BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN INDIA Fort GeorgeFirst

BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY

IN INDIA • Fort George—First British Fortress in India— 1600 s (first “FACTORY”)

BATTLES FROM THE BEGINNING • 1680 s—War because Mughals negotiated better trade deal with Thomas Pitt than the Company • 1686 -90—War because Mughals attempted to tax trade in India. Company officers thought the Mughals had ‘got the knack of trampling upon us, and extorting what they please’ humiliating defeat for the company. Mughals only let them stay because they thought they had learned their lesson and would make good allies • British officers often imagined they had no choice but to attack or be attacked even if, like in 1690, violence led to defeat. Obsessed by the reputation they would have when they returned to England, few thought they could take the risk of appearing weak in the face of apparent Indian challenges.

• In 1700 s Mughals started to weaken and could no longer defeat the Company. • In 1757 the Company finally defeated the Mughals and captured Calcutta • In 1765, Mughals (weakened) granted Company charter in Bengal and right to collect taxes.

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN BENGAL • Hire soldiers—Sepoy army • By 1800—the Company’s army was larger than the British army

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN BENGAL • Promote cash crops!!

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN BENGAL • No saving crops (anti-hoarding laws)

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN BENGAL • Increase taxes from 10% to 50%

FAMINE 1768 -1771 • 10, 000 dead

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN CHINA • Try to trade for British goods • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=d. TBj. KBWkya 0

COMPANY’S POLICIES IN CHINA • Smuggle in Opium to traders (continue clip)

CHINA’S WAR ON DRUGS… • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=QSEhs. Ef. GBL 0 We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li from China. The purpose of your ships in coming to China is to realize a large profit. Since this profit is realized in China and is in fact taken away from the Chinese people, how can foreigners return injury for the benefit they have received by sending this poison to harm their benefactors? They may not intend to harm others on purpose, but the fact remains that they are so obsessed with material gain that they have no concern whatever for the harm they can cause to others. Have they no conscience? I have heard that you strictly prohibit opium in your own country, indicating unmistakably that you know harmful opium is. You do not wish opium to harm your own country, but you choose to bring that harm to other countries such as China. Why? I have heard that the areas under your direct jurisdiction such as London, Scotland, and Ireland do not produce opium; it is produced instead in your Indian possessions such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patna, and Malwa. In these possessions the English people not only plant opium poppies that stretch from one mountain to another but also open factories to manufacture this terrible drug. As months accumulate and years pass by, the poison they have produced increases in its wicked intensity, and its repugnant odor reaches as high as the sky. Heaven is furious with anger, and all the gods are moaning with pain! It is hereby suggested that you destroy and plow under all of these opium plants and grow food crops instead, while issuing an order to punish severely anyone who dares to plant opium poppies again. A murderer of one person is subject to the death sentence; just imagine how many people opium has killed! This is the rationale behind the new law which says that any foreigner who brings opium to China will be sentenced to death by hanging or beheading. Our purpose is to eliminate this poison once and for all and to the benefit of all mankind. — Lin Zexu, Source: Lin Wen-chung kung cheng-shu, vol. 2, roll 3.

BY 1857… • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=2 y. XKbd 5 IDz. U

WHAT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT DO?

BRITAIN COMES TO RESCUE THE COMPANY • Opium Wars in China

• Sepoy Rebellion • “It was literally murder… I have seen many bloody and awful sights lately but such a one as I witnessed yesterday I pray I never see again. The women were all spared but their screams on seeing their husbands and sons butchered, were most painful… Heaven knows I feel no pity, but when some old grey bearded man is brought and shot before your very eyes, hard must be that man’s heart I think who can look on with indifference…” • Edward Vibart, 19 year old British officer