ARRIVAL OF THE EUROPEANS March 9, 2018

First Europeans

Alexander’s Invasion of India in 326 BCE

Why couldn’t Alexander establish an empire in India?

Before the Age of Exploration

The world according to Ptolemy

Age of Discovery

1492: Columbus in America

Why did the Europeans explore?

“The two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of

mankind." Adam Smith on the discovery of America and the Cape route to

India

What was the world like in the 15th c.?

India: Decline of Tughluk Sultanate - Regional kingdoms

China: Ming Dynasty

Central Asia: Mongols, Timurids

Arab World: Ottomans

Europe

England-France: Hundred years wars

Defeat of Moors: Spain and Portugal

Italian city-states

Byzantine Empire

1453: Fall of Constantinople

Colonial India is a part of the Indian subcontinent which was under the control of

European colonial powers, through trade and conquest.

The search for the wealth and prosperity of India led to the accidental "discovery" of

the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Vasco da Gama became the 1st European to re-establish direct trade links with India

since Roman times by being the 1st to arrive by circumnavigating Africa (1497–99).

Trading rivalries brought other European powers to India.

The Netherlands, England, France, and Denmark established trading posts in

India in the early 17th century.

Introduction

Portuguese Expeditions

Why did Portugal have a lead in exploration?

Why were the Portuguese successful in Africa and Asia?

Henry the Navigator Bartolomeu Dias Pedro Alvares Cabral

The closing of the traditional trade routes in western Asia by the Ottoman Empire and rivalry

with the Italian states sent Portugal in search of an alternate sea route to India.

The first successful voyage to India was by Vasco da Gama in 1498, when he arrived

in Calicut. Having arrived in Calicut he obtained permission to trade in the city.

The colonial era in India began in 1502, when the Portuguese Empire established the first

European trading center at Kollam, Kerala. In 1510 Portuguese conquered the city of Goa,

which had been controlled by Muslims.

Policy of marrying Portuguese soldiers and sailors with local Indian girls started

consequence of which was a great miscegenation in Goa and other Portuguese territories .

Another feature of the Portuguese presence in India was their will to evangelize and promote

Catholicism. In this, the Jesuits played a fundamental role, and to this day the Jesuit

missionary Saint Francis Xavier is revered among the Catholics of India.

Portuguese

The Portuguese established a chain of outposts along India's west coast and on the

island of Ceylon in the early 16th century.

Goa was their prized possession and the seat of Portugal's viceroy. Portugal's

northern province included settlements at Daman, Diu, Baçaim, Salsette,

and Mumbai.

The rest of the northern province, with the exception of Daman and Diu, was lost to

the Maratha Empire in the early 18th century.

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 English presence in India.

Continued

Portuguese Conquests

Fransisco de Almeida Afonso de Albequerque

From the beginning the Portuguese combined the use of force with trade.

In this they were helped by the superiority of their armed ships which enabled them

to dominate the seas.

They didn’t shy away from piracy and plunder

Portuguese India

Portuguese were the first to issue

cartage.

Through cartage they got huge income.

The Portuguese were intolerant and fanatical in religious matters. They indulged in

forcible conversion 'offering people the alternative of Christianity or sword.'

In spite of their barbaric behavior their possessions in India survived for a century

because they enjoyed control over the high seas, their soldiers and administrators

maintained strict discipline, and they did not have to face the might of the Mughal

Empire as South India was outside Mughal influence.

They clashed with the Mughal power in Bengal in 1631 and were driven out of their

settlements at Hugli.

Their hold over the Arabian sea had already been weakened by the English and their

influence in Gujarat had become negligible by this time.

Decline

Portugal was incapable of maintaining for long its trade monopoly or its dominions

in the East

Its population was less than a million

It’s Court was autocratic and decadent

It’s merchants enjoyed much less power and prestige than its landed aristocrats

It lagged behind in the development of shipping

It followed a policy of religious intolerance.

Portugal had become a Spanish dependency in 1580.

Why did Portuguese power reduce over time?

The Portuguese and the Spanish had left the English and the Dutch far behind during

the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century.

But, in the latter half of the 16th century, England and Holland, and later France, all

growing commercial and naval ,powers, waged a fierce struggle against the Spanish

and Portuguese monopoly of world trade.

In 1588 the English defeated the Spanish fleet called the Armada and shattered

Spanish naval supremacy for ever.

This enabled the English and the Dutch merchants to use the Cape of Good Hope

route to India and so to join in the race for empire in the East.

The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602.

The Company established trading posts on different parts along the Indian coast.

For some while, they controlled the Malabar southwest coast (Cochin) and

the Coromandel southeastern coast (Golconda , Kakinada, Pulicat, Negapatnam)

and Surat (1616–1795).

The Dutch also established trading stations in Travancore and Tamil Nadu as well as

at Rajshahi and Murshidabad, Balasore , and Ava, Arakan, and Syriam in Myanmar.

They exported indigo, raw silk, cotton textiles, saltpetre, and opium from India.

Like the Portuguese they treated the people of India cruelly.

They conquered Ceylon from the Portuguese in 1658

It was lost at the Congress of Vienna in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, where

the Dutch having fallen subject to France, saw their colonies raided by Britain.

The Dutch later became less involved in India, as they had the Dutch East Indies as

their prized possession.

In 1795 policy of exchange between them.

Dutch

The Danish formed an east India company and arrived in India in 1616

Denmark was a minor colonial power to set foot in India.

It established trading outposts in Tranquebar

(1620), Serampore(1755), Calicut(1752) and the Nicobar Islands (1750s).

At one time, the main Danish and Swedish East Asia companies together imported

more tea to Europe than the British did.

Their outposts lost economic and strategic importance, and Tranquebar, the last

Danish outpost, was sold to the British in 1845.

They were more concerned with missionary works.

Danish

Following others, the French also established

trading bases in India.

The French company was created ,financed and

controlled by the state and it differed from the

English company which was a private

commercial venture.

First establishment was in Pondicherry in 1674.

Subsequent French settlements

were Chandernagore , Yanam , Mahe and

Karaikal .

They were constantly in conflict with the Dutch

and later on mainly with the British in India.

French

Between 1744 and 1761, the British and the French repeatedly attacked and

conquered each other's forts and towns in southeastern India and in Bengal in the

northeast.

After some initial French successes, the British decisively defeated the French in

1761 in the Battle of Wandiwash.

By the treaty of Paris Pondicherry and some other French settlements were returned

to the French.

The enclaves of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe and Chandernagore were

integrated with the India in 1954.

Continued

East India Companies

How and why were the companies different from each other?

Why did the Dutch not become a power in India?

Where were the other European countries?

Factories

Factories

European Settlements