India had contacts with Europe since time immemorial through land route, which affected both

India and Europe culturally and materially.

But the advent of European powers into India by discovering sea route to India had far-reaching
consequences on the shape and course of Indian society and history from the middle of the 15th
century.

First to come to India as traders were the Portuguese, who were followed by the Dutch, the
British and the French, who subsequently developed designs to be the political masters of India?
Of all the European powers, the British succeeded in becoming the political masters of India.
Indians continued their struggle against the European powers in the 18th and 19th centuries and
only by the middle of the 20th century India could become independent after the partition of the
subcontinent.

Much water has flown under the bridge in these four hundred years in India, and India underwent
transition from a feudal, conservative, exclusive social system to a capitalistic, progressive and
inclusive social system during this period with self-assertion based on introspection and external
stimuli of ideas of equality, liberty, fraternity and peoples rule instead of rule of one man, i.e.,
from monarchy to democracy.

What we notice in this transition process was the tendency of continuity and change in all the
spheres effecting human activity on the Indian soil, in spite of the foreign domination of our
country by the British from 1757 to 1947 and their efforts to bring about a total change in our
basic attitudes and outlook. We can thus learn how India reacted to the western dominance and
showed its resistance facing the challenge of its annihilation of cultural mosaic based on
pluralistic cultural values inherited in its long history of more than five thousand years.

The factors of the emergence of nation states, renaissance and reformation, agricultural and
industrial revolution, new economic doctrine of mercantilism, competition between nation states
for breaking the mercantile monopoly of the merchants of Venice and Geneva over sea-borne
trade, and a great advance in navigational technologies like compass gave strong impetus for
geographical discoveries leading to the finding of new worlds and new sea routes.

As a consequence of the above factors, a new route to the east via the Cape of Good Hope was
discovered. This led to the European monopoly over the seas and the advent of Europeans into
India in search of trade and commerce in spices, which were essential requirements of their food
habits. Owing to the rivalry of European powers, India became the actual theatre of conflicts by
the middle of the 18th century.

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The arrival of Vasco da Gama, a nobleman from the household of the King of Portugal, at
the port of Calicut in south-west India on 27 May 1498 inaugurated a new, and extremely
unpleasant, chapter in Indian history. For some time, the Portuguese, among other Europeans,
had been looking for a sea route to India, but they had been unable to break free of the
stranglehold exercised by Egyptian rulers over the trade between Europe and Asia. The Red
Sea trade route was a state monopoly from which Islamic rulers earned tremendous revenues. In
the fifteenth century, the mantle of Christendoms resistance to Islam had fallen upon Portugal;
moreover, the Portuguese had inherited the Genoese tradition of exploration. It is reported that
the idea of finding an ocean route to Ocean had become an obsession for Henry the Navigator
(1394-1460), and he was also keen to find a way to circumvent the Muslim domination of the
eastern Mediterranean and all the routes that connected India to Europe. In 1454, Henry
received a bull from Pope Nicholas V, which conferred on him the right to navigate the sea to
the distant shores of the Orient, more specifically as far as India, whose inhabitants were to be
brought to help Christians against the enemies of the faith. The pagans, wherever they might
be, not yet afflicted with the plague of Islam were to be given the knowledge of the name of
Christ. By the terms of the Treaty of Trodesilhas (1494), all new territories were divided
between Spain and Portugal. The stage was thus set for the Portuguese incursions into the
waters surrounding India.

In 1487, the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and
so opened the sea route to India. An expedition of four ships headed out to India in 1497, and
arrived in India in slightly less than eleven months time. The coming of the Portuguese
introduced several new factors into Indian history. As almost every historian has observed, it not
only initiated what might be called the European era, it marked the emergence of naval
power. Doubtless, the Cholas, among others, had been a naval power, but for the first time a
foreign power had come to India by way of the sea; moreover, Portuguese dominance would
only extend to the coasts, since they were never able to make any significant inroads into the
Indian interior. The Portuguese ships carried cannon, but the significance of this is not
commonly realized, especially by those who are merely inclined to view the Portuguese as one of
a series of invaders of India, or even as specimens of enterprising Europeans whose mission it
was to energize the lazy natives. For centuries, the numerous participants in the Indian Ocean
trading system Indians, Arabs, Africans from the east coast, Chinese, Javanese, Sumatrans,
among others had ploughed the sea routes and adhered to various tacit rules of
conduct. Though all were in the trade for profit, as might be expected, no party sought to have
overwhelming dominance; certainly no one had sought to enforce their power through
arms. Trade flourished, and all the parties played their role in putting down piracy: this was a
free trade zone. Into this arena stepped forth the Portuguese, who at once declared their
intention to abide by no rules except their own, and who sought immediate and decisive
advantage over the Indians and over the Indian Ocean trading system.
In a word, the conduct of the Portuguese in India was barbaric. Vasco da Gamas initial
conduct set the tone. On his way to India, he encountered an unarmed vessel returning
from Mecca; as a contemporary Portuguese source states, da Gama ordered the ship emptied of
its goods, and then had it set on fire, prohibiting any Moor being taken from it alive. He then
spent four months in India. Having waited out the monsoons, he set out to return
to Portugal with a cargo worth sixty times what he had brought with him, and refused to pay the
customary port duties to the Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut. To ensure that his way would not be
obstructed, he took a few hostages with him. When he returned to Portugal in 1499, the pepper
he brought with him was sold at an enormous profit; and nothing underscores the importance of
direct access to the pepper trade as much as the fact that elsewhere the Europeans, who relied on
Muslim middlemen, would have to spend ten times as much for the same amount of
pepper. Emboldened by this success, King Dom Manuel sent another expedition of six ships
headed by Pedro Cabral. With their usual ignorance of, and disdain for, local customs, Cabral
and the Portuguese sent a low-caste Hindu as a messenger to the Zamorin upon their arrival at
port. Meanwhile, as the historian K. M. Panikkar has written, the Portuguese were claiming the
sole right to the sea; in the words of Barroes, It is true that there does exist a common right to
all to navigate the seas and in Europe we acknowledge the rights which others hold against us;
but this right does not extend beyond Europe; and therefore the Portuguese as Lords of the Sea
are justified in confiscating the goods of all those navigate the seas without their permission (p.
41). Cabral attacked all Arab vessels within his reach, which provoked a riot at the port that led
to the destruction of the Portuguese factory. Cabral retaliated in the only way known to a
Portuguese marauder and bandit of his times: he massacred the crews of the boats, and burnt all
the ships that were not his own. The intent, which would be repeatedly witnessed in the history
of Portuguese interactions with the Indians (and with others), was to brutalize and terrorize the
native population, and Panikkar remarks, with evident justice, that Cabrals behavior persuaded
the Indians that the intruders were uncivilised barbarians, treacherous and untrustworthy (p.
42).

Malabar and the Portuguese: Being a History of the Relations of the Portuguese with Malabar
from 1500 to 1663 (Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala, 1929).

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It was also the first company to issue stock. It was the first company which was given power to
engage itself in colonial activities including waging a war and execute the convicts, mint the
coins and establish the colonies This company did wonders in India and Indonesia for 2 centuries
but later the pompous acronym of VOC became Vergaan Onder Corruptie meaning marred by
the Corruption. The Dutch East India Company was created in 1602 as United East India
Company and its first permanent trading post was in Indonesia. In India, they established the
first factory in Masulipattanam in 1605, followed by Pulicat in 1610, Surat in 1616, Bimilipatam
in 1641 and Chinsura in 1653. In Bengal they established a factory in Pipli, but it was abandoned
by the, The main objective of the Dutch remained aggressive in eliminating the Portuguese and
British merchandise powers from India and South East Asia, and they were successful in
abandoning the Portuguese as most dominant power in the European Trade. When the
established a factory in Pulicat, in 1610, it became their main center of activities. It was later
known as Fort Geldria. While the Portuguese suffered because of the bad successors of
Albuquerque and their severity and intolerance, the Dutch failed due to the rising English and
French powers and their corruption. The Government of Netherlands also interfered a lot which
ultimately caused the Dutch to get extinct from India. From 1638-1658, the Dutch were able to
expel the Portuguese from the Ceylon. In 1641, they occupied Malacca. In 1652, they were able
to capture the Cape of Good Hope. The climax of the Dutch East India Company was in 1669,
when it was the richest private company of the world with 150 merchant ships, 40 warships and
50 thousand employees and an army of 10 thousand soldiers. In India, the most important event
was the Battle of Colachel in 1741, which was fought between the Dutch East India Company
and State of Travancore army. This was a major defeat of a European power in India and marked
beginning of the end of the Dutch Influence. Following the corruption and bankruptcy, the Dutch
East India Company was formally dissolved in 1800. The Dutch influence from India had
finished long ago but they were dominant in Indonesia. The government of the Netherlands
established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony later which was more or less the
within the boundaries of the modern Indonesia.
http://www.gktoday.in/dutch-east-india-company/

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Introduction

It has been said that the British Empire was picked up in a "fit of absence of mind." Nowhere
was this more true than in the case of India which gradually came under British rule, not by the
efforts of Britain's government, but by those of the British East Indies Company, founded in
1599 by a group of merchants in search of nothing more than "quiet trade." However,
circumstances would thwart these peaceful intentions, and over the next 250 years the British
would find themselves more and more in the role of conquerors and governors than traders. Not
only would the British have a profound effect on India's history, but the "crown jewel of the
British Empire" would also affect Western Civilization. This is reflected in such English words
as bungalow, verandah, punch, dungarees, and pajamas, such customs as smoking cigars, playing
polo, and taking showers, as well as more profound influences in the realms of religion and
philosophy.

Company expansion (1601-1773)

Two main lines of development worked to bring the British East Indies Company to India and
make it a power there. For one thing, by 1600, Portugal was losing control of the East Asian
Spice trade. Therefore, in 1601, the British East Indies Company started sending ships to the
Spice Islands to gain a share of this trade. At this point, there was no intention of even going to
India, let alone of conquering it, since the Mughal Dynasty had a firm grip on the subcontinent.
However, the Dutch also had designs on the spice trade and rebuffed any British efforts to take
part in it. As a result, the British East Indies Company gained the right to set up trading posts
along the coast of India. Later, some of these trading posts would grow into major cities such as
Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta.

The other factor pushing the British East Indies Company toward conquest had to do with the
Mughal Empire. This dynasty had ruled most of India peacefully and tolerantly for a century
since the 1500's. However, during the reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707) all that changed as he
started persecuting Hindus. Not only did this trigger centuries of religious strife that still
continues, it also began the decline of the Mughal Empire, which suffered from weak and corrupt
government from this time on. The resulting turmoil forced the British East Indies Company to
defend its trading posts against local princes, brigands, and a new European intruder, France.

The French, to compensate for the lack of European manpower so far from home, initiated the
strategy of training and arming native recruits ( sepoys) like European armies. Such forces were
so effective that local princes would trade large tracts of land for French trained sepoys, thus
giving the French control over much of Southern India. In response to this new threat, the
British responded in kind by training their own sepoys. By the end of the Seven Years War
(1756-63), British naval superiority and sepoys under the leadership of Robert Clive had
virtually ended French involvement in India. Clive dramatically demonstrated the effectiveness
of European trained sepoys at the battle of Plassey (1757) when his army of 2800 British soldiers
and sepoys routed a Bengali army of 100,000 men. Clive's victories over the Bengalis and
French made the British East Indies Company a major power in India, able to install its own
candidate on the Mughal throne and claim the wealthy province of Bengal for itself. British
dominance resulting from these victories had three main effects.

First, British power, plus the fact that their "honorable masters" in England were 7000 miles and
nine months travel away, left India wide open to exploitation by the company and its employees.
Many British took full advantage of the opportunity to "shake the pagoda tree", as they called the
collection of "gifts" from grateful local princes ( nawabs). While a noble in Britain could live
well on 800 a year, even minor company employees were making huge fortunes. One merchant
was given a profitable saltworks with 13,000 employees while another was given his own mint.
A certain Mr. Watts was awarded 117,000 for bravery at the battle of Plassey. And Clive
himself received 211,500 for installing one nawab and another 27,000 a year from another
grant. Such opportunities for making quick fortunes unleashed a flood of applicants back home
for service in India, some applications being accompanied with bribes of up to 2000.
Newcomers from England were often shocked when first encountering their colleagues already
in India, since they typically mixed freely with the natives and had adopted their customs, food,
and clothing. Service in India had its risks for the British, mainly tropical heat and diseases. As
one local proverb put it, "Two monsoons is the age of a man," indicating that few Europeans
survived conditions in India more than two years. Bombay was known as "the burying ground of
the British".

Growing parliamentary control and rising tensions (1778-1857)

However, while company employees who survived service in India were making their fortunes,
the company's loose management was costing it a fortune, forcing it to apply to the Bank of
England for a loan in 1773 in order to avoid bankruptcy. As a result, Parliament exercised
increasing control over the company, establishing governors-general to oversee its activities.
This led to a succession of governors with different attitudes and policies. While some
governors, such as Warren Hastings (ruled 1778-88) were known for their tolerance of and
willingness to learn about the native languages and cultures and to give Indians posts in their
government. However, other governors, such as Lord Cornwallis (1788-98), reversed many of
these tolerant policies and dismissed most native Indians from higher posts in the administration.
Getting into the nineteenth century, tensions grew between two factions: one advocating
tolerance and respect for Indian culture and another claiming the superiority of European
civilization over that of India. This created a growing gap between the British and Indians that
also fostered growing discontent.

Two other developments in the 1800s led to growing unrest among Indians. One was the
growing number of Christian missionaries coming to India to preach Christianity, which clashed
with the more flexible beliefs of the Hindu majority and the strong beliefs of Indian Muslims.
Secondly, the British were bringing in modern technology (especially railroads) and business
methods, which disrupted the traditional, slower paced culture and economy of India.

Things came to a head with the Great India Mutiny in 1857. Sparking it was a misunderstanding
about what kind of grease was used on the bullets for the sepoys' new Enfield rifles. Muslim
troops thought pig grease, which they abhor, was being used, while Hindu troops thought the
British were using grease from cows, which they hold sacred. The resulting mutiny developed
into a serious rebellion that the British finally managed to put down. However, this was the final
straw as far as the British government was concerned, assuming direct control over India in 1858
and eventually dissolving the British East Indies Company. Just as one British queen, Elizabeth I
had signed the charter forming the British East Indies Company some 260 years earlier, so
another queen, Victoria, signed it into extinction. Ironically, its career had started with a group
of merchants in search of nothing more than "quiet trade." For the next ninety years, direct
British rule would prevail in India.

From the British Raj to independence (1858-1947)

Britain ruled about 60% of Indian directly and the other 40% indirectly through native princes
who followed British policies. During their time in India, the British developed tea and cotton
agriculture and coal and iron industries. In fact, by 1940, the Tata Iron Works was the world's
largest Iron factory. Likewise, the British continued developing India's infrastructure with more
railroads and telegraph lines, so that by 1900 India had the longest railroad in Asia. British
administration and bureaucracy were efficient, as was the British style education system Britain
established.

However, even these developments contained the seeds of problems for British rule. As before,
the new industries, railroads, and telegraphs, however progressive they may have seemed to the
British, disrupted the traditional culture and economy of India. By the same token, however
efficient the bureaucracy was, there were large gaps between the higher ranking British and
lower ranking Indians that carried over to society in general. Increasingly, Indians were getting
tired of their second-class status and worked increasingly for independence.
The Indian National Congress, founded in 1885, led the independence movement. At first, its
goal was to gain more rights for Indians and more say in the British administration. However, as
its power grew in the twentieth century, it agitated increasingly for complete independence. This
led to a parallel, but somewhat separate independence movement of Muslims in India who feared
being a minority in a Hindu-dominated state. Therefore, they wanted a separate independent
Muslim state in the northwest.

World War I (1914-18) and World War II (1939-45) further catalyzed Indias push for
independence, since Britain had to rely heavily on Indian recruits to fill its ranks. In return,
Britain promised more political concessions, thus weakening its hold on India, encouraging more
demand by Indians, and so on.

In 1920, a new leader, Mohandas Gandhi emerged as the voice of the Indian National Congress.
Educated in both traditional Indian culture and British schools, Gandhi developed very effective
non-violent tactics of resistance while protesting British policies. The British, not wanting to risk
the bad publicity a violent reaction could generate, had to give in to Gandhi time after time.
Therefore, at the end of World War II, Britain promised independence for India. Unfortunately,
this revived the issue of whether there would be one large Hindu-dominated state or a separate
Muslim state in the North, leading to violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims broke out.
Finally, in 1947 Britain the region between Hindu India in the South and Muslim Pakistan in the
Northwest that also controlled a separate territory, Bangla Desh, in the Northeast. Despite heroic
efforts to keep the peace by Gandhi (who was killed by one of his Hindu followers in 1947),
tensions between Hindus and Muslims have continued to the present day and still threaten the
peace and stability of South Asia.

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The French East India Company:

The French were the last of the European powers to enter the eastern trade. The French East
India Company was established in 1664. In 1668 the first French factory was established in
Surat. The French established their second factory at Masulipatnam in 1669. The French
obtained Pondicherry in 1673 and they built Chandranagore in 1690-92. There was rivalry
between the French and the British and the Dutch for major share in the eastern trade.

Further the hostile relations between these powers in Europe also led to war in India. There was
hostility between the French and the Dutch in India in 1690 and again in 1721. The French and
the British companies clashed in India between 1742 and 1766. The French hopes of establishing
their political powers came to an end in 18th century. In the beginning the French had their
headquarters at Surat but later they shifted it to Pondicherry. The supreme body of the French
was known as Superior Council of the Indies. It was headed by a Director General and he was
placed in charge of the French affairs in India. The superior council consisted of a Governor and
five members.

The Governors voice was final. One aspect to be noted is the mutual jealousies and quarrels
between the French officials and the commanders in India, which ultimately affected the fortunes
of the French in India. The French East India Company was a state controlled organization and
from 1723, it was almost wholly controlled by the French government. The Directors now have
become its representatives. The Directors have no powers for all practical purposes. After 1730
the French East India Company had became the national East India Company.

After 1789, the French East India trade was thrown open to individuals. In a way it is the French
who initiated the strategy of interfering in internal affairs of the Indian states to obtain political
mileage and showed the way to the British. While the French failed in their strategy, it is the
British who were successful. Besides the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, and the French, the
Danes entered India as traders in 1616 and obtained Trancquabar port from the Nayaks of
Tanjore in 1620 and built a fort there. Though they started factories at Masulipatnam, port Novo,
and Serampur, their success in trading business was short-lived as their sources were scanty.
They sold their factories to the British and left India finally in 1845.

Likewise, the Swedish East India did business for a short while and the activities of Flanders
merchants were also limited to India alone for a short while. The discovery of the new sea route
via the Cape of Good Hope, threw the eastern trade open to all European nations. Consequently,
the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and the French merchant companies opened their factories
in Africa and Asia.

These European companies exhibited interest in obtaining more and more concessions from the
Indian rulers as each was very desirous of gaining a monopoly of eastern trade against the other
powers. This desire for monopoly made them enter into conflicts with one another both on land
and sea. By 1750, the fortune smiled at the British and the British emerged victorious and
developed designs to establish their political supremacy in India. In the following sections we
will be studying the strategies adopted by them to achieve their objective.