chapter 3: Advent of the Europeans in India

Notebook: Modern History Spectrum

Created: 5/4/2020 10:41 AM Updated: 5/5/2020 3:04 PM
Author: Satyendra
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeu_Dias

Portuguese in India

1453 : Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks

Red Sea trade route was a state monopoly of Islamic rulers
Venice and Genoa earlier oriental goods centre were too small to take Ottomans/
to take major exploration on their own 
north Europeans were ready to aid Portugal and Spain with money and men,
even as the Genoese were ready to provide ships and technical knowledge.
finding an ocean route to India had become an obsession for Prince Henry of
Portugal, (nicknamed Navigator) : dies before his dream become reality
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): between Spain and Portugal
divided the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in the
Atlantic, some 1,300 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands( Spain in West while
Portugal in east)

Navigators

Bartolomeu Dias(Portuguese navigator) : 

rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa(first European to do so)
Vasco Da Gama
three ships under Vasco Da Gama, led by a Gujarati pilot named Abdul Majid, at
Calicut in May 1498
Hindu ruler of Calicut, the Zamorin (hereditary monarch) accorded a friendly
reception to Vasco Da Gama
Arab traders were apprehensive
For centuries, the trading system in the Indian Ocean had had numerous
participants—Indians, Arabs, Africans from the east coast, Chinese, Javanese,
among others but acted according to some tacit rules of conduct but Portuguese
wanted to monopolise the trade
Vasco de gamma later come
Gradually, Calicut, Cannanore(also called Kannur) and Cochin became the
important trade centres of the Portuguese
Pedro Álvares Cabral(Portuguese) : 1500
Calicut was bombarded by Cabral in retaliation of attack by the local 

From Trade to rule 

Francisco De Almeida

First governor
policy was known as the Blue Water Policy (cartaze system)  through which he wanted to
make Portuguese 
Alfonso de Albuquerque

real founder of the Portuguese power in the East

There were Portuguese strongholds in East Africa, off the Red Sea, at Ormuz; in Malabar;
and at Malacca
Albuquerque acquired Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1510 (first bit of Indian territory
to be under the European since the time of Alexander the Great)
brought abolition of sati
Bitter persecution of Muslims was one serious drawback of Albuquerque’s policy.
In order to secure permanent Portuguese population in India he encouraged his men to
take Indian wives.
In Goa and the Province of the North they established themselves as village landlords
introducing new crops like tobacco and cashew nut

Nino da Cunha

shifted the headquarters of the Portuguese government in India from Cochin to Goa.
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, during his conflict with the Mughal emperor Humayun, secured
help from the Portuguese by ceding to them in 1534 the island of Bassein with its
dependencies and revenues.

Favourable Conditions for Portuguese

In India, excepting Gujarat, which was ruled by the powerful Mahmud Begarha, the
northern part was much divided among many small powers
In the Deccan, the Bahmani Kingdom was breaking up into smaller kingdoms
In the Far East, the imperial decree of the Chinese emperor limited the navigational reach
of the Chinese ships.
Arab merchants and ship-owners who until then dominated the Indian Ocean trade, they
had nothing to match the organisation and unity of the Portuguese
the Portuguese had cannons placed on their ships

Portuguese State

trading-posts like Mangalore, Cannanore, Cochin, and Calicut

settlements on the east coast at San Thome (in Chennai) and Nagapatnam (in Andhra)
Portuguese always had a role to play in the successive battles for the balance of power
between Vijayanagara and the Deccan sultans, between the Deccanis and the Mughals,
and between the Mughals and the Marathas.
the Portuguese, the first Europeans to come to India, were also the last to leave this
land(1961 :Goa, Dama and Diu )

Religious Policy of the Portuguese

Portuguese brought with them the same zeal to promote Christianity and the wish to
persecute all Muslims
Intolerant towards the Muslims, the Portuguese were initially quite tolerant towards the
Hindus(however they were also prosecuted)
Mughal ruler favourable
Fathers Rodolfo Aquaviva and Antonio Monserrate : Akbar court
Jahangir(Prince Salim)
started loosing favour with arrival of British 
1608, Captain William Hawkins with his ship Hector reached Surat.
As Hawkins knew the Turki language well, he conversed with the emperor Jahangir
in that language without the aid of an interpreter
 Jahangir appointed him as a mansabdar of 400 at a salary of Rs 30,000. Hawkins
was also married to the daughter of an Armenian Christian named Mubarak Shah
grant of trading facilities to the English offended the Portuguese
Portuguese stopped the English ships from entering the port of Surat
in November 1612, the English ship Dragon under Captain Best along with a little
ship, the Osiander, successfully fought a Portuguese fleet.
Jahangir, who had no navy worth its name, learnt of the English success and was
greatly impressed
Portuguese acts of piracy also resulted in conflict with the imperial Mughal
government
it was during the reign of Shah Jahan, that the advantages which the Portuguese
enjoyed in the Mughal court were lost forever
Capture of Hooghly

Portuguese started a cruel slave trade by purchasing or seizing Hindu and Muslim
children they seized two slave girls of Mumtaz Mahal
Shah Jahan ordered the Bengal governor Qasim Khan to take action against the
Portuguese. The siege of Hooghly finally led to the Portuguese fleeing

Decline of the Portuguese

rise of the turbulent Marathas

captured Salsette and Bassein in 1739
religious policies of the Portuguese
dishonest trade practices notoriety as sea pirates
discovery of Brazil diverted colonising activities of Portugal to the West

Portuguese Rise and Fall

Goa which remained with the Portuguese had lost its importance as a port after the fall of
the Vijayanagara empire and soon it did not matter in whose possession it was
Significance of the Portuguese

military innovation in their use of body armour, matchlock men, and guns landed from the
ships
system of drilling groups of infantry, on the Spanish model, introduced in the 1630s as a
counter to Dutch pressure
multi-decked ships, heavier armament

Dutch(Netherlands)

Cornelis de Houtman was the first Dutchman to reach Sumatra and Bantam in 1596

Dutch Settlements

Dutch founded their first factory in Masulipatnam (in Andhra) in 1605)

captured Nagapatam near Madras (Chennai) from the Portuguese
established factories on the Coromandel coast

Anglo-Dutch Rivalry

English were also at this time rising to prominence in the Eastern trade >>> posed a
serious challenge to the commercial interests of the Dutch.
In 1667 compromise :  British agreed to withdraw all their claims on Indonesia(black
pepper and spices) in return  Dutch retired from India to concentrate on Indonesia
Battle of Chinsura/ Battle of Biderra/Battle of Hooghly(November 1759)
gave crushing blow to Dutch ambitions in India

English

1599, a group of English merchants calling themselves the ‘Merchant Adventurers’ formed
a company.
On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter with rights of exclusive
trading(initially monopoly of 15yrs which was later extended indefinitely ) to the company
named the ‘Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies'

Progress of the English Company

Jahangir granted permission to the English in early 1613 to establish a factory at Surat
In 1611, the English had started trading at Masulipatnam on the south-eastern coast of
India and later established a factory there in 1616
later British got permission to set up factories at Agra, Ahmedabad and Broach from
Mughal Emperor
Bombay had been gifted to King Charles II by the King of Portugal as dowry when Charles
married the Portuguese princess Catherine in 1662
Later Bombay was made the headquarters by shifting the seat of the Western Presidency
from Surat to Bombay in 1687.
tacit peace compromise between Portuguese -British +Dutch- British(1667) compromise 
English company’s position was improved by the ‘Golden Farman’ issued to them by the
Sultan of Golconda in 1632.
British merchant Francis Day in 1639 received from the ruler of Chandragiri permission to
build a fortified factory at Madras which later became the Fort St. George and replaced
Masulipatnam as the headquarters of the English settlements in south India
English further extended their trading activities to the east and started factories at
Hariharpur in the Mahanadi delta and at Balasore (in Odisha) in 1633.
Foothold in Bengal

Factories in Bengal were started at Hooghly (1651)

Fort William later eastablished
Farrukhsiyar’s Farmans(1715)(Magna Carta of the Company) : gave Company valuable
privileges in Bengal, Gujarat and Hyderabad. 
In Bengal, the Company’s imports and exports were exempted from additional
customs duties excepting the annual payment of 3,000 rupees as settled earlier.
The Company was permitted to issue dastaks (passes) for the transportation of
such goods.
Company was permitted to rent more lands around Calcutta.
In Hyderabad, the Company retained its existing privilege of freedom from duties
in trade and had to pay the prevailing rent only for Madras.
In Surat, for an annual payment of 10,000 rupees, the East India Company was
exempted from the levy of all duties.
It was decreed that the coins of the Company minted at Bombay were to have
currency throughout the Mughal empire.

French

French were the last Europeans to come to India

 (French East India Company) in 1664
French obtained permission from Shaista Khan, the Mughal subahdar of Bengal, to
establish a township at Chandernagore near Calcutta
soon Pondicherry become Nerve Centre of French Power in India
Mahe, Karaikal, Balasore and Qasim Bazar : few important trading centres

Anglo-French Struggle for Supremacy: the Carnatic Wars

reflected the traditional rivalry of England and France throughout their histories

1740, the political situation in south India

Nizam Asaf Jah of Hyderabad was old
Coromandel coast without any strong ruler(remnant of the old Vijayanagara empire)

First Carnatic War (1740-48)

Carnatic was the name given by the Europeans to the Coromandel coast and its hinterland
was an extension Austrian War of Succession
First Carnatic War ended in 1748 when the Treaty of Aix-La Chapelle was signed bringing
the Austrian War of Succession to a conclusion.
Under the terms of this treaty, Madras was handed back to the English, and the
French, in turn, got their territories in North America
Battle of St. Thome (in Madras) : French forces  vs Anwar-ud-din, the Nawab of
Carnatic, to whom the English appealed for help
A small French army under Captain Paradise defeated the strong Indian
army
Dupleix, the French governor who had successfully led the French forces in
the First Carnatic War
Second Carnatic War
background : rivalry in India(Dupleix : sought to increase his power by interfering in
local dynastic disputes)
Immediate causes :
death of Nizam-ul-Mulk, +release of Chanda Sahib, the son-in-law of Dost
Ali, the Nawab of Carnatic by Marathas 
Battle of Ambur (near Vellore) in 1749.
combined armies of Muzaffar Jang, Chanda Sahib and the French
defeated and killed Anwarud-din
Later under leadership of the Robert Clive they suffered
Third Carnatic War (1758-63)
when Austria wanted to recover Silesia in 1756, the Seven Years War (1756-63)
started. Britain and France were once again on opposite sides
Battle of Wandiwash/Vandavasi in Tamil Nadu
English totally routed the French army : left the English East India Company
with no European rival in India
Treaty of Peace of Paris (1763) restored to the French their factories in India,
the French political influence disappeared after the war
Dutch had already been defeated in the Battle of Bidara in 1759.

Dupleix

Dupleix was the first European to interfere in the internal politics of the Indian rulers
Dupleix was, in fact, the originator of the practice of subsidiary alliance in India
recalled in 1754 due to the initial defeat of the French army in the Second Carnatic War
and the heavy cost incurred by the company due to Dupleix’s political decisions
Dupleix was not a man of action: he planned a campaign directed his lieutenants, but
never led an army in the battlefield like Lawrence or Clive
Godeheu succeeded Dupleix as the French governor-general in India(adopted a policy of
negotiations with the English)
Causes for the English Success and the French Failure

English company was a private enterprise while French state company

controlled by a board of directors whose members were elected annually
In France shareholders took very little interest in  promoting the prosperity of the
company, because the State guaranteed a dividend to the shareholders
English navy was superior to the French navy
English held three important places, namely, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras whereas the
French had only Pondicherry.
French subordinated their commercial interest to territorial ambition
superiority of the commanders in the British camp

Danes

better known for their missionary activities than for commerce