-
Jan 1, 1497
Vasco De Gama Sails For India
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama began exploring the east African coast reached the port of Calicut in India, where Da Gama and his crew were amazed by the spices, rare silks, and precious gems there.They brought these items back upon returning to Portugal in 1499. Their cargo was worth 60 times the cost of the voyage. -
Establishment of British East India Company
British economic interest in India began in the 1600s, when the British East India Company set up trading posts at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. At first, India's ruling Mughal Dynasty kept European traders under control. -
Industrial Revolution In Britain
Agricultural revolution and the increase of industrial machinery began in England in the middle 1700s. Before the Industrial Revolution, Machines began to do many jobs. The Industrial Revolution spread from England to Continental Europe and North America. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution in Britain
-
Decline of The Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire was collapsing. Dozens of small states, each headed by a ruler or maharajah, broke away from Mughal control. -
British Overcome French And Take Control Of India
The British set up restrictions that prevented the Indian economy from operating on its own. British policies called for India to produce raw materials for British manufacturing and to buy British goods. -
Sepoy Rebellion
As economic problems increased for Indians, so did their feelings of resentment and nationalism. In 1857, the sepoys found out that the cartridges of their ifles were greased with beef and pork fat. To use the cartridges, soldiers had to bite off the ends. Both Hindus, who consider the cow sacred, and Muslims, who do not eat pork, were outraged by the news.
The sepoys refused to accept the cartridges, rebelled, and captured the city of Delhi. -
British Colonized India
in 1858 the British government took direct command of India. Although the British promised to respect all treaties the East India Company had made with them and that the Indian states that were still free would remain independent, Britain still won greater and greater control of those states. -
Creation Of The Indian National Congress
Indians hated a system that made them second-class citizens in their own country. Ram Mohun Roy, a modern-thinking, well-educated Indian, began a campaign to move India away from traditional practices and ideas. He believed that if the practices were not changed, India would continue to be controlled by outsiders. This is how the Indian National Congress was created. It's goal was to be independent from the British. -
Creation of the Muslim League
This organization was founded in India to protect Muslim interests. Members of the league felt that the mainly Hindu Congress Party looked out primarily for Hindu interests. The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah insisted that all Muslims resign from the Congress Party. The Muslim League stated that it would never accept Indian independence if it meant rule by the Hindu-dominated Congress Party. -
Rowlett Acts
Radical Indian nationalists carried out acts of violence to show their hatred of British rule. To curb dissent, in 1919 the British passed these laws which 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. -
Armistar Massacre
The Armistar Massacre was a protest by 10,000 Hindus and Muslims, of the Rowlatt Acts, which were enforced by the British and said that they could jail any protesters of British rule for two years. They went to Amritsar, a major city in the Punjab, to fast and pray and to listen to political speeches. The British were outraged because they had banned public meetings, so British troops fired at the Hindus and Muslims and killed over 400 and wounded over 1200. -
Mohandas Gandhi's Leadership of the INC
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 deliberate and public refusal to obey an unjust law, and nonviolence as the means to achieve independence. -
Ghandi's Travels Stressing Nonviolent Resistance
Gandhi launched his campaign of civil disobedience to weaken the British government's authority and economic power over India. Gandhi called on Indians to refuse to buy British goods, attend government schools, pay British taxes, or vote in elections. Gandhi staged a successful boycott of British cloth, a source of wealth for the British. -
The Salt March
This was a peaceful protest demonstration that Gandhi organized to defy the Salt Acts, British laws that stated that Indians could buy salt (which they had to pay sales tax on) only from British government. To show their opposition, Gandhi and his followers walked about 240 miles to the seacoast, where they began to make their own salt by collecting seawater and letting it evaporate. This protest
angered British government and officers attacked Ghandi's followers. News of this spread worldwide. -
Government of India Act
British Parliament passed this act, which provided local self-government and limited democratic elections, but not total independence to the Indian people. -
WWII Riots Between Hindus and Muslims
When British leaders were going to hand over power to Indians after WWII because it was too hard to them to govern distant colonies, the question of who power should go to arose. This caused rioting to break out between the Hindus and Muslims. Clashes in Calcutta left more than 5,000 people dead and more than 15,000 hurt. -
Partition
To ensure a safe and secure region, partition was the term given to the division of India into separate Hindu and Muslim nations. The northwest and eastern regions of India, where most Muslims lived, would become the new nation of Pakistan. -
Indian/Pakistan Independence
The British House of Commons passed an act on July 16, 1947, that granted two nations, India and Pakistan, independence in one month's time. -
Gandhi's Death
A Hindu extremist who thought Gandhi too protective of Muslims shot and killed him.