-
Jul 8, 1497
Vasco De Gama Sails for India
He was a Portuguese explorer. He began exploring the east African coast on the way to India. He was amazed by the spices, rare silks, and precious gems of India. -
Industrial Revolution in Britain
Wealthy landowners began buying the land that village farmers had once worked. The large landowners dramatically improved farming methods. These innovations became agricultural revolution. -
Decline of the Mughal Empire
As the power weakened in the central state, the power of local lords grew. The Mughal emperor was nothing but a wealthy figurehead, They country turned into independent states. -
Establishment of the British East India Company
Robert Clive led the East India Company troops in a victory over Indian forces allied with the French at the Battle of Plassey. -
British Overcome French and Take Control of India
It included modern Bangladesh, most of Southern India, and along the Ganges River in the north. -
Sepoy Relbellion
Sepoys thought that the cartridges for the new rifles were greased with beef or pork fat. Cows were sacred to Hindus and pigs were abhorent to Muslims. The result was that the widespread rebellion killed 100,000 people. -
British Colonized India
The fear of more revolts, the British took direct control of India as part of its empire, the British Raj. Queen Victoria of Britain became the 1st empress of India after exiling the last Mughal Emperor. -
Creation of the Indian National Congress (INC)
At first, INC concentrated on specific concerns for Indians. The province was too large, so the British divided it into a Hindu section and a Muslim section. Keeping the two religious groups apart made it difficult for them to unite in calling for independence. -
Creation of the Muslim League
Muslim League, an organization founded in 1906 in India to protect Muslim interests. The Muslim League stated that it would never accept Indian independence if it meant rule by the Hindu-dominated Congress Party. -
Rowlett Acts
These laws allowed the government to jail protesters without trial for as long as two years. To Western-educated Indians, denial of a trial by jury violated their individual rights. -
Amritsar Massacre
To protest the Rowlatt Acts, around 10,000 Hindus and Muslims flocked to Amritsar, a major city in the Punjab, in the spring of 1919. Almost overnight, millions of Indians changed from loyal British subjects into nationalists. -
Gandhi's Travels Stressing Nonviolent Resistance
Congress Party endorsed civil disobedience, the deliberate and public refusal to obey an unjust law, and nonviolence as the means to independence. He launched his campaign of civil disobedience to weaken the British government'sauthority over India. -
Mohandas Gandhi's Leadership of the INC
When the British failed to punish the officers responsible for the Amritsar massacre, Gandhi urged the Indian National Congress to follow a policy of noncooperation with the British government. In 1920, the Congress Party endorsed civil disobedience. -
The Salt March
A peaceful protest against Salt Act. Mohandas Gandhi led his followers on a 240- mile walk to the sea, where they made their own salt from evaporated seawater. -
Government of India Act
It provided local self-government and limited democratic elections, but not total independene. The government of India Act also fueled mounting tensions between Muslims and Hindus. -
WWII- Riots Between HIndus and Muslims
Riots between the two groupd broke out in several Indian cities. Four days of clashes in Calcutta left more than 5,000 people dead and more than 15,000 hurt. -
Indian/ Pakistan Independence
The British House of Commons passes an act that granted two nations, India and Pakistan, independence in one month. After that, more than 500 independent native princes had to decide which nation they would want to join. -
Partition
Partition was the only way to ensure a safe and secure region. The northwest and eastern regions of India, where most Muslims lived, would become the new nation of Pakistan. -
Gandhi's Death
A Hindu extremist shot and killed Gandhi. Gandhi became the victim of the nation's violence.
