Write a short note on new administration set by East India Company after 1765 class 8
Answers
Explanation:
Note 1:
The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), East India Trading Company (EITC), the English East India Company or (after 1707) the British East India Company, and informally known as John Company, Company Bahadur, or simply The Company was an English and later British joint-stock company founded in 1600. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with Qing China. The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonized parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong after the First Opium War, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Persian Gulf Residencies. Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.
Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act enacted one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of the British Raj had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.
Note 2:
The last powerful Mughal ruler was Aurangzeb and after his death in 1707, many Mughal governors (subadars) and big zamindars began asserting their authority and establishing regional kingdoms. By the second half of the eighteenth century, a new power emerged on the political horizon – the British.
East India Company Comes East
The East India Company, in 1600, acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting the Company sole right to trade with the East. According to the charter, the Company could venture across the oceans, looking for new lands to buy goods at a cheaper price, and carry them back to Europe to sell at higher prices. The Portuguese established their presence on the western coast of India and had their base in Goa. By the early seventeenth century, the Dutch were exploring the possibilities of trade in the Indian Ocean and very soon the French arrived on the scene.
All the companies are interested in buying the same things. The fine qualities of cotton, silk, pepper, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon were in great demand. The urge to secure markets led to fierce battles between the trading companies. Trade was carried on with arms and trading posts were protected through fortification.
East India Company begins to trade in Bengal
In 1651, the first English factory was set up. It was the base from which the Company’s traders, known as “factors”, operated. In the warehouse of the factory, goods for export were stored. The Company by 1696 built a fort around the settlement. The Company continuously tried to press for more concessions and manipulate existing privileges.
How trade led to battles
The conflict between the Company and the nawabs of Bengal intensified. The Bengal nawabs refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the Company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins, and stopped it from extending its fortifications. They also claimed that the Company was depriving the Bengal government of huge amounts of revenue and undermining the authority of the nawab. The conflicts led to confrontations and finally culminated in the famous Battle of Plassey.