As the French, British were also late to reach the shores of India. Facing tough competition from the Portuguese and the Dutch, it took them a few decades to figure out ways to outweigh the other empires. But by 1757, the British East India Company became the true force in colonial India.In 1588, British traders asked for permission to conduct trade in East IndiaThe British acquired a charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 and arrived in India in 1608 at SuratThe British East India Company had competitors like the Portuguese and the Dutch who had reached India beforeThe British decided to rely on politics to do trade with India till 1661 when they set up their first factory in Hubli (they only had trade posts till then)They used the internal conflicts among empires for their advantageBy 1696, they began building a fort around the settlementIn 1698, they bribed the Mughal officials to give them zamindari rights to three villages (one of the villages were Calcutta)The British also persuaded Aurangzeb to issue a Farman (a Farman is a royal order providing permission to trade)This Farman had a condition that the trade will be duty-free leading to a huge loss for BengalThe British officials used to indulge in private trade, adding to the woes of BengalAfter the death of Aurangzeb, the empire struggled to survive with internal issuesMurshid Quli Khan (1717-1720), Alvardi Khan (1740-1756), and Siraj-Ud-Daulah (1756-1757) were the three most powerful nawabs of BengalMurshid Quli Khan, the 1st Nawab of Bengal, took the matter in his own hands and started fighting against the BritishAlvardi Khan was also engaged in conflicts with the MarathasThe British didn’t pay taxes, they expanded their fortification, wrote disrespectful letters to the nawab, and caused huge revenue loss to BengalThe company tried to justify their action by saying that the nawabs made unjust demands, they imposed extreme taxes and duties, and trade can expand only through increasing settlementsThe Company wanted to remove Siraj-Ud-Daulah from the rule and place a puppet rulerThe nawab asked the company to stop interfering in the region’s politics, stop fortification, and start paying taxesThese conflict of interest led to the Battle of Plassey starting with the Nawab capturing Fort WilliamNawab Siraj-Ud-Daulah ordered the French and British to stop fortification of Fort WilliamHe captured 146 Britishers and locked them up in a room that can hold only 25 people for 3 days (Black Hole Incident)123 people died and the British retaliated leading to the Battle of PlasseyRobert Clive with an army of 3000 defeated Nawab with the help of Mir Jaffer, Nawab’s Commander-in-ChiefAfter defeating the nawab, he fled in a camel, but was later captured and assassinated by Mir JafarMir Jaffer becomes the puppet NawabThe Battle of Plassey was the first major victory of the company in India and it instilled the confidence in them to start administering in the colonySource:Crash Course Modern History | British East India Company from 1600 - 1857Economic Impact of Colonial Rule in IndiaHow did British occupy India? | British India Timeline | British East India Company | EclecticEast India Company WikipediaTrucial States WikipediaPrincely States WikipediaAttribution:This work includes the following sounds from http://freesound.org/“EPIC GAME MUSIC BEST ONE DONE ON KEYBOARD BY KRIS KLAVENES.wav” by Freesound.org member klavo1985“Epicmusic.wav” by Freesound.org member nuria1512“Wooden_door_open.wav” by Freesound.org member joedeshon“field recording wood stairs going running” by Freesound.org member Garuda1982“Writing” by Freesound.org member Hornetan1Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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