Introduction

What was the East India

Company?
East India Company was the name of
several historical European companies
chartered with Asia, more specially
with India.

• British East India Company, founded

• in 1600
• Danish East India Company, founded
in 1616
• Dutch East India Company, founded in
1602
• French East India Company, founded
in 1664
• Swedish East India Company, founded
in 1731
• Portuguese East India Company,
founded in 1628
British East India
Company
• First it was called Honorable East India
Company (HEIC) or often ”John Company”.
Based in London.

• An early joint-stock company, which was

granted an English Royal Charter by
Elisabeth I. on December 31, 1600.

• Queen Elisabeth granted the monopoly

rights to bring goods from India.

• The Royal Charter gave the newly created

HEIC a 21 monoply on all trade in the East
Indies.

• The Company had 125 shareholders, and a

capital of £72,000
Arrival in India

• 1612 AD established factories in

Surat with the permission of
Emperor Jahangir.

• They continued their trading

activity for a few years from here
and later on expanded their area
to Chennai, Mumbai and
Calcutta.
Expansion

• First Expansion was in 1639 at

Chennai.

• Sir Francis Day along with the

company established a Trading
Post and St.George fort
• In 1668 The Islands of Mumbai
was leased to the British as dowry
by the Portuguese.
• Coastal area provided strategic
importance to the Company’s
trade.
Events

• Battle of Plassey

• Battle of Buxar

• Revolt of 1857

• Anglo-Maratha wars.
Commercial

• The East India Company wasn’t

concerned about the local needs.
• It’s main aim was to make profits.
• A large chunk of the profits went
to the Queen.
• Thus it’s commercial motive
made it a successful business
enterprise.
Robert Clive
• The foundations of the British empire in India
were, it is said, laid by Robert Clive, known to his
admirers as the "conqueror of India". Clive first
arrived in India in 1743 as a civil servant of
the East India Company; he later transferred to
the military service of the Company and
returned to England in 1753, where he able to
follow a comfortable life-style. But his penchant
for extravagance and ostentatious displays of
wealth, just as much as his electoral loss in his
attempt to gain a seat in the House of Commons,
opened him to the attacks of his creditors and
political opponents. He arrived in India in 1756
and at once secured the British forces in Madras.
He then moved to Calcutta, which had been
captured by the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-
daulah, and early in 1757 he recaptured Bengal.
Later that year, on June 23rd, he defeated the
Nawab, largely by means of bribes, at the so-
called "Battle of Plassey".
Robert Clive
Battle Of Plassey
• British rule in India is conventionally described as
having begun in 1757. On June 23rd of that year, at
the Battle of Plassey, a small village and mango
grove between Calcutta and Murshidabad, the
forces of the East India Company underRobert
Clive defeated the army of Siraj-ud-daulah, the
Nawab of Bengal. The "battle" lasted no more than
a few hours, and indeed the outcome of the battle
had been decided long before the soldiers came to
the battlefield. The aspirant to the Nawab's throne,
Mir Jafar, was induced to throw in his lot with Clive,
and by far the greater number of the Nawab's
soldiers were bribed to throw away their weapons,
surrender prematurely, and even turn their arms
against their own army.
• Jawaharlal Nehru, in The Discovery of India (1946),
justly describes Clive as having won the battle "by
promoting treason and forgery", and pointedly
notes that British rule in India had "an unsavoury
beginning and something of that bitter taste has
clung to it ever since."
Battle Of Plassey
Basis Of Monopoly

• Colonial Monopoly

• Military Expansion

• Opium Trade
Indian Rebellion (Revolt)
of 1857
• The Indian Rebellion of 1857
resulted in widespread devastation
in India; many condemned the East
India Company for permitting the
events to occur. One of the
consequences of the Indian Mutiny
was that the British Government
nationalised the Company. The
Company lost all its administrative
powers; the Crown, pursuant to the
provisions of theGovernment of
India Act 1858, took over its Indian
possessions, including its armed
forces.
British Establishments
• n 1607, the Company decided to build its own
ships and leased a yard on the River
Thames at Deptford. By 1614, the yard having
become too small, an alternative site was acquired
at Blackwall: the new yard was fully operational by
1617. It was sold in 1656, although for some years
East India Company ships continued to be built and
repaired there under the new owners.
• In 1803, an Act of Parliament, promoted by the East
India Company, established the East India Dock
Company, with the aim of establishing a new set of
docks (the East India Docks) primarily for the use
of ships trading with India. while a new Import
Dock was built to the north. In 1838 the East India
Dock Company merged with the West India Dock
Company. The docks were taken over by the Port of
London Authorityin 1909, and closed in 1967.
• The East India Club in London was formed in 1849
for officers of the Company. The Club still exists
today as a private Gentlemen's club with its club
house situated at 16 St. James's Square, London
Flags

Downman (1685) Rees (1820)

National Geographic (1917)

Lens (1700)

Laurie (1842)
Ships
• Ships of the East India Company were
called East Indiamen or simply
"Indiamen Some examples include:
• Red Dragon (1595)
• Doddington (East Indiaman) Lost 1755
• Royal Captain (before 1773)
• HMS Grosvenor Lost 1782
• General Goddard (1782)
• Earl of Abergavenny (1797)
• Earl of Mornington (1799); packet ship
• Lord Nelson (1799)
• Kent (1820): Lost on her third voyage
• Nemesis (1839): first British built
ocean-going iron warship
• Agamemnon (1855)
The End of the East India
Company and the 1857
Revolt
• THE GREAT INDIAN REBELLION of 1857
and the termination of East India
Company rule over India just a year later
thus ushered in a new phase of British
imperialism in Asia. The end of the
Company's regime meant that, at last, the
British state had to accept unequivocal
responsibility for the governance of
former Company possessions.
Consequently, new governing institutions
were established in Asia which were
directly answerable to government and
Parliament in London, through the
Secretary of State for India and the India
Office.
• These changes went hand-in-hand with
a new culture of governance, created by
the trauma of the Rebellion. Military
reforms resulted in a shift away from
Hindustan as the main recruiting
ground for the Indian army towards the
Punjab and other regions from which
troops were perceived to have shown
greater loyalty to the British. The policy
of undermining Indian law, culture and
involvement in the machinery of
government, which had been applied
under the last few decades of Company
rule, was abruptly reversed.
Group Members

• Drashti
• Lasya
• Mariam
• Aakash
• Shlomoh
• Sharik
• Gaurang
• Anish
• Burhan
Thank You :*