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Coming of Europeans
Category :- All India Travel Tourism > History
> Coming of Europeans
 The next arrival of overwhelming political importance
was that of the Europeans. The great seafarers of north-west Europe, the
British, French, Dutch and Portuguese, arrived early in the seventeenth
century and established trading outposts along the coasts. The spices of
Malabar (in Kerala) had attracted the Portuguese as early as the end of
the 15th century when, in 1498, Vasco da Gama had landed at Calicut, sailing
via the Cape of Good Hope. Early in the 16th Century, the Portuguese had
already established their colony in Goa; but their territorial and commercial
hold in India remained rather limited. During the late 16th and 17th century
they remained unrivalled as pirates on the high seas; but inland the other
European companies were making their presence felt, though entirely in commercial
terms.
The Years of 'The Raj'
The newcomers soon developed rivalries among themselves and allied with
local rulers to consolidate their positions against each other militarily.
In time they developed territorial and political ambitions of their own
and manipulated local rivalries and enmities to their own advantage. The
ultimate victors were the British, who established political supremacy
over eastern India after the Battle of Plassey in 1757. They gradually
extended their rule over the entire subcontinent, either by direct annexation,
or by exercising suzerainty over local rajas and nawabs.
Unlike all former rulers, the British did not settle in India to form
a new local empire. The English East India Company continued its commercial
activities and India became 'the Jewel in the Crown' of the British empire,
giving an enormous boost to the nascent Industrial Revolution by providing
cheap raw materials, capital and a large captive market for British industry.
The land was reorganised under the harsh Zamindari system to facilitate
the collection of taxes to enrich British coffers. In certain areas farmers
were forced to switch from subsistence farming to commercial crops such
as indigo, jute, coffee and tea. This resulted in several famines of unprecedented
scale.
In the first half of the 19th century, the British extended their hold
over many Indian territories. A large part of the subcontinent was brought
under the Company's direct administration; in some parts local rulers
were retained as subsidiaries of the Company, militarily and administratively
completely at its mercy and yilelding to it an overwhelming portion of
the revenues. By 1857, "the British empire in India had become the British
empire of India." The means employed to achieve this were unrestrained
and no scruple was allowed to interfere with the imperial ambition.
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