What happened to resources during colonialism in india?
Answers
(now Zimbabwe). Essentially, all of this came under the banner of the ‘British Empire’. India, Pakistan, Ceylone (Sri Lanka), Bangladesh (East Pakistan), and Burma (Myanmar) came under the ‘British Raj’. The British Raj also proved to be one of the most successful and monetarily beneficial to the Raj.
A key aspect to colonizing a country is to exploit it’s resources. Before Britain had begun colonizing parts of the world, the Spaniards had begun their conquest of South America. They began by wiping out the Chaurras and the Incas in the wild hope of finding gold and silver in the land. They did indeed find what they were looking for and kept it to themselves as opposed to returning some to the rightful ‘sons of the soil’ so to speak.
Apart from the already stated exploitation of resources, here is why India was colonized.
Prior to the British arrival on Indian shores, the Mughal Empire controlled 23% of the World Trade. Exports of cotton, silk, muslin, sandstone, soapstone, and various other edibles and spices were exported. In fact, a premise of the East India Companies setup by the Danes, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and eventually the Brits were to trade these commodities in cheap.
2. Diplomacy was in it’s infancy at the time. The Monarch of India, in this case The Mughal emperor had a say in almost everything profit related. If Britain colonized it and became the exclusive monarchs of India, it would become clear that they would have a say in P&L, and Diplomacy likewise.
3. The raw materials such as steel, Iron, Natural Gas, and certain construction materials were and still are found in abundance in the north-western parts of India.
To add a bit of context here: The average age of each Mughal emperor was around 50. This meant that in a century, there would be two emperors. There was no primogeniture - which essentially means that no successor to the throne since the king had many sons. Eventually, a ‘War of Succession’ of sorts would break out, leading to the usage of such materials to build weapons, money would be spent to recruit an army, build fortifications and so forth.
Each time there was a conflict of this sort, massive sums of money would be spent. Rising up to billions of dollars. At the turn of each century, the empire would suffer huge losses in the war of succession. This made it easier for the British to colonize India.
In fact, many suggest that Britain never wanted to colonize India, but the fact that there was so much conflict and the disjointedness of the country made it easier. A rather recent case study is that of the ISIS. They seem to take over any land or territory that is under stubborn conflict like Syria and Iraq.