The British East India Company played a key role in one of the most successful periods of British history. The East India Company was responsible for the invasion of the Indian subcontinent, which became one of the empire’s leading supplier of profits. The East India Company was responsible for the overthrow of Hong Kong and other Asian countries; it was responsible for creating Britain’s Asian empire.
The British East India Company began as a joint-stock corporation of traders and investors which was granted a Royal charter by Queen Elizabeth 1 to trade with the East. The original name of the corporation when it first formed was Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies (Landow). They joined together to generate money importing spices from South Asia. James Lancaster was in charge of the 1st company voyage in 1601 that sailed around the coast of South Africa and across the Indian Ocean, arriving back in London in 1603 with ships filled with pepper. In the 1600s, pepper was the most significant part of the British East India Company’s commerce.
The group established its first Asian factory in Bantam and “it was here that the English were able to expand into other parts of Asia” (The [British East India] Company Story). Market at Bantam was multicultural because of other merchants from Arab, Turkey, Iran, and China trading products from their own nations. The company had woolen cloth and silver, but Asian traders favored Indian textiles which were good quality; therefore, it had to uncover ways to get fabrics from India.
In 1611, after failed attempts to enter into agreement with Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, the British East India Company enquired King James 1 to send a representative. The ambassad...
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...t finally “went out of existence in 1873” (Landow).
In the course of its supremacy, the British East India Company created trade across the Middle East and Asia. It regulated its own regions and played a role in influencing the American Revolution. The company’s products were the source of the Boston Tea Party in colonial America.
Works Cited
"The [British East India] Company Story." History. Trading Places. The British Library Board, n.d. Web, 3 Jun 2011.
"The Boston Tea Party, 1773." EyeWitness to History. Ibis Communications, Inc., 2002. Web. 3 Jun 2011.
Landow, George P. "The British East India Company: The Company that Owned a Nation (or Two)." George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University. Victorian Web. George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University, 6 Apr. 2010. Web. 3 Jun 2011.
The East India Company enjoyed the exclusive legal right – a privilege granted by the British government – to import products from the Far East into Britain. Chinese tea, which was said to be more valuable than gold, was the company’s most lucrative commodity, accounting for over 90 percent of its commercial profits.
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
Marshall, Peter. "The British Presence in India in the 18th Century." http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml (accessed June 8, 2014).
They built roads and railroads. British rule brought peace and order to the countryside. They revised the legal system to promote justice for the Indians, regardless of class. Indian landowners and princes, who still owned territory, grew rich from exporting cash crops such as cotton and jute. The British introduced the telegraph and the postal system as a means of communication.
The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation. The Tea Act was also passed by Parliament to help lower the surplus of tea that was created by the financially troubled British East India Company. The colonists responded to this act by executing the Boston Tea Party which tossed all of the tea that was imported into the port of Boston. This precipitated the Boston Port Act which did not permit the colonists to import goods through this port. The colonists protested and refused all of these acts which helped stir the feelings of rebellion among the colonists. The British Mercantilist economy prevented the colonists from coin...
The Web. 20 Dec. 2013. James, Lawrence. The. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India.
One of the best things that British imperialism did for India was helping them to connect with the rest of the world through technology, science , and most important medicine since by that time Indian residents would be called “uncivilized” in different aspects such as the need for them to learn a better way of hygiene habits , how to prop...
" India was where the riches of the world came from, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. The British needed to dispel the threat of other Europeans in Africa to maintain control of India, and they did so efficiently. They quickly gained control of both the major sea routes to India and then turned their eyes to the rest of the continent. Whether the British were trying to foster public support or prevent another nation from becoming a threat, all British actions in Africa were directly or indirectly linked to India. The British were motivated by their desire to become powerful, and they skillfully combined enterprise and conquest to create a globe spanning empire centered around the wealth of India.
The Effects of British Imperialism in India One could approach this topic from two points of view: the British and the Indian. One could choose either party and find very different opinions. When British colonizers first arrived in India, they slowly gained more and more control in India through many ways, the most prominent being trade and commerce. At first, they managed India’s government by pulling the string behind the curtain. However, soon they had acquired complete rule over India, converting it into a true British colony.
In the 1600's the English took advantage of the crumbling Mughals. In 1757, Robert Clive led an unquestionable victory against the Indian Forces at the Battle of Plassey. After that battle, the East India Company was the leading force in India. Eventually, the company governed directly or indirectly areas that included modern day Bangladesh, most of southern India and almost all of the land along the Ganges River in the north. Until the 19th century, the East India Company ruled with little to no interference from Britain. The company had even established their own army. The company staffed its army with British and Indian Soldiers, or Sepoy, with the Sepoys eventually out numbering the British soldiers ten to one. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the governor of Bombay referred to the Sepoy army as “a delicate and dangerous machine, which a little mismanagement may easily turn against us.” (British Imperialism in India.)
There is no doubt that British imperialism had a large impact on India. From positive affects to negative affects, British colonized India. It all started around the 1600’s when the British East India Company entered India. Only as traders, they entered what was known as the Mughal Empire. Around the 1757 Battle of Plassey the Mughal empire fell (Carrick) and it was only a matter of time until the British Raj took their once in a lifetime chance.
There is no doubt that British imperialism had a large impact on India. India, having previously been an group of independent and semi-independent princedoms and territories, underwent great change under British administration. Originally intended to consolidate their hold on India by establishing a population that spoke the same language as their rulers, the British decision in the 1830s to educate Indians in a Western fashion, with English as the language of instruction, was the beginning of a chain of events, including a rise in Indian nationalism, that led to Indian resentment of British imperialism and ultimately to the loss of British control over India.
Captain Francis Light, while in Penang, acted directly under command of the British East India Trading Company. The British East India company, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth 1st, began trading operations in Southeast Asia in 1600 primarily focusing on the acquisition and trade of cotton, silk, opium, and spices which were all extremely valuable commodities throughout Europe. Because the European countries were such impending rivals for the British, the British East India Company had created a sizeable English army who would protect the trading routes and lands operated by the Company. This was the foundation for the deal the Sultan of Kedah sought to make with Captain Light. In return for English military protection from the Siamese and Burmese, the sultan would cede Penang to the British. Upon the deal being made, Penang would formally be renamed as The Prince of Wales Island until it was renamed in 1867. Penang would be extremely advantageous to the British in the future in the ...
1 Moore, Robin J., "Imperial India, 1858-1914", in Porter, Andrew, Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001a, p.422-446,
India was the first major Asian civilizations to fall victim to European predatory activities (Duiker 31). With conquering India, the British had various purposes behind it. Their main purpose was to achieve a monopolistic trading position (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). The second purpose was the control of India; this was a key element in the world power structure, in terms of geography, logistics and military manpower (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). When the East India Company continued to trade under the British, huge armies were created, largely composed of Indian sepoys (Marshall). The armies were used to defend the Company’s territories protect the Indian states (Marshall).