East India Company

In 1577, A English sailor going by the name of Charles Drake, was set out to loot and plunder Spanish Colonies, in this process, he stumbled across the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the Spice Islands of Malacca and met with Sultan Bullabah, eventually trading with the Kingdoms of Mysore and Tanjore, earned himself a profit and returned to England. Seeing his successes, Some traders from England, including William Hawkins, met in 1600, for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean and trading with the Indian Kingdoms. Queen Victoria eventually passed the Charter Act of 1600, officially forming the East India Company. Upon HMS Halifax, they started exploring, crossing the West African Coast, upon the Cape of Good Hope and reached the riches of India. However, the charter did not prevent other European Nations from exploring and trading in India. The greatest rivals of the Company were the like of the Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish who also wanted to gain profits through the riches of India.

### Battle of Swally and expansion into India

The EIC, had come into several engagements with the Dutch and Portuguese, the main rivals in Indian Trading. The breaking point of the Company came when the Dutch attacked HMS Lancashire, and the company retaliated by shelling the Colony of Maldives and in the process, destroying 2 screens of the VOC, in the treaty that followed, Dutch were forced to concede the ownership of Maldives and break their alliance with the Kingdom of Kandy. Maldives quickly became a staging point for the Indies. Another Provocation came from the Portuguese after they banned the British from accessing their ports. The Battle that followed, near the port of Swally, (the anglicized version of Suvali) saw a British Victory and ended with the Portuguese ceding the port of Surat to the British, establishing British Hegemony over any other European Nation in India.

### Subjugation of Bengal and Expansion into Malacca

The British wanted a trading post close to the Malaccan Islands. The British had received a Royal Decree or a Farman from the Mughal Badshah to establish a trading port in the Province of Bengal. Sir Charles Brown was responsible to maintain diplomatic relations with the Indian Princely States and the Mughal Empire. In 1654, Many Provinces of the Mughal Empire, such as the Marathi's and the Bengali's rebelled against Mughal Administration and the British decided to aid the Marathi in their cause, eventually, the Empire broke into several smaller states and the Marathi agreed for Vassalization. Siraj Ud Daulah (Nawab of Bengal) thought of this act as an act of Aggression and marched with his forces to the Factory of the EIC is Bengal and locked it up, taking several Employees as prisoners. The British however, retaliated by the crushing the Nawab's Army in Plassey and the Peace Treaty that followed, Treaty of Daka, Siraj Ud Daulah was replaced by a Puppet Emperor (Mir Jafar) and the British gained a hold on Bengal. Through the Lapse Doctrine and the Subsidiary Alliance, the Company gained large amount of land. The British attempted to conquer the Burmese, however, the terrain and the discipline of the soldiers poved hard to conquer Burma leading to thousands of lives lost. The British still emerged victor, and the burmese ceded South Burma to the Company. In 1712, the Dutch had conquered large parts of the Malaccan Peninsula and banned the Company from the spice trade. This enraged the British who marched with millions of men to the city of Singapore, which held enormous importance to the colonial administration. After a 2 month long siege, the garrison finally surrendered, and the Company men swept through the colony. The Dutch entered into negotiations with the British and decided to cede Malaccan Peninsula and Ceylon to the Company.

### The Bengali Revolt

In 1750, the heir of the puppet ruler of Bengal, succeeded the throne of Bengal. Najm Ud-Din wanted to root out all of the British Influence from Bengal and kick the British out of Bengal. It started with the murdering of Governor of Bengal, Lord Edward John, and the seizing of British Arms which eventually blew into an all out revolt against the British, whilst the British crushed Armies of Bengal, George II of England, was a cautious man, he knew that such sentiments could sweep through the the territories of the Company, and thus, he passed the infamous, Kingdom of Bengal Act, 1751, which ensured sovereignty of the Bengalis and the British would not influence them in way, which led to international humiliation for the British, but, had a positive long term effect.