India The British East India Company

Colonization

Colonizing India supplied Europe with

Raw Materials

Sugar, Tea, Poppies, cotton, silk

Markets for Exports

This exchange linked the economies, cultures and people of India and Britain

Vasco da Gama

Arrived in India in 1498

Established a sea route from Europe to India

Opened the door for the

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Mughal Empire

Founded in 1526 CE

Peaked in early 1700’s

Prospered because of European trade

Steady decline in 1800’s due to internal power struggles opened door for European colonization

British East India Company

1600

Queen Elizabeth grants charter

Exclusive right to trade between England and the East Indies

Took advantage of the decline of the Mughal Empire

Established settlements in India

Textile centers

Great Rebellion of 1857

British East India Company loses control of India after the Sepoy rebellion brought on by the British East India Company’s mismanagement of the territiry

British Raj

Raj is Hindi for Rule

Britain takes control of India from the B.E.I.C. and turns it over to the British Crown

Britain Controls India through civil servants located throughout the country

Railroad

Chennai Central Railroad Station commissioned in 1873

By 1910 India had the 4th largest railway system in the world

Question?

Why did the British want a railroad connecting all of India?

Practical Reasons?

Symbolic Reasons?