Introduction
- India had commercial contacts with European countries from ancient times through overland routes.
- Following the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 A.D., the land route linking Europe and India was closed.
- This development compelled European nations to invent a direct sea route to India.
- The Portuguese were the pioneers in geographical explorations and discovery of sea routes.
- Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the “Navigator,” inspired and motivated sailors to undertake voyages into unknown seas.
- In 1487, Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern tip of Africa and reached the Cape of Good Hope.
- Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and landed at Calicut on the Malabar Coast in May 1498 A.D.
- He was warmly received by the local Hindu ruler Zamorin.
- Vasco da Gama returned to Portugal with a cargo of spices that brought a huge profit.
- He visited India a second time in 1502 A.D. and set up trading posts at Calicut, Cochin, and Cannanore.
- Cochin became the early capital of the Portuguese possessions in India.
The Portuguese
- Francisco de Almeida was appointed the first Governor of the Portuguese possessions in India (1505–1509).
- Almeida followed the “Blue Water Policy” to maintain naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean rather than expanding territories on land.
- In 1509, Alfonso de Albuquerque became the Governor.
- Albuquerque was the real founder of the Portuguese power in India.
- In 1510, Albuquerque captured Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur.
- Goa became the political headquarters and capital of the Portuguese empire in the East.
- He conquered Malacca in the Far East (1511) and Ormuz on the Persian Gulf (1515).
- Albuquerque encouraged Portuguese men to marry Indian women to build local permanent roots.
- He maintained friendly ties with the rulers of the Vijayanagar Empire.
- Nino de Cunha (1529–1538) transferred the Portuguese capital from Cochin to Goa in 1530.
- He acquired Diu and Bassein from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat.
- During the sixteenth century, the Portuguese held settlements along the Indian coast, including Goa, Daman, Diu, Salsette, Bassein, Chaul, Bombay, San Thome near Madras, and Hooghly in Bengal.
Causes for the Decline of the Portuguese Power
- The successors of Albuquerque were weak, inefficient, and incompetent.
- Portuguese officials were corrupt, greedy, and lacked administrative discipline.
- Their policy of forceful religious conversions to Christianity generated resentment and hostility among both Hindus and Muslims.
- The discovery of Brazil distracted Portugal’s interest and resources from India towards the West.
- In 1580, the Portuguese crown was merged with Spain, causing Portugal to lose its independence and become drawn into Spain’s European wars.
- Rise of rival European naval powers, notably the Dutch and the English, completely shattered Portuguese monopoly.
- By the end of the sixteenth century, Portuguese power had largely diminished in India, eventually holding only Goa, Daman, and Diu until 1961.
The Dutch
- Merchants of the Netherlands founded the United East India Company of the Netherlands (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie – VOC) in 1602.
- The Dutch aimed mainly at establishing a monopoly over the spice trade in the East Indies (modern Indonesia).
- In India, the Dutch established factories at:
- Masulipatnam (1605)
- Pulicat (1610)
- Surat (1616)
- Bimilipatnam (1641)
- Karaikal (1645)
- Chinsura (1653)
- Kasimbazar, Baranagore, Patna, and Balasore (1658)
- Nagapattinam (1658)
- Cochin (1663)
- Pulicat served as the main Dutch headquarters in India until it was replaced by Nagapattinam in 1690.
- Fort Geldria was constructed by the Dutch at Pulicat.
- They traded extensively in Indian textiles, raw silk, indigo, saltpetre, and opium.
- Decline of the Dutch:
- The primary interest of the Dutch was concentrated on the Spice Islands of the Malay Archipelago, making India a secondary interest.
- The Dutch faced fierce commercial rivalry from the English.
- In the Battle of Bedara (1759), the English decisively defeated the Dutch, ending their political influence and power in India.
The English
- The English East India Company was established on 31 December 1600 by a Royal Charter issued by Queen Elizabeth I.
- The charter gave the Company exclusive rights to trade in the East Indies for fifteen years.
- In 1608, King James I dispatched Captain William Hawkins to the court of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir to secure trading rights.
- Due to Portuguese intrigue at the Mughal court, Hawkins failed to obtain permission to establish a factory at Surat.
- In 1612, Captain Thomas Best defeated the Portuguese naval squadron in the Battle of Swally near Surat, breaking the Portuguese maritime prestige.
- Impressed by this victory, Emperor Jahangir issued an imperial firman in 1613 permitting the English to erect a factory at Surat.
- In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe arrived at Jahangir’s court as the official ambassador of King James I and stayed until 1619.
- Sir Thomas Roe obtained permission to open factories at Agra, Ahmedabad, and Broach.
- On the south-east coast, the English opened their first factory at Masulipatnam in 1611.
- In 1639, Francis Day obtained a lease of land from the ruler of Chandragiri, Damarla Chennappa Nayaka, and built Fort St. George at Madras.
- Madras became the headquarters of the English on the Coromandel Coast.
- In 1661, King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine of Braganza of Portugal and received Bombay as a dowry.
- In 1668, Charles II leased Bombay to the East India Company for an annual rent of £10.
- Bombay was fortified and replaced Surat as the headquarters of the Western Presidency in 1687.
- In 1690, Job Charnock established an English factory at Sutanuti.
- The English later purchased the zamindari rights of three villages: Sutanuti, Kalikatta, and Govindpur.
- These villages merged and developed into the city of Calcutta.
- The factory at Calcutta was fortified and named Fort William in 1700, after King William III.
- In 1717, the Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar granted a firman (known as the Magna Carta of the Company) granting extensive trade privileges, including duty-free trade in Bengal, Gujarat, and Hyderabad, and permitting the issue of dastaks (passes).
The Danes
- The Danish East India Company was formed in Denmark in 1616.
- The Danes established settlements at Tranquebar (Tarangambadi) on the Tamil Nadu coast in 1620 and at Serampore in Bengal in 1676.
- Serampore was their headquarters in India.
- The Danes failed to strengthen their position against other European competitors and finally sold all their Indian settlements to the British in 1845.
The French
- The French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) was created in 1664 by Colbert, the finance minister of King Louis XIV.
- The first French factory in India was founded at Surat in 1668 by Caron.
- In 1669, Mercara founded a French factory at Masulipatnam.
- In 1673, François Martin obtained a site from Sher Khan Lodi, the governor of Valikandapuram, and laid the foundations of Pondicherry.
- Pondicherry became the capital and headquarters of the French settlements in India, and François Martin was its first Governor.
- In Bengal, the French established a flourishing settlement at Chandernagore in 1690 on land granted by Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal.
- The French also acquired:
- Mahe on the Malabar Coast (1725)
- Karaikal on the Coromandel Coast (1739)
- The appointment of Joseph François Dupleix as Governor of Pondicherry in 1742 marked a new era of French political and territorial ambitions in India.
Anglo-French Rivalry (Carnatic Wars)
- Between 1746 and 1763, the British and the French engaged in a prolonged struggle for military and commercial supremacy in South India.
- The conflict was known as the Carnatic Wars because most of the engagements were fought in the Carnatic region (the coastal belt of Tamil Nadu extending inland to the Eastern Ghats).
First Carnatic War (1746–1748)
- Causes:
- An extension of the War of Austrian Succession in Europe between Britain and France.
- Growing commercial rivalry between the English at Madras and the French at Pondicherry.
- Course:
- English naval commander Commodore Curtis Barnett captured French merchant ships.
- Dupleix sought assistance from La Bourdonnais, the French Governor of Mauritius.
- A French fleet attacked and captured Madras in 1746.
- The Nawab of Carnatic, Anwaruddin, sent an army under Mahfuz Khan to liberate Madras from the French.
- Battle of San Thome / Adyar (1746): A small, well-disciplined French force led by Captain Paradise defeated the large army of the Nawab on the banks of the river Adyar.
- This battle demonstrated the military superiority of European-trained disciplined troops using modern firepower over the large, undisciplined native armies.
- Result:
- The First Carnatic War ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), which concluded the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe.
- Madras was restored to the English, and the French received their lost territories in North America (Louisburg) in return.
Second Carnatic War (1749–1754)
- Causes:
- Disputed succession to the thrones of Hyderabad and the Carnatic.
- Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad died in 1748; a conflict broke out between his son Nasir Jang and grandson Muzaffar Jang.
- In the Carnatic, the appointment of Anwaruddin as Nawab was contested by Chanda Sahib, the son-in-law of former Nawab Dost Ali.
- Dupleix supported Muzaffar Jang in Hyderabad and Chanda Sahib in the Carnatic.
- The English backed Nasir Jang in Hyderabad and Anwaruddin (and later his son Muhammad Ali) in the Carnatic.
- Course:
- Battle of Ambur (1749): The combined armies of Dupleix, Muzaffar Jang, and Chanda Sahib defeated and killed Anwaruddin.
- Chanda Sahib became the Nawab of Carnatic and rewarded Dupleix with 80 villages around Pondicherry.
- Anwaruddin’s son, Muhammad Ali, escaped and took refuge in the strong rock fort of Tiruchirappalli.
- In Hyderabad, Nasir Jang was killed; Muzaffar Jang became Nizam and appointed Dupleix governor of all Mughal territories south of the Krishna river.
- Dupleix sent French troops under Bussy to Hyderabad to safeguard French influence.
- After Muzaffar Jang was assassinated, Bussy placed Salabat Jang on the throne of Hyderabad; Salabat Jang ceded the Northern Circars to the French.
- Siege of Arcot (1751):
- While Chanda Sahib was besieging Muhammad Ali inside Tiruchirappalli, Robert Clive, a young clerk in the English East India Company, proposed an attack on Arcot (capital of the Carnatic) to divert Chanda Sahib’s forces.
- Clive captured Arcot with a small force of 200 British soldiers and 300 Indian sepoys.
- Chanda Sahib dispatched an army of 4,000 men under his son Raza Sahib to recapture Arcot.
- Clive heroically defended the fort for 53 days against overwhelming odds, forcing the enemy to lift the siege.
- For this daring achievement, Clive was hailed as the “Hero of Arcot”.
- The French and Chanda Sahib were defeated at Tiruchirappalli; Chanda Sahib was captured and executed by the Tanjore general.
- Muhammad Ali was recognized as the undisputed Nawab of Carnatic.
- Result:
- The French government, alarmed by the heavy expenditure and financial losses of the war, recalled Dupleix to France in 1754.
- Godeheu succeeded Dupleix and signed the Treaty of Pondicherry (1754) with the English.
- Both sides agreed not to interfere in the internal conflicts of Indian rulers and retained the territories they held at the conclusion of the treaty.
Third Carnatic War (1756–1763)
- Causes:
- Outbreak of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) in Europe between England and France.
- Course:
- The French government sent Count de Lally as Commander-in-Chief of French forces in India.
- Lally captured Fort St. David near Cuddalore in 1758 and laid siege to Madras.
- Lally committed a blunder by recalling Bussy from Hyderabad, completely ending French political influence in the Deccan.
- Robert Clive dispatched Colonel Forde from Bengal to the Northern Circars, where he defeated the French and captured Masulipatnam.
- Battle of Wandiwash (1760):
- The decisive battle of the war took place on 22 January 1760 at Wandiwash (Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu).
- The English army commanded by General Sir Eyre Coote thoroughly routed the French forces under Count de Lally.
- Bussy was taken prisoner.
- In 1761, Sir Eyre Coote captured Pondicherry after an eight-month siege; Lally surrendered.
- Jinji and Mahe were also captured by the English, completely shattering French power in India.
- Result:
- The Seven Years’ War concluded with the Treaty of Paris (1763).
- Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Karaikal, and Mahe were restored to the French, but under strict restrictions:
- The French were prohibited from fortifying their settlements or maintaining troops in them.
- They were permitted to function purely as commercial trading entities.
- The dream of establishing a French empire in India came to an end, leaving the British East India Company without any European rival in the subcontinent.
Causes for the French Failure and British Success
- The English East India Company was a private commercial joint-stock enterprise whose directors took quick, business-driven, independent decisions; the French company was a government-run enterprise dependent on the state, marred by red tape and political interference.
- The British had absolute naval superiority over the French, allowing them to bring supplies, reinforcements, and money freely from England and across regions of India.
- The British held possession of the fertile and wealthy province of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey (1757), which supplied them with inexhaustible financial resources; the French possessions in the south were commercially poor and incurred heavy debts.
- The British had brilliant and capable military commanders like Robert Clive, Sir Eyre Coote, and Stringer Lawrence, whereas the French had internal squabbles and lack of co-operation among leaders like Dupleix, Lally, and La Bourdonnais.
- Dupleix committed a mistake by prioritizing political conquests in the Deccan over commercial activities, causing the financial ruin of the French company.
Learning Outcome
- Explains the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama and Portuguese settlements.
- Details the rise and fall of the Portuguese and Dutch trade posts.
- Traces the emergence of the English East India Company and the acquisition of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta.
- Accounts for the arrival of the French and the development of Pondicherry.
- Analyzes the three Carnatic Wars and the factors contributing to British victory and French defeat.
Reference
Unit 23 of the Class 11 textbook, pages 175–181
