Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
While the official colonization of India Didn't take place until after the seven year war in 1754, the British had already unconsciously made preparations to do so. These preparations started as far back as 1600 while Queen Elizabeth the First ruled Britain.
Queen Elizabeth the First, without knowing, allowed later British Rulers to completely colonize India. This was thanks to her Royal Charter, which she granted to the East India Company. The East India Company, or EIC, was at first a trading company. In 1600 there were granted a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth the First, which funded them to travel to India and st up "factories" or more accurately trading posts. The EIC later shifted motives when under new rule.
The EIC was a company granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth the First. This funded them to go to India and trade. This trade was expanded upon by Sir Thomas Roe, who under instruction of James 1 arranged a treaty with Emperor Nurudin Salim Jahangir. By creating this treaty it allowed the EIC exclusive rights to build and live in and build factories around Surat, providing a secure base of operations in which the British were able to compete with and even wage trade wars with the Portuguese and Dutch governments. The EIC kept growing as nothing more than a trading company until the seven years war in 1754. After this war between the French and British ended in favor of Britain, and the French lost their hold in India. This allowed the formation of the British Empire in South Asia, and the start of the downfall of the EIC.
After British Empire had been formed in South Asia the British government started to see how powerful the EIC actually was. Since it's creation in the 1600's the EIC has been gaining power and wealth, so much that by the late 1700's they were powerful enough to rival the British government. They essentially owned many of British Empires territories, expressing their power. This amount of power and wealth scared the Government of Britain, leading them to create the East India Company Act in 1784. This bill separated the EIC's political presence from its business or trading practise's. With this act in place the EIC now had less political power than the British Government, but still had control over some territories. This is when the EIC started to dissolve away. In 1813 the Charter Act was enacted, which gave the British Crown Sovereignty over the territories the EIC had controlled. This act also eliminated the monopoly that the company had over products in India, forcing the EIC to open India to missionaries By this point the EIC was essentially no more, but to ensure this the rest of the army the EIC controlled was incorporated into the British army.
Starting in 1858 and ending in 1947 the Raj was a period of time when Britain had direct control the Indian subcontinent. It was originally intended to increase the participation of Indian people in the governing of India, with the exception that it needed the consent of the British Government. During the Raj many things were introduced, such as princes. This proclamation enacted by Queen Victoria, the Empress of India, labeled those who swore full alliance to the British Crown as a princes. In the same year Queen Victoria made an attempt to show they were giving "equal" opportunity to everyone in India. This was done by allowing qualified Indians to apply as civil servants, but in reality only one Indian managed to become a civil servant. This is because the examinations were only held in Britain, and further more only men between 17 and 22 years old were able to apply. The Raj was also a time in which many industries, such as agriculture, increased commercial production, which was in part because they had to pay for the mutiny of rebellion in 1857. The spread of railroads during this time was also a likely cause to the increased revenue. However these railroads shipped cheaper products from Britain. These products sold for cheaper then local products eliminating the local producers.
Many local producers such as craftsmen were forced to make the change to an agricultural lifestyle to make a living, changing the lifestyle of entire villages in some situations. This, along with the other events of the 89 year long Raj, had many negative lasting effects on India.
The decolonization of India has had lasting negative impacts on India today. When the British decolonized India the India had never had a government under their control, as previously it had been under British Control. This created conflict between religion and other factors. India also was split into different countries, such as Pakistan, promoting political and religious conflict.
The Partition of India was first brought up in the 1930's because of World War 2. Muslim leaders saw what was happening to other minority groups and wanted their own homeland to protect themselves. The imperialistic ideals were also on a decline, so by 1935 they were making preparations to decolonize India, so they granted them greater independence in governing India. After this independence was given more Muslim leaders started advocating for their own homeland, with the most prominent being Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was the main advocate for a Muslim homeland, a safe place for India's Muslim people called Pakistan. Jinnah kept pushing for a Muslim state despite push back from Hindu leaders. Then in March of 1947 the British Government sent in Louis Mountbatten. He was tasked to determine a plan to transfer power from the British government to the Indian people before June of 1948, but the plan was changed not long after. Only three months later Mountbatten stated the transfer would be sped up by ten months.
Then on August 14-25 of 1947 power was transferred from Britain to India, and a day later the partition boundaries were published. With the partition in place India and Pakistan was separated, with Pakistan as the Muslim homeland and India as the Hindu homeland. This caused a massive migration in which around 15 million people traveled across India and Pakistan, to get to the country that supports their religion. With this migration there were many deaths and conflict, religious or otherwise.
During the migration that took place in 1947 India mass depopulation took place. Much of which is caused by the quick hand off of power and creation of the partition, as the newly formed government of India was not prepared. Without proper preparations the Indian government was not able to handle what came of the fighting, disease and starvation, which were some of the causes of death. Between 300,000 and one million deaths was a outcome of this. Disease was a major cause of death because people were traveling. With people traveling, often in groups with family and neighbors, disease could spread easily, and it was more difficult to treat because people were traveling. Starvation was also a cause of death, rooting back to 1943 and the Bengal famine. India and surrounding areas had not yet recovered from this famine when the migration took places. Combined with the large amounts of travel many people died due to starvation. Unfortunately a large portion of deaths were people killing others. The killings most often happened because of religious differences, as Hindu people would kill traveling Muslim people, and Muslim people would kill Hindu people. The lack of punishment only promoted this. This fighting only came to a stop when Mohandas Gandhi was able to convince people to in 1948. This is the legacy of depopulation in India.