The British East India
Company
Why was the East India Company
established?
The East India Company was initially created by
royal charter on December 31, 1600 to serve as a
trading body for English merchants, specifically to
participate in the East Indian spice trade, and it later
added items such as cotton, silk, tea, and opium.
Industrialisation
1750-1850: The Industrial Revolution in
Britain.
Rather than farming, people work in
What was the East India Company? manufacturing, producing goods to sell.
The East India Company was an English The British required natural resources for their
company formed for the exploitation of trade factories and markets to sell their goods.
with East and Southeast Asia and India.
The British Raj
The British Raj
The British saw India as a source of natural
“Raj” means “rule”.
resources.
India was divided into 10 provinces and 250 districts India also had 300 million people, so the British
considered it a new market full of customers for
The Raj constructed railroads, built a huge tea industry, and British products.
exported many goods
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BEIC Power

The BEIC had its own currency and its own

army.
The officers were British and the soldiers
were Indians, called sepoys.
The BEIC controlled an entire country of over
300 million people.

Treatment of Indians British Views of Indians

“A single shelf of a good European library is

worth the whole native literature of India and
The Indians were used as laborers and treated Arabia.”- Thomas Macaulay.
as second class citizens.
British attitudes toward Indians and Indian
They were taxed heavily and did not have culture were often contemptuous and racist
equal rights.
India’s population grew quickly, leading to
horrific famines.
Traditional Indian industries were destroyed.
Yet, the British were able to control India with
1 soldier per 10,000 Indians
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