Page 10 - SST Class 08
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Establishment of
Company Power 2
q European trading companies in India q The Anglo-French rivalry in India
q The conquest of Bengal q Dual or double government
q The conquest of Mysore q The conquest of Maratha
q The conquest of Punjab q Annexations on various pretexts
q Causes of the success of the British
Introduction purpose of trade. It was only afterwards that they
The Indian and Arab traders used to conduct realized the necessity of entering into Indian
overland trade with many countries including politics and occupy the Indian territory. The most
Europe. The first direct sea-route from Europe to important articles that they sought included spices
India via the Cape of Good Hope was opened by and gold. The trade with India was very profitable,
Vasco da Gama who reached the coast of Calicut in we can know this from the fact
May 1498. Thus began the direct trade between the that Vasco da Gama earned
countries of western Europe and India. Vasco da sixty times of the money that he
Gama had come to India as the representative of had invested. Huge profits
the king of Portugal. Thus, the Portuguese were the involved in trade with India
made these Europeans contend
first European nations who settled down in India as
traders. They enjoyed monopoly of Indian trade all with one another. Vasco da Gama
throughout the sixteenth century. It was not only The Portuguese
due to the fact that they were the first to come to The Portuguese was the first to establish their
India, but also that the Pope Alexander VI had
political power along the west coast of India. They
granted them a decree in 1492, and no Catholic established their settlements in the coastal areas of
Christian dared to challenge this decree. But the
Cochin, Calicut, Daman and Diu. They controlled
situation changed with the Protestant movement in
their commercial and political power there for
Europe, and thus other European traders entered nearly four and a half century. By the 17th
India for trade. These other Europeans were the
century, their empire began to decline and they
Dutch, the British and the French. could no longer retain their monopoly of trade
with India due to various causes—Portugal was a
Info Bits
Info Bits small European country and did not have
abundant resources and manpower to look after
The East India Company got the Island of Bombay this far-off trade, so the other more powerful
from British king Charles II who had got the Island European countries displaced them. The
as a wedding gift when he married a Portuguese Portuguese often converted the Hindus and
princess. Muslims into Christianity, they also married with
Indian women; which angered the people and
EUROPEAN TRADING COMPANIES IN INDIA rulers of India. Finally their interference in Indian
politics and a conflict with a few Indian rulers
The Europeans came to India primarily for the
proved them costly.
Contemporary Social Science-8
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