Advent of Europeans
After Aurangzeb’s death,
disintegration of Mughal Empire had accelerated. On the other hand, European
nations with their advancements in the field of maritime navigation and their
trading ambitions were on the lookout for establishing monopoly on the trade
with the ‘East Indies’. India obviously had to be the prime target as it
offered maximum scope for trading and profiteering. The first ones to arrive on
the scene were the Portuguese.
Portuguese Portugal’s
king Henry (1393-1460)
encouraged maritime
navigation by opening training and research institutes for the purpose.
Portuguese were the first one to have navigated the entire African coast line.
In 1497 Vasco da Gama commenced his voyage under the patronage of King Emmanuel
and finally Vasco-da-Gama landed at Calicut on 21st may 1498, and the sea route
to India was discovered. Thus the Portuguese came to India. Vasco-da-Gama was
well-received by the Zamorin of Calicut Mana Vikramma. When Vasco-da-Gama went
back he carried with him products of the East. He returned to India two more
times. The Government of Portugal established the Portuguese Trading Company to
regulate trade and commerce. The company was to function under a Viceroy.
Francisco De Almeida became the 1st Portuguese Viceroy in India. He initiated
the Blue Water Policy, which aimed at the Portuguese
Mastery of the Sea and
confined Portuguese relationship with India only for the purpose of
trade & commerce.
Alfonzo-De-Albuquerque
(1509-1550) was the greatest Portuguese Viceroy in India. The
Portuguese trading
centres which were confined to Calicut & Cochin were now extended to
other places under
Albuquerque. He conquered Goa in 1510 from the Sultan of Bijapur. West
Asia in the Persian
Gulf and Malaysia in the East were also conquered, Diu & Daman also
became Portuguese
trading centres. In Bengal, Hooghly & Balasore became the Portuguese
trading centres. Goa
became the Headquarters of the Portuguese in India. Albuquerque thus
made the Portuguese
strong in India. He was an efficient administer, he integrated the locals
into the
administration. He encouraged the propagation of Christianity &
inter-marriage with
the natives. The
Viceroys who came after Albuquerque were weak & inefficient. As a result
the
Portuguese began to
decline in India. In 1661 Portugal was at war with Spain and needed
support from England.
This led to the marriage of Princess Catherine of Portugal to Charles II of
England, who imposed a
dowry that included the insular and less inhabited areas of southern
Bombay while the
Portuguese managed to retain all the mainland territory north of Bandra up
to Thana and Bassein.
This was the beginning of the strong English presence in India as well.
Thus Portuguese
finally left India in the mid-17th Century A.D. But three of their settlement,
namely Goa, Diu &
Daman remained in their hands till 1961.
Causes for Decline of
Portuguese:
1. After Albuquerque
the Portuguese administration in India became inefficient because his
successor were weak
& inefficient.
2. The Portuguese
officials were neglected by the home government. Their salaries were low.
Thus they indulged in
corruption and malpractice.
3. The Portuguese
adopted forced inter-marriage & conversion to the Christian faith which
made the natives
hostile.
4. In 1580 Portugal
was merged with Spain which neglected the Portuguese interest in India.
5. The Portuguese has
to face the stiff competition of the Dutch in India.
6. Portuguese
discovered Brazil which diverted their attention from India.
The Impact of
Portuguese:
1. The Portuguese
began to spread Christianity in the Malabar & the Konkan coast.
Missionaries like St.
Francis Xavier, Father Rudolf & Father Monserette played a leading role
in propagating the
Christian faith.
2. The Missionaries started
schools & colleges along the west coast, where education was
imparted in the native
language.
3. The missionaries
undertook research on Indian history and culture. Fa Heras has made a
deep study on the
Indus Valley Civilization.
4. The Portuguese
brought the printing press to India. The Bible came to be printed in the
Kannada &
Malayalam language.
5. The Portuguese
brought some crops to India like Tobacco, some fruits & vegetables were
also introduced by him
potatoes, lady’s finger, chilly, pineapple, sapota, groundnuts, etc.
The Dutch
The Portuguese were
followed by the Dutch. The East India Company of Netherlands was
formed in 1592 to
trade with East Indies. Cornelius Houtman is the first Dutch to come to India.
The Dutch established
trading centres at Nagapatnam in Tamil Nadu, Machalipatnam in Andhra
Pradesh, Chinsora in
Bengal & at Mahe on the Malabar Coast. The headquarters of the Dutch in
India was Nagapatnam.
The Dutch could not withstand the stiff competition of the Portuguese
and the English and
thus left India. The complete monopoly of the Dutch over trade and
commerce of Indonesia
was another reason as to why they left India.
The Danes
Denmark was a minor
colonial power to set foot in India.The Danish East India Company was
formed in 1616 and
they established trading outposts at Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu (1620),a
colony called
Fredericknagore, in honor of their ruler King Frederick the Vth
near
Serampore, West Bengal
in 1755. Occupied twice by the English during their war with Denmark,
Fredericknagore failed
as a commercial venture. In 1777, after the Danish company went
bankrupt,
Seramporebecame a Danish crown colony. However, Serampore's commercial failure
was compensated by its
immense success on the cultural front. Since the British banned
missionary activities
in their territories, Serampore became a safe haven for missionaries in
India.
In 1799, Reverend
William Carey and two fellow Baptist missionaries establisahed a printing
press in in Serampore
to print copies of the Bible. In 1819, Carey established the Serampore
College, the first
institution to impart western style higher education in Asia. In 1827, a Royal
Charter by the King of
Denmark declared it as a university at par with those
in Copenhagen and
Kiel. In 1845, Denmark ceded Serampore to Britain, thereby ending the
nearly 150 years of
Danish presence in Bengal.
The British
After British victory
over the Spanish Armada in 1588 the merchants and traders of the country
started thinking in
terms of engaging in direct trade with ‘the East Indies’. In 1599 a resolution
was passed under the
chairmanship of the Lord Mayor to form an ‘Association’ to trade directly
with India. On
31-December 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the governor and
directors of ‘Company
of merchants of London trading directly with East Indies’ to ‘traffic and
trade freely into and
from the East Indies, in the countries and parts of Asia and Africa and into
and from all islands,
ports, havens, cities, creeks, towns and places of Asia, Africa and America
or any of them. The
charter was given for 15 years with provision for its termination at 2 years’
notice. Subsequently
King James I made it perpetual with clause for termination at 5 years
notice ‘if the
monopoly in trade was found to be injurious to the people at large’.
First two voyagesof
the company were financed through shares purchased by its members with
promise of
proportionate division of profit yielded 500% to 600% profit by trade through
the
Spice Islands with a
factory at Bantam. The factory had to be shut down because of resistance
from the Dutch. The
third voyage under Captain Hawkins headed for Surat in India. From Surat
Captain Hawkins went
to the court of Jahangir to secure concessions for the company’s trade.
The concessions were
granted but were soon revoked under pressure from vested interests in
the court.
IN 1612 Captain Best
defeated the Portuguese fleet in the Battle of Swalley near Surat and got
permission for setting
up a factory at Surat.
IN 1615Sir Thomas Roe
was sent by King James I to the court of Jahangir who granted trading
concessions to the
British despite opposition from his court.
IN 1622 the British
consolidated their position by helping Iran to secure possession of Ormuz
from the Portugese.
Same year they set up factories at Aramgaon and Masulipatnam.
IN 1633 Factories were
set up at Balasore and Hariharpur in Orissa.
IN 1640 Madras was
bought and a factory was set up at Fort St George. This was followed by
setting up a factory
at Hooghly in 1651 and lease of the island of Bombay from King James II at
a nominal rent of
Pound sterling 10.
IN 1688 the British
suffered a minor reversal when they fought with Saista Khan the Governor of
Bengal and were defeated.They were told to get out of the Mughal territory and
also close down their factory at Surat. They immediately made peace and regained
their lost position. The peace agreement was followed by permission for another
factory near Calcutta and purchase of the three villages of Sutanati, Govindpur
and Kalikata which are the centre of present day Kolkata.
IN 1714 John Surman
accompanied by William Hamilton a physician who had treated emperor Faruk
Shiyar of some undisclosed disease called on the emperor pleading for more
concessions. In July 1717 the emperor issued a farman (royal order) whereby the
British were allowed duty free trade in Bengal in lieu of Rs. 3000 per annum, a
sum of Rs. 10000 as a one-time settlement for all the outstanding dues for the
Surat factory and duty free trade without any consideration within the
Hyderabad state. The company was also allowed to use their own currency minted
at Bombay throughout India.
Internal developments
of the company:
Between 1615 and 1686
the company grew from strength to strength. It was allowed to grant commissions
to its captains in 1615. In 1625 the Governors and Directors of the company
were given judicial powers in civil as well as criminal matters. In 1661 the
company was authorised to send ships of war with men and ammunitions for the
safety of its possessions overseas. In 1683 it got full powers to declare war
and to make peace as also to raise, train and maintain an army. Three years
later in 1686 it got the authority to appoint Admirals of its navy and to coin
money of all species. Between 1698 and 1702 the company suffered some reverses
when the government of Great Britain was in need of2 million pounds sterling
which the company was unable to make available. A parallel company emerged who
was granted license for monopoly trade and the old company was given notice to
wind up its operations in 2 years. A compromise was worked out under which the
two companies operated together for seven years after which the old company
surrendered its charter in 1709 to queen Anne and the new company stepped into
its shoes as ‘united company of merchants of England trading to the east
indies’.
The French
License for trading
with India and the East indies was first granted by King Louis XII in 1611 but
was not followed up seriously. In 1664 King Louis XIV granted another license
under the governorship of Colbert. The company was to concentrate on India with
Madagascar as the half-way house. In 1667 first French factory was set up at
Surat with Francis Caron as its Director-General. A factory at Masulipatnam was
also established in 1669. Caron was replaced in 1672 by Francis Martin who
founded Pondicherry in 1673 under a grant from the king of Bijapur Sher Khan
Lodhi. In1693 the Dutch snatched Pondicherry but it was restored to the French
under the treaty of Reswick. Between 1697 and 1739, the French consolidated
their position by adding Chandernogor, Balasore and Kasimbazaar in their
possessions. They got Mahe and Karaikal as reward for helping the winning party
in the first Carnatic war (Anglo-French war). The real trouble between the
French and the English men started when the French won control of Tanjore which
the British considered vital for their trade security.
