Advent of the Europeans in India

The story of modern India begins not with a battle but with a sea route. When the land routes to the East fell under Arab and Ottoman control, the nations of Europe raced to find a direct sea passage to India's spices and textiles. One by one, the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French arrived as traders. They set up coastal "factories" (trading posts), then competed, fought and schemed. By the end, only the English were left standing. They were masters of a trading empire that would become a political one. This is a foundational, high-yield topic.

Notice how each power gained its first footholds. Some came by conquest: Albuquerque seized Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur. Others came by grant or lease from Indian rulers: the English built Fort St George at Madras on land leased from a representative of the Vijayanagara empire. The Dutch factories on the eastern coast rested on deals with local powers such as Golconda, not on lands granted by the Gajapati rulers (the dynasty of Odisha). Examiners love testing exactly who gave what to whom.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach India by sea. In May 1498, Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut, opening a direct sea route that changed history. Their aim was to monopolise the lucrative eastern trade by force, excluding Arab competitors.

Their power was built by two great governors:

• Francisco de Almeida (from 1505) followed the Blue Water Policy (Cartaze system): make Portugal master of the Indian Ocean rather than hold land.
• Alfonso de Albuquerque, the real founder of Portuguese power in the East, captured Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1510 (the first bit of Indian territory under Europeans since Alexander) and controlled the sea lanes with a permit system.

Indian rulers also opened doors for them. Krishnadevaraya, the great Vijayanagara emperor, gave the Portuguese permission to build a fort at Bhatkal (a port on the Karnataka coast) to strengthen trade ties with them. In 1535, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat ceded Diu to the Portuguese while seeking their help against the Mughal threat. So Diu came to them by surrender from an Indian ruler, not by battle.

The Portuguese set up at Goa, Daman, Diu, Cochin and Hooghly. Religious intolerance (the Goa Inquisition), competition from other Europeans, and the small size of Portugal all led to their decline. They were both the first to come and the last to leave. India recovered Goa, Daman and Diu only in 1961.

Religion travelled with trade. St Francis Xavier, a founding member of the Jesuit Order (the Society of Jesus), came to Goa as a missionary. He died on Shangchuan Island near the Chinese coast, not in Goa. His body was brought back and is enshrined in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, and his feast is celebrated in Goa every year. Exam setters often test the trap that he died in Goa: he did not.

The Dutch formed the United East India Company of the Netherlands in 1602. It was empowered to wage war, make treaties and build forts. Their first factory in India came up at Masulipatnam in 1605. In 1610 they built a fortified settlement at Pulicat, near modern Chennai, which became their headquarters on the eastern coast. Remember both dates. Masulipatnam (1605) is the first Dutch factory overall, but in a question that offers Surat, Pulicat, Cochin and Cassimbazar as choices, Pulicat (1610) is the earliest Dutch establishment among them. Other Dutch factories followed at Surat, Chinsura and Nagapattinam. Their real interest, however, lay in the spice islands of Indonesia, not India.

Dutch–English rivalry turned bloody. At Amboyna in 1623 the Dutch massacred English traders. A 1667 compromise had already split the empires: the Dutch kept Indonesia and the English kept India. After the English defeated the Dutch at the Battle of Hooghly (1759), the Dutch faded from India.

The Danes set up the Danish East India Company (1616) with settlements at Tranquebar and Serampore. Know where these sit. Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) lies on the Tamil Nadu coast, where the Danes built Fort Dansborg and the New Jerusalem church. Serampore is in Bengal. The Danes were never important traders. They are better known for missionary work. They sold their settlements to the British in 1845.

On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the 'Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies', the English East India Company. Its progress in India:

• Captain Hawkins (1609) and Sir Thomas Roe (ambassador of James I, 1615) won trading privileges from the Mughal emperor Jahangir and secured a factory at Surat (1613).
• In the first quarter of the 17th century, the Company's early factories clustered on the Gujarat coast, at Surat and Broach (modern Bharuch). Factories at places such as Chicacole (in the Andhra region) and Trichinopoly (in the Tamil country) came only later.
• In the south, the English built Fort St George at Madras (1639) on land leased from a representative of the Vijayanagara empire. It became their southern headquarters.
• Bombay came to King Charles II as dowry from Portugal (1662) and was handed to the Company. It became the western headquarters by 1687.
• In Bengal, Job Charnock founded a settlement that became Fort William, Calcutta (1700), seat of the eastern presidency.
• In 1717, Emperor Farrukhsiyar's farman, known as the Company's "Magna Carta", gave it valuable duty-free trade rights in Bengal.

By amalgamating rival companies (1708), the English EIC became the body that would build British political power in India.

The French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) was founded in 1664 under Colbert. Their nerve-centre was Pondicherry (founded 1674), with factories at Chandernagore, Mahe and Karaikal.

Pondicherry itself had a longer European history. The Portuguese were the first European power to occupy it, and the Dutch came second. The French arrived only after both, founding their settlement in 1674. Even then their hold was not unbroken: the English occupied Pondicherry temporarily during the Anglo-French wars before returning it under treaty.

The Anglo-French struggle was fought out in three Carnatic Wars, extensions of European wars:

• First Carnatic War (1740–48): ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Battle of St Thome showed that a small disciplined European force could rout a large Indian army.
• Second Carnatic War (1749–54): a contest of diplomacy between Dupleix and Robert Clive. Dupleix was the French governor, the first European to interfere in Indian succession disputes, and the originator of the subsidiary alliance idea. Clive's bold capture of Arcot in 1751 turned the tide. Dupleix was recalled in 1754.
• Third Carnatic War (1758–63): decided by the English victory at the Battle of Wandiwash (1760) under Eyre Coote. The Treaty of Paris (1763) restored French factories but ended French political ambitions.

After Wandiwash, the English had no European rival left in India.

Of all the European powers, the English emerged supreme by the late 18th century. The reasons:

• Nature of the company: the English EIC was a private enterprise with elected directors, free to take quick decisions. The French and Portuguese companies were state-controlled and slow.
• Naval superiority: the Royal Navy was the most advanced of its time, cutting French sea links.
• Three bases vs one: the English held Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, while the French had only Pondicherry.
• Commercial focus: the English never neglected trade, so they always had funds. The French subordinated commerce to territorial ambition.
• The Industrial Revolution in Britain gave the English an economic edge. They also had abler commanders (Clive, Eyre Coote, Stringer Lawrence), while the French had only Dupleix.