Britain in India Flashcards
(5 cards)
The Mughal empire
The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a chieftain from what is today Uzbekistan, who employed aid from the neighboring Safavid and Ottoman Empires[10] to defeat the sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, in the First Battle of Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of North India
The East India company and company rule
The East India Company was a British trading company that eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858. The Company became India’s dominant power
Early resistance to the British
Still, the first was the Indian ruling class and the erstwhile zamindars that bore the brunt of the British conquest. There were several civil uprisings in this period, led by the deposed rulers, ex-officials of conquered Indian states
Indian munity or war of independence
This is debatable whether the Indians rebelled or whether they were fighting for independence
Also known as the Indian Mutiny, or India’s First War of Independence, the Rebellion began on 10 May 1857 when sepoys from the East India Company’s army erupted in revolt in Meerut. Further civil rebellion spread, particularly across Northern and Central India.
Perspectives on the British takeover of India
Download PDF
The period 1700 to 1900 saw the beginnings, and the development, of the British Empire in India. Empire was not planned, at least not in the early stages. In a sense, it just happened. The first British in India came for trade, not territory; they were businessmen, not conquerors. It can be argued that they came from a culture that was inferior, and a political entity that was weaker, than that into which they ventured, and they came hat-in-hand. They would not have been viewed as a threat by the Indians—who most certainly would not have thought of themselves as “Indian,” at least in any political sense. National identity was to be established much later,
