Tag: from trade to power

The East India Company was formed in 1600 in England and later it set up a trading post at Surat with the permission of Mughal Emperor, Jahangir.

In Europe, the modern period began around fifteenth century, while in India it began in the ${18}^{th}$ century.

The East India Company developed beyond a purely commercial enterprise when war between Britain and France spread to India in the mid-1740s. The Company established military supremacy over rival European trading companies and local rulers, culminating in 1757 in the seizure of control of the province of Bengal. In 1765, the Mughal Emperor granted the Company the diwani (the right to harvest the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa), which provided funds to bolster the Company’s military presence in the sub-continent. Further territorial acquisitions in India during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries cemented the change in the Company’s role from mere trader to a hybrid sovereign power.

 On May 20, 1498, when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Kozhikode, India, via the Cape of Good Hope, in the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal became the first European country to discover the new sea route to India.

The government of Portuguese India started in 1505, six years after the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, then settled at Kochi.

D.  1869

Labor disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869–four years behind schedule. On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal was opened to navigation. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

The British were different from Indians in race, religion and sentiments. In the 18th century, the British showed a friendly attitude towards Indian religions. They had no particular zeal for their own religion and the Company even acted as a trustee of some Hindu temples.

On 27th May 1498, a Portuguese sailor, Vasco da Gama crossed the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut in India. He was given a warm reception by the Hindu ruler, King Zamorin of Calicut. 

Francisco de Almeida was the first Viceroy of the Portuguese possessions in India. During his period, the Portuguese defeated the Arab traders. His policy was to increase the Portuguese naval power so that they would become the masters of the Indian Ocean.