New Delhi: The British Empire made the Indian subcontinent their colony for almost 200 years and changed the very societal fabric of the region. The colonial period was possibly one of the most horrifying phases in the history of India, with the country’s economy being shattered and poverty gripping the land. However, the British colonisation of our country did not start with the Empire. Rather, it was a trading company which first made India a British colony and ruled the country for almost 100 years before the power of this colony was transferred to the British Crown.
East India Company: The trading organisation which once ruled India
The East India Company was a joint-stock company which played the most crucial role in the consolidation of the British power in India. It was established in 1600 with the aim to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies which comprised of Southeast Asia and South Asia and later with East Asia. It ruled the Indian subcontinent and was the world’s largest corporation at one point. It even had its own armed forces with a total of about 260,000 soldiers.
The East India Company began its journey on December 31, 1600. It was on that day that the Company was given the royal charter by the Queen Elizabeth I. Some of the key founders of the English East India Company included George, Earl of Cumberland, Sir John Harte and Sir John Spencer. It was a landmark moment in the history of the United Kingdom as it laid the foundation of the future formation of the British Empire, one of the largest empires in history.
East India Company and its colonisation of India
The English East India Company (EIC) came to India because of stiff competition from the Dutch East India Company regarding spice trade. In 1608, the ships of the EIC docked at Gujarat’s Surat and it established the first Indian factory in 1611 at Masulipatnam. In 1615, it opened its second factory in Surat and scored a major victory that year when Sir Thomas Roe got from Mughal Emperor Jahangir a commercial treaty which gave the EIC exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat and other areas and to carry on trade without any obstacle in India.
In the subsequent years, the East India Company massively expanded its presence in India by opening numerous factories and employing hundreds of people. In 1717, it got a farman from the then Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar which gave them the right to reside and trade in the Mughal Empire. They could trade freely except for a yearly payment of 3,000 rupees. As a result, the EIC could carry out duty-free trade in the province of Bengal, which was one of the richest places in India at that time.
By the mid-1700s and the early 1800s, the EIC was dominating almost half of the world’s trade, especially in basic commodities like silk, cotton, salt, sugar, indigo dye, tea, spices and later opium. It signaled the beginning of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent. Eventually, the EIC became the most dominating power in the subcontinent and formed a colony.
It exercised military power and assumed administrative functions and its powers especially increased after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 which catapulted the EIC to the position of a ruler. However, after the 1857 Indian Rebellion, thanks to the Government of India Act 1858, the British Crown assumed direct control of the Indian subcontinent to form the new British Indian Empire and it made EIC powerless. The East India Company was dissolved a few years later, in 1874.
The British East India Company, initially a trading enterprise, played a pivotal role in colonising India. Established in 1600, the Company gradually expanded its influence, securing trade agreements and eventually wielding significant military power. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
