British Rule of India

Queen Elizabeth 1 gave the British East India Company a trade license. Its primary goal was to find spices for trade.

1600

British East India Company defeats the ruler of Bengal & his French Allies in the Battle of Plassey. Thereafter, the EIC increases its control over India through military force and alliances with local rulers. It can exploit disunity across the Indian subcontinent.

1757

British social reforms in India were spurred by Evangelicalism. Lord Bentinck, as Governor-General (1828-1835) pushed for Western education, calling for the end of banditry, human sacrifices, female infanticide, and sati (widow’s self-immolation on their husband’s funeral pyre).

Early 1800s

Britain decided to support English education in British India, with English adopted as the medium of instruction and the language of Indian law courts. The British used the educational system to create an indigenous (home-based) elite of Indian Civil servants to help them administer the vast country.

1835

Britain allowed the first private investors to start building railways in India. By the early 1900s, India had the world's 4th-largest railway network.

1844

Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established in 1857. The government opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911. All these benefits, however, went to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal supporters of British rule in India.

1857

Sepoy Rebellion, in which Indian soldiers revolted against British rule. This was one of the largest ever insurrections in the British Empire.

1857-1859

Great Britain takes direct control of India from the British East India Company.

1859

The Indian Civil Service Act of 1861 lays the groundwork for the creation of the Indian Civil Service, in which local Indians will play a large role in the administration of British-ruled India.

1861

The construction of bridges, roads, irrigation systems, telegraph, and postal services (over time).

1860 onwards

The Suez Canal was opened, significantly reducing the distance between Britain and India by approximately 4,500 miles, as ships no longer needed to circumnavigate southern Africa.

1869

Great Famines - somewhere between 12 and 29 million people starved to death in India in a series of deadly famines.

Between 1876 and 1902

The Indian National Congress was founded, one of many associations dedicated to the struggle against British rule.

1885

World War One - India provides critical financial support & troops to Britain.

1914 - 1918

Rowlatt Act / Amritsar Massacre - the British Government passes the act to allow for imprisonment of “suspected terrorists” without trial to try and quash growing Indian nationalism. Protests led to the massacre in which British troops murdered several hundred protestors.

1919

World War Two. India again provides critical financial support & troops to Britain.

1939-1945

India won its independence from Britain

1947