The East India Company, 1600-1858
Subtitle: a short history with documents
By: Ian Barrow
Series: Passages : key moments in history; Passages (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9781624665967; 9781624665974
Subjects: Sources; East India Company; British; History
Description: "In existence for 258 years, the English East India Company ran a complex, highly integrated global trading network. It supplied the tea for the Boston Tea Party, the cotton textiles used to purchase slaves in Africa, and the opium for China's nineteenth-century addiction. In India it expanded from a few small coastal settlements to govern territories that far exceeded the British Isles in extent and population. It minted coins in its name, established law courts and prisons, and prosecuted wars with one of the world's largest armies. Over time, the Company developed a pronounced and aggressive colonialism that laid the foundation for Britain's Eastern empire. A study of the Company, therefore, is a study of the rise of the modern world. In clear, engaging prose, Ian Barrow sets the rise and fall of the Company into political, economic, and cultural contexts and explains how and why the Company was transformed from a maritime trading entity into a territorial colonial state. Excerpts from eighteen primary documents illustrate the main themes and ideas discussed in the text. Maps, illustrations, a glossary, and a chronology are also included"--Publisher's description
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-170) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Seventeenth Century; title: The Eighteenth Century; title: The Nineteenth Century; title: Conclusion; title: Documents. 1. The Company's Accusations against the Dutch East India Company (1624); title: 2. Domestic Opposition to the East India Company (1681); title: 3. Criticism of a Company Bigwig and His War against the Mughal Empire (1690); title: 4. English Opposition to Importing Cotton Textiles (1708); title: 5. An Early View of Bencoolen, the Company's Pepper Port (1727); title: 6. Asserting the Company's Power over Defeated Enemies (1765); title: 7. Exposing the Company's Mismanagement (1772); title: 8. An Erotic Encounter (1789); title: 9. The Spectacle of Tipu Sultan's Death (1799); title: 10. Arguments for Opening India to Missionaries (1805); title: 11. An Anti-Missionary Perspective (1808); title: 12. A British Prisoner of War Returns Home from India (1824); title: 13. Advice to a Young Company Employee Traveling to India for the First Time (1827); title: 14. Missionary Sentiments (1830); title: 15. A Lady's Arrival in Calcutta (1820s; 1850); title: 16. Touring India (1837; 1866); title: 17. The Beginning of a Disastrous War (1838); title: 18. First Reactions in Britain to the News of the Rebellion (1857).