First war of independence

• Anglo-Mysore Wars


  1767 to 1799, the East India Company annexed most of the territories of the Mysore State
• Third Anglo-Maratha War


  1817-18, the Peshwa's entire dominions and all Maratha territory north and south of the Narmada river were acquired by the British
• Punjab


  Annexed in 1849 after the Sikhs were defeated in the Second Anglo-Sikh War
• British empire expansion


  From 1823, to 1856, the British further extended their empire by conquering Sindh, territories of Assam, Arakan and Tenasserim and Pegu in Myanmar
• Awadh (Oudh)


  First to enter into an alliance through the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765, but was annexed on the pretext of misrule in 1856
• Other States which accepted the Subsidiary Alliance

  • Nizam of Hyderabad
  • Ruler of Mysore
  • Raja of Tanjore
  • Sindhia
  • Rajput States of Jodhpur, Jaipur, Macheri, Bundi
  • Ruler of Bharatpur
• Subsidiary Alliance


  Agreement between the British East India Company and the Indian Princely States, by which these states lost their sovereignty to the British
• Terms of Subsidiary Alliance

  • Accepted the British as the supreme power
  • Surrendered their foreign relations to the East India Company and agreed not to enter into any alliance with any other power and not to wage wars
  • Accepted a British Resident at their headquarters and agreed not to employ any European in their service without consulting the Company
  • Agreed to maintain British troops at their own cost
  • Virtually lost their independence
• Doctrine of Lapse


  If an Indian ruler died without a male heir, his kingdom would 'lapse', that is, it would come under the Company's territory in India
• States annexed by Doctrine of Lapse

  • Jhansi
  • Satara
  • Jaipur
  • Sambalpur
  • Udaipur
  • Nagpur
• The principle of Lapse was also applied to take away the titles and pensions of the rulers of some States. Regal titles of the Nawabs of Carnatic and Tanjore were taken away, causing discontent among the rulers as well as among the people in general.
• Lord Wellesley introduces the subsidiary alliance

  Lord Dalhousie introduced the doctrine of lapse
• Rani Laxmi Bail


  On the Pretext of Alleged Misrule: In 1856 Lord Dalhousie annexed Awadh to the Company's dominions on the pretext of alleged misrule. He declared that Awadh was being misgoverned and British rule was needed to ensure proper administration.
• Lord Dalhousie justified the annexation of Awadh on the pretext of "the good of the governed." On the contrary, the people of Awadh, had to face more hardships.
• They had to pay higher land revenue and additional taxes on food, houses and ferries.
• The dissolution of the Nawab of Awadh's army and administration threw thousands of nobles, officials and soldiers out of jobs.
• The British confiscated the estates of the taluqdars or zamindars. The dispossessed taluqdars became the opponents of the British rule.
• The company's sepoys, of whom 75,000 were from Awadh, were the worst affected. These soldiers had helped the British to conquer the rest of India. But they resented the fact that their homelands had come under foreign rule. The annexation of Awadh also affected the soldier's financial position. They had to pay higher taxes on the land their families held in Awadh.
• Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab of Awadh was deposed, the people of Awadh joined the uprising that broke in 1857. Awadh played a major role in the Uprising of 1857.
• Bahadur Shah Zafar


  The Mughal ruler, was under the protection of the Company and received a pension from the British.
• The name of the Mughal King was removed from the coins minted by the Company.
• In 1849, Lord Dalhousie announced that successors of Bahadur Shah Zafar would not be permitted to use the Red Fort as their palace. They were required to shift to a place near the Qutab Minar.
• In 1856, Lord Canning announced that after the death of Bahadur Shah, his successors would not be allowed to use the imperial titles with their names and would be known as mere princes. This decision of the British hurt the feelings of the Mughals. Consequently, Zeenat Mahal, the wife of Bahadur Shah, began plotting against them.
• Nana Saheb

  The adopted son of Baji Rao II, the last Peshwa. The British refused to grant Nana Saheb the pension they were paying to Baji Rao II. Nana Saheb was forced to live at Kanpur, far away from his family seat at Poona. This was widely resented in the Maratha region. Nana Saheb had inherited wealth from the former Peshwa, which he utilised in sending emissaries to different parts of the country for generating awareness among the Indians about the British policies. Nana Saheb also travelled between Delhi and Lucknow to gather support for the movement.
• Other Indian rulers, who were not adversely affected, also became suspicious of their future.
• Absentee Sovereignty of the British


  India was being ruled by the British government from England, at a distance of thousands of miles.
• The change in the nature of India's trade became an instrument for exploiting India's resources
• Drain of Wealth

  The economic return, including the salaries, incomes and savings of Englishmen, the British expenditure in India on the purchase of military goods, office establishment, interest on debts, unnecessary expenditure on the army, etc.
• Heavy duties on Indian silk and cotton textiles in Britain destroyed Indian industries, while British goods were imported into India at a nominal duty
• By the middle of the 19th century, export of cotton and silk goods from India practically ceased, and the art of spinning and weaving became extinct
• The misery of the artisans was further compounded by the disappearance of their traditional patrons and buyers - the rajas, chieftains and zamindars
• The peasants were reduced to extreme poverty due to the British revenue policy and the consequent loss of their land
• The traditional rulers who had given financial support to scholars, preachers and men of arts declined, leading to the impoverishment of those who depended on their patronage
• When the native states were annexed to the British dominion, thousands of soldiers and officials in administrative, military and judicial posts became unemployed
• The indigo cultivators were forced to cultivate only indigo in the fields chosen by the British planters, and their crops were destroyed and cattle carried off as punishment if they planted anything else
• British economic exploitation, decay of indigenous industries, and moneylenders who did not understand the needs of the tenants and exploited them drove the landed aristocracy to poverty without benefitting the peasantry
• Indian soldiers were poorly paid, ill-fed and badly housed, and the British military authorities forbade them from wearing caste or sectarian marks, beards or turbans, showing disregard for their sentiments
• The General Service Enlistment Act of 1856 allowed the British to send Indian soldiers overseas, which the Brahmin soldiers saw as a danger to their caste, leading to resentment
• The number of British troops in India was low, with the ratio as low as one in four thousand, making it easier for the large number of Indian soldiers to take up arms against the British
• All higher positions in employment were reserved for the British, irrespective of their performance, and the Indian soldiers had bleak prospects of promotion