Advent Of Europeans

By – Chauhan Sir
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Vishal Chauhan

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ADVENT OF EUROPEANS IN INDIA
• The age of 15th century in Europe was an era
of geographical discoveries of land and sea
routes.
• In 1492, the Italian explorer Christopher
Columbus discovered America in 1492 and
Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new
sea route from Europe to India in 1498.
• The Europeans came to India in phases.
• First to come to India as traders were the
Portuguese, who were followed by the Dutch,
the British and the French, and subsequently
developed designs to be the political masters
of India.
• Why Europeans Wanted to Discover New
Routes to India?
• Goods from India to Europe passed from many
states and many hands.
• Every state levied tolls and duties on these
goods.
• Thus to maximize profits the European trading
companies directly sailed to India.
• There were many obstacles to sea trade such
as pirates and natural calamities.
• Old trade routes through Egypt and the Persian
Gulf through Syria were closed in the
7th century when the Arabs conquered those
countries.
• Thus the Indian trade was monopolized and
Indian merchandise was carried to the markets
of the Levant.
• Constantinpole was captured by the Turks in
1453.
• With this capture, the overland route was
blocked.
• European-Asian trade became the monopoly
of merchants of Venice and Genoa of Italian
city and they refused to let the new nation
states of Western Europe, particularly Spain
and Portugal have any share in the trade
through these old routes.
• The other nations of Europe who had no ports
on the shore of the Mediterranean were shut
out from the participation in the lucrative
trade with the east.
• European Trading Companies
• Company and year of establishment
• Estado da India (Portuguese) in 1498
• Vereenigda ost-Indischa Companies (Dutch) in
1602
• British East India Company in 1600 (1599)
• Danes East India Company in 1616
• Companies des Indus Orientals (French) in
1664
• Arrival of Portuguese in India
• The first Portuguese mission was led by Vasco
de Gama who succeeded in reaching Calicut
via the Cape of Good Hope in May 1498.
• He was favourably received by the local ruler
Zamorin.
• In 1500, the Portuguese sent the second
mission under Pedro Alwares Cabral.
• The Portuguese Company became the first
European trading company to establish its
trade posts in India.
• They established their trading settlements at
Cochin, Goa, Daman and Diu, Salsette and
Bassein and Bombay.
• Impact of Portuguese in India
• Cartaz system: Cartaz was a naval trade license
or pass issued by the Portuguese in the Indian
ocean during the sixteenth century (circa 1502-
1750), under the rule of the Portuguese
empire.
• Portuguese employed this system after
monopolizing the export-import via the Indian
Ocean.
• Tobacco cultivation, ship making (Calicut and
Gujarat) and use of printing press began after
the arrival of the Portuguese.
• Gothic architecture and its influence in India is
also their contribution.
• Decline of Portuguese
• By the beginning of the 18th century, the
influence of Portuguese in Indian trade had
declined.
• Though they were first to enter India, yet their
religious intolerance, excesses as sea pirates in
the Bay of Bengal region, Albuquerque's weak
successors, the decline of Vijaynagar empire,
tensions with Spain and arrival and growth of
English and Dutch in India, etc., contributed to
their decline.
• Important Portuguese Personalities
• Francisco de Almeida: He arrived as the first
Portuguese Viceroy in 1505 and established
four ports on south western coast to establish
Portuguese control over the trade happening
via the Indian Ocean.
• In 1508 he was defeated by a joint naval force
of kingdoms of Egypt, Turkey and Gujarat in
the War of Chaul.
• However, the very next year in 1509 he
defeated the joint naval force in another battle
fought near the port of Diu.
His policies were famously known as 'Blue
water policy'.
• Afanso de Albuquerque:
• He was the second Portuguese governor and is
regarded as the real founder of Portuguese
power in India.
• He captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur in
1510, and extended Portuguese influence by
acquiring an important market of Malacca in
South East Asia in 1511.
• Neno de Kunha:
• He was the next important Portuguese
governor.
• He established Goa as the formal capital of
Portuguese India and also established
Portuguese settlements at Hugli (Bengal) and
St Thomas near Madras and conquered
Bassein and Diu in 1535.
• Afonso de Souza:
• It was during his governorship (1542-45) that
the first Jesuit priest Fracisco Xavier arrived in
India.
• Monserrate and Acquaviva:
• They were the two Jesuit priests in the court of
Mughal emperor Akbar.
• Arrival of Dutch in India
• The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch.
• Cornelis de Houtman was the first Dutch
citizen to arrive in India.
• The Dutch formed the United East India
Company of Netherlands in 1602 also known
as Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie-VOC.
• Dutch overpowered the Portuguese and
established control over all centres of spice
cultivation in India.
• They established their trade posts in Gujarat,
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
• The first Dutch factory was established at
Masulipattam in 1605.
• Other important factories were Pulikat (1610),
Surat (1616), Kasim Bazar, Patna, Balasore,
Nagpattnam and Cochin.
• First Dutch factory in Bengal was established at
Peepli in 1627.
• They mostly traded spices, indigo, raw silk, rice
and opium.
• Actually, it was the Dutch, who made India a
centre of textile export.
• In 1741, they were defeated by the king of
Travancore Marthanda Verma in Battle of
Colachel and in 1759, they were decisively
defeated by the British in the Battle of Bedara
in which the English were led by Clive.
• Deteriorating economic conditions, high
degree of centralization, primacy to spice
trade, relatively weaker navy than British etc.,
were the reasons for the decline of Dutch.
• Cartel System: The trading system of Dutch
company was based on Cartel system.
• Dutch company paid its shareholders a
dividend of 18%, which is considered a record
in the history of commerce.
• Arrival of Danish in India
• Danish refers to something from or related to
Denmark.
• Denmark held colonial possessions in India for
225 years.
• The Danish colonies in India included the
towns of Tranquebar (Tamil Nadu), Serampore
(West Bengal) and the Nicobar Islands.
• Establishment of Danish Trade Monopoly
• It was the Dutch adventurer Marcelis de
Boshouwer who provided the impetus for
Danish involvement in the Indian sub-
continent.
• He wanted military assistance against the
Portuguese with a promise of monopoly on all
trades to the assisting party.
• His appeal convinced Christian IV, the King of
Denmark-Norway who subsequently issued a
charter in 1616 granting the Danish East India
Company a monopoly on trade between
Denmark and Asia for twelve years.
• Serampore Mission Press was the first printing
press in India.
• It was established at Serampore by the Danish
missionaries in 1799 AD.
• Arrival of British in India
• The lucrative trade with Asia attracted the
British as well.
• In 1599, a group of merchants established a
company for this purpose and named it
"Governor of Company of Merchants of
London Trading to the East Indies'.
• This company was granted the royal charter by
Queen Elizabeth I on 31st December 1600 to
trade exclusively with Eastern countries for 15
years.
• In 1608, British emperor James I sent Captain
William Hawkins to the court of Jahangir to
seek permission to establish trading posts in
India and hence he became the first British to
enter India via sea route.
• Initially, the emperor was reluctant due to
opposition by the local traders of Surat and the
Portuguese but was influenced by the defeat
of the Portuguese naval contingent by English
captain Middleton in 1611.
• Thereafter, the Mughal emperor by an
imperial ferman gave permission to East India
Company to establish their factory at Surat in
1613.
• The British were unsatisfied and sent another
mission under Sir Thomas Roe in 1615 to plead
for more concessions.
• This time the Emperor Jahangir gave
permission to establish factories in any part of
the Mughal Empire.
• Consequently the British established their
factories at Agra, Ahmedabad, and Bharuch.
• In Sothern India, the British established their
first factory outside the Mughal Empire at
Masulipattam in 1611 which was followed by
Madras (1639) and Hughly (1651).
• In eastern India, the factory was established at
Balasore in Orissa in 1633.
• In 1691, the company was given an exclusive
privilege to carry out trade from Bengal
without paying any custom duty in lieu of an
annual payment of Rs. 3000.
• In 1698, the Subedar of Bengal Azim-us-Shan
gave the zamindari rights of Sutnati, Kalikata,
and Govindpur to British on a payment of Rs.
12,000 where they established the modern
town of Calcutta and as well as a fort called
Fort St. Williams.
• Meanwhile, in 1662, the Portuguese had given
Bombay to King Charles as dowry.
• The East India Company took Bombay on lease
from the King of England.
• In 1639, the King of Chandragiri gave the
company a place to establish their factory near
Madras where the British establish the Fort St.
George.
• In 1717, the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar
confirmed the privileges of the company as
well as issued several new ones for it including
permission to trade from Surat without paying
tax on an annual payment of Rs. 10,000 and
issue their own coins from the mint of
Bombay.
• These privileges have been called the 'Magna
Carta of East India Company'.
• Important Personalities
• Vasco de Gama - First European to reach India.
• Pedro Alvarez Cabral - Second Portuguese to
reach India
• Francisco de Almeida - First Portuguese
Governor
• John Mildenhall - First British citizen to arrive
in India
• Captain Hawkins - First English representative
who met Jahangir.
• Gerald Aungier - Founder of Bombay.
• Job Charnock - Founder of Calcutta.
• Charles Eyre - First administrator of Fort
Williams (Calcutta).
• William Norris - Representative of British
company "Trading in the east' who appeared in
the court of Aurangzeb to plead for trade
concessions.
• Francois Martin - First French governor of
Pondicherry.
• Francis De - Founder of Madras.
• Shobha Singh - Zamindar of Burdaman who
revolted against the British in 1690.
• Ibrahim Khan - Zamindar of Kalikata, Sutanati
and Govindpur.
• John Surman - Head of the Delegate which met
Mughal emperor Farukhsiyar and obtained
trade privileges.
• Father Monserrate - Jesuit priest in the court
of Akbar.
• Carron Frank - He established first French
factory at Surat.
• Arrival of the French in India
• French were the last among the European
companies to enter India.
• In 1664, during the reign of Louis XIV, the
efforts of his minister Colbert resulted in the
formation of the French trading company.
• It was established by the government and
therefore, was managed, funded and
controlled by the government itself.
• The first French factory in India was
established at Surat in 1668 which was
followed by the factory at Masulipattam in
1669 after the permission from the ruler of
Golkonda.
• The foundations of Pondicherry were led by
Martin in 1673.
• The trading post at Chandranagar was
established at the place given by the Nawab of
Bengal Shaista Khan.
• Soon, the political and economic ambitions of
French came into direct confrontation with the
British interests and led to the several Anglo-
French wars also known as Carnatic wars.
• Important Events
• 1498 - Arrival of Vasco de Gama.
• 1500 - Arrival of Cabral (second Portuguese).
• 1502 - Vasco de Gama arrives for the second
time.
• 1510 - Portuguese control over Goa.
• 1530 - Goa made the Portuguese capital in
place of Cochin.
• 1599 - Formation of British East India
Company.
• 1602 - Formation of Dutch East India Company.
• 1661 - Portuguese give away Bombay in dowry
to the British King.
• 1664 - Formation of French East India
Company.
• 1690 - Job Charnock lays the foundation of
Calcutta.
• 1708-09 - Merger of two rival British Trade
Companies.
• 1759 - Decisive defeat of Dutch at the hands of
British in the Battle of Bedra.
• 1760 - Battle of Wandiwash in which British
decisively defeated French.
 Chauhan_Sir_History

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