The British East India Company was founded in 1600 as a private trading business. By the 1700s it had defeated French and Indian rivals to dominate trade in cotton, spices and tea, growing rich enough to keep its own army and to act as a government in much of India.

1857 - rebellion or "First War of Independence"?

In May 1857, sepoys in Meerut refused orders and shot their officers. The British called it a mutiny; many Indian writers later called it the First War of Independence. The trigger was a rumour that new Enfield rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat - Hindus and Muslims would not put them in their mouths to bite them open.

The rising spread to Delhi, Lucknow and Kanpur. Both sides committed atrocities. Within a year the British had crushed the rebellion.

The Raj

In 1858 the British government took the Company's lands directly. India was now ruled from London. Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1877. The new system was called the Raj, run by a Viceroy based in Calcutta and later Delhi.

The Raj built railways, telegraphs and English-language schools - but Indian industries (like cotton weaving) collapsed under British rules that protected British factories. The wealth of India flowed to Britain. Resistance never went away; it grew, leading eventually to independence in 1947.

Year 8 Power & Protest

British India: Company and Crown