Question

What were the reasons the company could defeat the sultan army easily

Answer 1

Huge loss of territory after the Third Anglo-Mysore war. The Third Anglo-Mysore war ended with the Treaty of Seringapatam one half of the Mysore territory handed over to the British along with Tippu’s 2 sons as hostages. Which had reduced the revenue of the Kingdom, so it failed to re build a stonger army. During the Third Anglo-Mysore war British failed to occupy Srirangapattana when they tried to siege it for the first time. But when they returned, the siege was effective forcing Tippu to agree to the treaty of Treaty of Seringapatam.

French Support during the fourth war was less compared to the previous ones. Tippu would have wrote a letter to the French seeking for support to attack the British. By then Napoleon was in Egypt and would reply stating that he is getting his army to help Tippu to drive the French away, but Napoleon’s army would get defeated in Egypt by the British. So there was no army arriving.

Srirangapattana could have withstood the siege for a few more months, or Tippu could have escaped (there are underground passages from Srirangapattana leading them to different locations, one of these is said to lead it to forts in Bangaluru). The reason why he got to fight was that the British actually got inside the fort of Srirangapattana. Srirangapattana is an island on river Kaveri and this was fortified, even today we can see few huge gates and walls in Srirangapattana. This huge fortress had one small soft spot called the Water Gates. This is called so because this was the place where water was collected and used. This was a small place with thinner doors. British used this to enter and this is when Tippu personally led the charge of his army.