovered south America and proved that America was a continent different from India.
In the early 16th century, the Portuguese discovered a new route to China and the Philippines.
Therefore European trade with the east was established.

Portuguese in India(5.50 PM):

Trade with India was done via a state-led corporation.
They began their trade with south India and set up trading centers in different parts of India, especially coastal areas.
They set up their main base in and around Surat and later in Goa.
In 1510 they captured Goa from the kingdom of Bijapur and Bombay in 1534.
They dominated international trade in the east indies for 100 years with HQ in Goa.
Since India had strong land power, therefore Portuguese followed the policy of domination only of the high seas/oceans, and the oceanic trade of India.
They did not aim to build a political empire in India.
Portuguese dominated the high seas(Bule water policy) as they were strong naval powers.
They did armed trade, engaged in piracy, and therefore the passage via oceans and allowed passage only after payment of a license fee by other ships.
They regularly raided Arab traders who until now dominated Arabian sea trade and also threaten Mughal ships forcing Mughals to give trade concessions from lower customs duties and permission to set up factories and trading centers.
They were religious fanatics and engaged in forced conversions to Christianity.
In the late 16th century, there was the rise of 2 new naval powers- Dutch and England.
The 1st challenge to achieving freedom was navigation in the ocean and the 2nd to removing Portuguese control over the oceanic trade of the east indies.
In 1588, in a decisive battle, Britain defeated Armada/a large Spanish naval fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, and now Britain and the dutch could travel to the east via the Cape of good hope.

British Vs Portuguese(6.39 PM):

In 1608, EIC wanted to open a factory in Surat, therefore sending captain Hawkins to Jahangir's court, he was given a Mansab and a Jagir but then was removed from court due to pressure from the Portuguese.
Therefore EIC realized that the military defeat of the Portuguese is a must for EIC to expand its trade with India.
In 1612, EIC defeated the Portuguese navy in surat and therefore was rewarded by Jahangir with a royal Farman in 1612, which gave EIC the right to establish itself on the west coast.
Hence Surat factory was set up in 1612.
To extract more concession British government sent Thomes Roe as an ambassador and he was accepted as a resident in Jahangir's court.
Finally, in 1617, he was able to extract another royal Farman where the British got the right to establish factories in the whole of the Mughal empire and liberal trading rights.
These angered the Portuguese and in 1620 conflicts culminated in a major battle where the British won and this ended Portuguese domination of international trade in India.
In 1661, King Charles II of England got the island of Bombay in dowry from the Portuguese.
Therefore by the mid-17 century, the Portuguese were restricted to Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli.

British Vs Dutch(7.09 PM):

Dutch removed the Portuguese from Cylon and the east indies(Indonesia).
And now rivalry between the British and the Dutch who fought for decades and finally by the mid-17 century British was defeated and a compromise was reached whereby the Dutch agreed to not attack the British in India and the British left Indonesia to the dutch.
British stayed in Malaya and Dutch dominated Kochin by 1669.
The Dutch were removed from Kochin in1741 by Marthanda Varma.
By 1795, the complete removal of the dutch from India by British.

English East India Company(7.28 PM):

It was set up on 31st December 1600 by a royal charter which was its founding document issued by Queen Elizabeth.
The tools given by royal charter to EIC were:
Monopoly over British trade with the east indies that is with all land east of cape of good hope for 15 years.
EIC was allowed to carry gold out of Britain to buy eastern goods.
The Right to wage war, acquire territories, and administer them.
The goal for EIC formation as per the charter was not empire building but trade with the east to counter dutch competition.
Presidencies of EIC:
Presidencies of EIC in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta served as regional HQ of EIC trade with south, west, and east India respectively.
The term presidency was given or the status of HQ was given when these places came to have significant EIC establishments in form of warehouses, offices, homes, etc.
Later when EIC annexed territories in India, they were added to respectively regional presidencies leading to the expansion of the company's regional HQ into provinces of British India.
The Madras presidency was set up in 1652.
The Bombay presidency was set up in 1681.
The Calcutta presidency was set up in 1699.
The Governor of the presidency was a regional manager of EIC, who initially looked mainly after the business of EIC but once EIC became conqueror and ruler, then ruling parts of India became his additional responsibility as the company transformed itself into a company-state

The topic of the next: Rise of EIC as political power.