imperial and colonial policy 1857-1890

• East India Company

  A private company that initiated Britain's control of India
• Elizabeth I gave the East India Company a royal charter to own a British monopoly over trade with India


  31st December 1600
• East India Company in 1600


  • Mainly focused on trading spices
  • Competed with Portuguese and Dutch companies in India
• East India Company

  A private company until 1858, by which time it had virtually seized control of India
• Carnatic Wars

  Fought in India by the East India Company and its French rival, the French East India Company
• In 1803, the East India Company is estimated to have had a private army of 250,000 men (mainly local Indian people)
• The East India Company's private army was larger than the British government's army
• Shah Alam II signed the Treaty of Allahabad with the East India Company


  1765
• Shah Alam II


  Emperor of the Mughal Empire in India
• Treaty of Allahabad

  1. Mughal Empire would not collect taxes anymore

  2. East India Company's own tax collectors and private army would make money by ruling the region, not only by trading spices and other goods
• In 1767, when the East India Company came under challenge, it agreed to pay £400,000 to the government to keep its position
• The East India Company paid large dividends to its shareholders (up to 22% in some years) and in many cases bribed and lobbied MPs in Britain
• The Parliamentary investigation found the EIC guilty of bribery
• The Bengal Famine lasted

  1769 to 1773
• The Indian Mutiny took place

  1857
• Bengal Famine of 1770


  Famine in Bengal where roughly 15% of the local population died
• The East India Company had increased taxes from 10-15% to 50%, meaning that the local population had lower food and financial reserves in years with bad harvests
• As more of the population died, the tax rose again to make up for the lost taxpayers
• The East India Company's share price peaked at £269 in 1769 and it is possible that it increased taxes in an attempt to support its share price
• Indian Mutiny


  Nationalist agitation in India against the increasingly expansionist and locally insensitive policies of the East India Company (EIC) by 1857
• Causes of the Indian Mutiny


  • Local people resented taxation by the British
  • Local people resented British efforts to Westernise Indian society
• Trigger of the Indian Mutiny

  1. 85 sepoys (Indian soldiers employed by the EIC) refused to use bullet cartridges covered in grease (rumoured to be coated in pork & beef fat) as this violated their Hindu & Muslim beliefs

  2. The sepoys were imprisoned

  3. This led to a rebellion to free them

  4. The rebels then appointed Badahur Shah, the Emperor of Hindustan as their leader
• India's economy

  • All Indian railway construction was tendered to British businesses.
  • India had a colonial tariff with Britain of 0%, relative to 20% with the USA in 1870. This biased all business towards British manufacturers.
  • The East India Company's benefit was to private individuals, rather than other British businesses or the British taxpayer. The only people to benefit were the shareholders who owned the shares in the East India Company and received their dividend payments.
• Impact of the Indian Mutiny

  • The EIC lost control of 1/6 of India
  • The mutiny took a year to suppress
• Britain regained control of India, the East India Company was dissolved and control of India handed over to the British government


  1858
• India's economy
• British Raj


  Period of British direct rule in India (by the British government and Crown)
• Viceroy of India


  Ran the government in India
• Government of India Act


  1858
• Government of India Act, 1858


  • First step towards nationalising the East India Company to give the British government and British Crown control of India, instead of a private company
  • Granted Queen Victoria control over the EIC's territories
  • Created the position of Secretary of State for India
  • Founded the India Council (made up of 15 members) to assist the Secretary of State
  • Created the position of Viceroy (also known as Governor-General) to run government affairs in India through a legislative council of five people (one each focused on finance, law, army, economy, home affairs)
• Queen Victoria named Empress of India by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli


  1877
• This formalised the connection between the British Crown and direct rule in India
• The number of British officials working in India at this time was very low
• British people administering India's government looked down on the local population for their customs and traditions
• Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India in 1899: 'described his job as a "civilising mission"'
• Britain's military focus in India


  • Maintaining British control
  • Avoiding another mutiny by Indian troops
• All officer rankings were reserved for British soldiers
• Composition of native Indian troops


  Deliberately mixed by caste and religion (mixing Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims) in the same regiment
• Involvement of Muslim and Hindu sepoys in the mutiny

  More Gurkhas and Sikhs were recruited
• 62 out of 74 Bengali regiments were disbanded