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At the turn of the nineteenth century, Governor-General Lord Wellesley began expanding the Company's domain on a large scale, defeating Tippu Sultan, annexing Mysore in southern India, and removing all French influence from the subcontinent.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Governor-General Lord Dalhousie launched the Company's most ambitious expansion, defeating the Sikhs in the Anglo-Sikh Wars and subduing Burma in the Second Burmese War. He also justified the takeover of small princely states such as Satara, Sambalpur, Jhansi, and Nagpur by way of the doctrine of lapse, which permitted the Company to annex any princely state whose ruler had died without a male heir. The annexation of Oudh in 1856 proved to be the Company's final territorial acquisition.
Hastings remained in India until 1784 and was succeeded by Cornwallis, who initiated the Permanent Settlement, whereby an agreement in perpetuity was reached with landlords for the collection of revenue. For the next 50 years, the British were engaged in attempts to eliminate Indian rivals.
On December 31, 1600 Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a royal charter to the British East India Company to carry out trade with the East. Ships first arrived in India in 1608, docking at Surat in modern-day Gujarat.
By the mid-1600s, the Company had established trading posts in major Indian cities. In 1670 King Charles II granted the company the right to acquire territory, raise an army, mint its own money, and exercise legal jurisdiction in areas under its control.
By the last decade of the seventeenth century, the Company was arguably its own "nation" on the Indian subcontinent, possessing considerable military power and ruling the three presidencies.
Lord North's India Bill, The Regulating Act of 1773, by the British Parliament granted Whitehall, the British government administration, supervisory control over the work of the East India Company but did not take power for itself. This was the first step along the road to government control of India. It also established the post of Governor-General of India, the first occupant of which was Warren Hastings. Further acts, such as the Charter Act of 1813 and the Charter Act of 1833, further defined the relationship of the Company and the British government.