Question

who was robert clive? explain. ​

Answer 1

Explanation:

The English soldier and statesman Robert Clive, Baron Clive of Plassey (1725-1774), extended British power in India. He checked French aspirations in that area and made possible 200 years of British rule in the Indian subcontinent. Robert Clive was born of an old and prominent family on Sept.

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Answer 2

Robert Clive, in full Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey, (born September 29, 1725, Styche, Shropshire, England—died November 22, 1774, London), soldier and first British administrator of Bengal, who was one of the creators of British power in India. In his first governorship (1755–60) he won the Battle of Plassey and became master of Bengal. In his second governorship (1764–67) he reorganized the British colony.


At Madras, Clive was moody and quarrelsome; he attempted suicide and once fought a duel. He found solace in the governor’s library, where he virtually educated himself. Hostilities between the British and French East India companies and their competitive support of rival Indian princes drew Clive into military service and gave him a chance to demonstrate his ability. In 1751 Chanda Sahib, an ally of the French, was besieging his British-connected rival, Muḥammad ʿAlī, in the fortress of Trichinopoly (now Tiruchchirappalli). Clive offered to lead a diversion against Chanda’s base at Arcot. With 200 Europeans and 300 Indians, he seized Arcot on August 31 and then successfully withstood a 53-day siege (September 23–November 14) by Chanda’s son. This feat proved to be the turning point in a contest with the French commander, Joseph-François Dupleix. In the next months Clive established himself as a brilliant exponent of guerrilla tactics.

In March 1753 he left Madras with his bride, Margaret Maskelyne, and something of a fortune, having been appointed in 1749 a commissary for the supply of provisions to the troops. In 1755, after unsuccessfully standing for Parliament, he was sent out again to India, this time as governor of Fort St. David and with a lieutenant colonel’s commission in the Royal Army. With him went troops intended to expel the French from India. On the way, at the request of the government in Bombay (now Mumbai), he stormed the pirate stronghold at Gheriah on the western coast.

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Reaching Madras in June 1756, Clive immediately became involved in the affairs of Bengal, with which, henceforward, his fate was to be linked. Hitherto Bengal had been ruled by viceroys of the figurehead Mughal emperor, and it was under their protection that the British East India Company carried on its trade. The principal city, Calcutta (now Kolkata), had come to rival Madras as a trading centre, and its commerce was the most valuable in India. In 1756 a dispute with the British about fortifying the city caused the new nawab (Mughal viceroy) of Bengal, Sirāj al-Dawlah, to attack and capture the fort there.

Calcutta And Plassey

News of the fall of Calcutta reached Madras in August 1756. After some delay, Clive was given command of the relief expedition and set out on October 16, 1756, with 900 Europeans and 1,500 Indians. Clive retook Calcutta on January 2, 1757, and forced the nawab to restore the company’s privileges, pay compensation, and allow the British to fortify Calcutta. Determined to take advantage of discontent with the nawab’s regime, he sponsored a new ruler in order to ensure conditions that were agreeable to the company’s trade. His candidate was Mīr Jaʿfar, an elderly general secretly hostile to Sirāj al-Dawlah. Clive broke with Sirāj al-Dawlah and overthrew him at the Battle of Plassey on June 23. The conflict was more of a cannonade than a battle, and only 23 of Clive’s men were killed. This victory made Clive the virtual master of Bengal.

Clive’s first government lasted until February 1760. He was confirmed as governor by the company and went about the business of strengthening Mīr Jaʿfar’s authority, though at the same time keeping him under control. A challenge from the Mughal crown prince was repulsed at Patna in 1759. The Dutch, who sought to play on the nawab’s discontent with Clive’s restraints, sent a force to their settlement at Chinsurah, but, through a series of adroit moves, Clive destroyed this force even though England was at peace with the Netherlands. By 1760 Mīr Jaʿfar’s authority was unchallenged throughout Bengal and Bihar, and his subservience to the company was complete. In addition, by the dispatch of a force under Col. Francis Forde in 1758, Clive secured the Northern Sarkars from the French garrison.