The British East India ship Ainwick Castle (1815)

Overview

The British East India Company maintained imperial control of India and brought money into England by making deals with local rulers (who were sometimes local chapters of British rule of India), and employing a large private army when that didn’t work.

Its collapse came after using cow and pig fat in weaponry sparked frustrations from Muslim and Hindu members of the private army. Without an organized army, the company quickly lost influence and fell apart (Summary by Carolyn Byrne, March 2022).

CROSS-LINKS

Queen Victoria

India in the British Empire and the British Raj

Beginnings: British East India Company 1600-1757

The East India Company: How A Trading Corporation Became an Imperial Ruler, BBC History Extra (January 21, 2017)

• The British East India Company was granted a charter from the British crown in 1600.

• The merchants and business men that started the company aimed to end the monopoly on the Indian spice trade by other Europeans.
• Their main competitors were the Portuguese that had been trading in the Indian ocean for almost a 100 years prior.

• The Company slowly built up their influence and increased their trade over the next 150 years or so
• They did this by working with local Indian rulers (Mughal Empire main power in India at the time), aiding one side to advance their own agenda
• They slowly were granted land and the right to tax the people on that land

• What they weren't given they took by force with their large private army made up of local Indians and lead by European officers.
• The Battle of Buxar in 1765 was one a major victory for the Company, it got them the cities of Bengal and Bihar.

• Eventually by the mid the late 1700's the Company came to control such large swaths of land that they effectively became an Imperial power in India, establishing a capital in Calcutta in 1773.

Click here for a history of the British East India Company through a collection of primary sources. 

European Settlements in India, 1498-1739

 Company Rule 1757-1858

• By this time the Company was effectively the biggest power on the Sub Continent
• Over the this period in the Companies history it expanded its power, influence and land holdings.
• It also increased the size of its private army of nearly 250,000 men, larger than the army of the British Crown.

• Company men could often be better compensated than army men, as depicted above.  
• The Company's army was a mix of Indian and British men, weaponry, and tactics.
• The army was majority Indian. 
• British officers were trained in Indian languages and dialects in order to communicate with the soldiers in their charge. 
• The Fall of the company was swifter than its nearly 250 year rise.

The Sepoy Rebellion of 1858 caused the collapse of the the Companies power in India.

• It was started because new ammunition for their army was greased with pig and cow fat
• India is a country made up of millions of both Hindus and Muslims
• Hindus find cows sacred and they have a high place in their society, so much so they are not eaten.
• Muslims find pigs unclean and not fit for human consumption
• Both religions found this new ammunition offensive and refused to touch it.
• The rebellion lasted barley a year but was a very intense conflict
• The loss of control over their own armies was a signal to the British Crown and government that this private enterprise was not up to the task of maintaining Britain's dominance in India
• The Crown stepped in and officially took over control of India in 1858, making it an official domain of the British empire, starting the period known as the British Raj.

 For a quick concise video on this time period click here.

For an overview of European Imperialism in general click here.

Here you can find a great resource chronicling the English perspective as they began to flip the power in India for Great Britain

See Queen Victoria's Empire from PBS for an overview of the British Empire in India.

Watch this video to understand how the British East India Company gained a foothold in Indian trade in the wake of Portuguese and Dutch involvement.  

 For stories about European women's experiences traveling with the British East India Company, click here.

For more background, see selections from India: A Country Study (James Heitzman & Robert L. Worden, eds., Library of Congress, 1995).

 
This link in very helpful and concise in its history of India, has clear table of contents as well

• India

• The British Empire in India

• The British Raj, 1858-1947

Click here to go to British History In-Depth: The British Presence in India in the 18th Century from the British Broadcasting Company.