Years to remember in the chapter
1498: Vasco da Gama’s arrival at Calicut (Kozhikode)
1560: Establishment of the Inquisition at Goa
1612-1690: The English East India Company establishes trading posts at Surat, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta
1674: The French East India Company sets up a trading post at Pondicherry
1741: Defeat of the Dutch at the Battle of Colachel
1746-1763: The Carnatic Wars between the British and the French
1757: British victory in the Battle of Plassey
1770-1772: First great famine in Bengal
1818: Third Anglo-Maratha war ends Maratha power
1829-1833: The Khasi Uprising (in present-day Meghalaya)
1835: Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education
1848-49: Fall of the Sikh Empire; the East India Company annexes Punjab
1857: The Great Indian Rebellion
1858: The British Crown ends the rule of the East India Company; start of the British Raj
Q. Define Colonialism.
Ans – It is the practice where one country takes control of another region, establishing settlements there, and imposing its political, economic, and cultural systems.
Q. What impelled those nations to undertake such campaigns?
Ans – The Things that impelled these nations to undertake such campaigns are as follows:-
- Political competition between European powers created a race for territorial expansion and global influence.
- Territorial expansion had obvious economic advantages:
- Access to new natural resources,
- New markets and new trade routes — and, often,
- Plunder,
- Converting indigenous populations to Christianity
- Desire to explore unknown lands so as to accumulate knowledge of the planet’s geography and natural history.