The East India Company (1600-1874) was a joint-stock company and megacorporation founded for pursuing and monopolizing trade for Great Britain in India and the Caribbean. The Company appointed its own leaders and was a mere protectorate of Great Britain, and its lands in India were entirely absorbed into the Indian Empire in 1858.
History[]
The East India Company was founded by British explorers who colonized lands in the East Indies (Indian Sub-Continent), selling spice, a valuable resource only found in the Far East. The EIC found success in trading these goods, and was headquartered in London, England; Hong Kong, China; Port Royal, Jamaica; and Edo, Nippon (Japan). With connections far and wide, they dominated the seas with the protection and usage of the British Royal Navy.
In the 1700s, the company took steps to eradicate piracy in the Caribbean and the East Indies, but their key leader Cutler Beckett (1706-1745) was killed by Pirates when HMS Endeavour was sunk in the Pacific Ocean. Their quest to hunt down piracy ended in the 1740s, and they instead focused their interests back to trade. In the 1750s and early 1760s the EIC fought the French in India during the Seven Years War, winning the Battle of Plassey and the Battle of Wandiwash, and they took over Orissa & Circars, with the port of Bombay serving as their capital in India. For the rest of the 1700s they expanded their empire against the Indians and won the Mysore Wars and Maratha Wars, and in 1849 completed their wars in India by conquering the Sikh Empire of Punjab.
In 1857, however, the Company gained the negative attention of the British Crown for its atrocities committed in its campaign against the Punjabis and rebellious Indians in the First Indian War of Independence, and although they won the war, the British disbanded the company and instead installed the Indian Empire.
Gallery[]
| East India Co. | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by: Great Britain Mughal Empire |
1600-1858 | Succeeded by: Indian Empire |