History Quiz: Revision | 23 May, 2021

After the Mughal raid on Hooghly, Job Charnock, a company agent, started negotiations with the Mughals so as to return to a place called Sutanuti.

• Charnock signed a treaty with the Mughals in February 1690, and returned to Sutanuti in August 1690.
• Thus, an English factory was established on February 10, 1691, the day an imperial farman was issued permitting the English to “continue contentedly their trade in Bengal” on payment of Rs 3,000 a year in lieu of all dues.

• A zamindar in Bardhaman district, Sobha Singh, rebelled; subsequently giving the English the pretext they were looking for, to fortify their settlement at Sutanuti in 1696.
• In 1698, the English succeeded in getting the permission to buy the zamindari of the three villages of Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata (Kalighat) from their owners on payment of Rs 1,200.
• The fortified settlement was named Fort William in the year 1700 when it also became the seat of the eastern presidency (Calcutta) with Sir Charles Eyre as its first president.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

In 1497, under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the rulers of Portugal and Spain divided the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in the Atlantic, some 1,300 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.

• Under the treaty, Portugal could claim and occupy everything to the east of the line while Spain could claim everything to the west. The situation was thus prepared for the Portuguese incursions into the waters around India.

• It was in 1487 that the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and sailed up the eastern coast; he was well convinced that the long sought-after sea route to India had been found.
• But it was only ten years later that an expedition of Portuguese ships set out for India (in 1497) and arrived in India in slightly less than eleven months’ time, in May 1498.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

Hyderabad: The founder of the Asaf-Jah house of Hyderabad was Kilich Khan, popularly known as Nizam-ul-Mulk.

• It was Zulfikar Khan who had first conceived the idea of an independent state in the Deccan.
• But with his death in 1713 the dream remained unfulfilled.
• Kilich Khan, disgusted with the Mughal emperor who had appointed Mubariz Khan as a full-fledged viceroy of the Deccan, decided to fight Mubariz Khan.

Awadh: The founder of the independent principality of Awadh was Saadat Khan, popularly known as Burhan-ul-Mulk. Saadat Khan was a Shia.

• He had joined in a conspiracy against the Sayyid brothers, which resulted in his being given an increased mansab.

• Later, driven out of the court, he was prompted to found a new independent state.

Bengal: Murshid Kuli Khan was the founder of the independent state of Bengal. He was capable ruler and made Bengal a prosperous state.

• He was succeeded in 1727 by his son Shujaud-din.
• His successor, Sarfaraz Khan, was killed in 1740 by Alivardi Khan, the deputy governor of Bihar at Gheria, who assumed power and made himself independent of the Mughal emperor by giving yearly tribute.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

Lord William Bentinck 1828-1835:

• Abolition of sati and other cruel rites (1829).
• Suppression of thugi (1830).
• Charter Act of 1833.

• Resolution of 1835, and educational reforms and introduction of English as the official language.
• Annexation of Mysore (1831), Coorg (1834) and Central Cachar (1834).
• Treaty of ‘perpetual friendship’ with Ranjeet Singh.
• Abolition of the provincial courts of appeal and circuit set up by Cornwallis, appointment of commissioners of revenue and circuit.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

The first war with Burma was fought when the Burmese expansion westwards and occupation of Arakan and Manipur, and the threat to Assam and the Brahmaputra Valley led to continuous friction along the ill-defined border between Bengal and Burma, in the opening decades of the nineteenth century.

The British expeditionary forces occupied Rangoon in May 1824 and reached within 72 km of the capital at Ava.

Peace was established in 1826 with the Treaty of Yandabo which provided that the Government of Burma

• pay rupees one crore as war compensation;

• cede its coastal provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim;
• abandon claims on Assam, Cachar and Jaintia;
• recognise Manipur as an independent state;
• negotiate a commercial treaty with Britain; and
• accept a British resident at Ava, while posting a Burmese envoy at Calcutta.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

Dalhousie’s chief aim was the consolidation of British rule in India. So he adopted the principle of centralization.

• For the newly acquired territories he devised the ‘Non-Regulation System” under which commissioners were appointed to deal with the administrative problems.
• They were made responsible to the Governor-General in the Council. He handed over all other powers relating to justice, police, and land revenue to the District Magistrates.

Source: Spectrum Modern India.

After their arrival in India, the Dutch founded their first factory in Masulipatnam (in Andhra) in 1605.

• They went on to establish trading centres at different parts of India and thus became a threat to the Portuguese.

• They captured Nagapatam near Madras (Chennai) from the Portuguese and made it their main stronghold in South India.

Source: Spectrum Modern India.

Under Lord Hastings (Governor General from 1813 to 1823) a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated.

• Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states.
• In order to protect its interests it was justified in annexing or threatening to annex any Indian kingdom.
• This view continued to guide later British policies as well.

Source: Spectrum Modern India.

Captain Hawkins arrived in the court of Jahangir in April 1609 itself.

• But the mission to establish a factory at Surat didn’t succeed due to opposition from the Portuguese, and Hawkins left Agra in November 1611.

• In 1611, the English had started trading at Masulipatnam on the south-eastern coast of India and later established a factory there in 1616.

Source: Spectrum Modern India.

In 1698, the English succeeded in getting the permission to buy the zamindari of the three villages of Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kalikata (Kalighat) from their owners on payment of Rs 1,200.

The fortified settlement was named Fort William in the year 1700 when it also became the seat of the eastern presidency (Calcutta) with Sir Charles Eyre as its first president.

Source: Spectrum Modern India.