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1498
The first sea trade from Europe to Asia
The first sea trade route from Portugal to Asia was established in 1498. Vasco da gama of Portugal sailed to the port of Cailcut in the coast India in southwest Asia. -
Queen Anne 1
Queen Anne 1 granted a royal charter to London merchants to have sole ownership of trade in the east Indies. -
British East India Company
In 1611, the British East India Company established its first factory post in Masulipatnam in the Andhra coast of the bay of Bengal. Because of the European taste of spices, textiles and jewelry, more establishments would be made in that region. The EIC soon would have to compete with with the Dutch, French, and the Portuguese merchants. -
Expanding EIC
The EIC were on a mission to expand more, which had led to the company receiving freedom by King Charles II to act as a free entity in 1670. The act gave the EIC power to colonize territories, mint its own money, employ its own military, make peace, declare war, and have judicial powers over the territories taken over. -
Waging War
The power that the EIC had been granted also allows for the company to wage war on the states in the Indian region, including Siraj ud-Daulah, the governor of Bengal. -
EIC gaining control
9 years later, the EIC fought the Mughal emperor and the Nawab of Oudh to gain control of Bihar and Oudh, and for the rest of the 18th century, the EIC expanded south taking control over the Madras and Carnatic regions. -
The Sepoy mutiny of 1857
During the battles, the EIC stared hiring Indian solders into their army. While the hiring called Sepoys into their ranks, the company realized they were over their heads with expansion and animal fat. The company was suppling their Indian ranks with gunpowder containers closed with corks covered in grease which was made up of cow or pig fat. The animal fat was against the Indian solders religion, so they had replied with a mutiny. -
The Sepoy mutiny of 1857 continued
The Sepoy mutiny led to direct control of the territories previously captured by the EIC to the British crown. -
Government of India Act
In 1858, the Government of India act transferred full governing authority from the EIC to the British government. 18 years later, Queen Victoria of the British Empire was named empress of India. -
Over the next 71 years
The British rulers were being challenged by their ruled peoples. One such challenge was the salt march in 1930, which was a nonviolent show of civil disobedience led by Gandhi. They were protesting the British monopoly on salt. And by the end of WWII, the British were ready to give up the rule of India, which led to Indian independence and the partition of the ruled areas to split into two nations, Pakistan and India. When the British walked away, the two nations were no longer wealthy.