Advent of the Europeans: Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and the Carnatic Wars

Why the Europeans came

By the fifteenth century, Indian pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cotton textiles, indigo and saltpetre were in great demand in Europe. The overland route ran through West Asia and was controlled by Arab and later Ottoman middlemen, especially after the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453. Prices in Europe were very high. European rulers and merchants therefore searched for a direct sea route to India. Advances in shipbuilding (the caravel and carrack), the magnetic compass, the astrolabe and better maps made long ocean voyages possible. Religion (the wish to find Christian allies and spread Christianity) and royal patronage, especially from Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, added motivation.

UPSC asks about the order of arrival, the founders and first factories, the Carnatic Wars and why the English succeeded where others failed. This lesson covers all of these in a simple sequence.

Remember the order of arrival in India: Portuguese – Dutch – English – Danes – French. (The English charter of 1600 is earlier than the Dutch VOC of 1602, but the Dutch traded actively in the East first.)

The Portuguese

Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on 20 May 1498, guided across the Arabian Sea by a Gujarati pilot. The Zamorin (Samuthiri) of Calicut received him. The profit from his cargo was said to be about sixty times the cost of the voyage.

• Pedro Álvares Cabral (1500) set up a factory at Calicut, and conflict with Arab merchants began.
• Francisco de Almeida (1505–09), the first viceroy, followed the Blue Water Policy: control the sea rather than land. He defeated a combined Egyptian–Gujarati fleet at Diu (1509).
• Afonso de Albuquerque (1509–15), the real founder of Portuguese power, captured Goa from the Bijapur Sultan in 1510, and later Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515). He encouraged Portuguese men to marry Indian women and abolished sati in Goa.
• Nino da Cunha moved the capital from Cochin to Goa (1530) and gained Diu and Bassein from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat.
• The cartaz system forced Asian ships to buy a Portuguese pass to sail in the Arabian Sea.

The Portuguese introduced tobacco, potato, chilli, pineapple, cashew and maize from the Americas, and the first printing press in India (Goa, 1556). Their decline came from religious intolerance (the Goa Inquisition, 1560), corruption, competition from the Dutch and English, Portugal's union with Spain (1580), and the loss of Hooghly to Shah Jahan (1632). Bombay passed to England in 1661 as dowry when Catherine of Braganza married Charles II. Goa, Daman and Diu stayed Portuguese until 1961.

The Dutch

The Dutch focused on the spice islands of Indonesia and treated India mainly as a source of textiles to exchange for spices. They set up factories at Masulipatnam (1605), Pulicat (1610), Surat, Chinsura (Bengal), Kasimbazar, Patna, Balasore, Nagapattinam and Cochin. They exported indigo, saltpetre, raw silk, rice and opium.

The Anglo-Dutch rivalry was settled after the Amboyna Massacre (1623), when the Dutch drove the English out of Indonesia. The English then concentrated on India. The final blow to Dutch ambitions in India was the Battle of Bedara (Chinsura), 1759, where the English under Clive defeated them. In the south, the Dutch had already lost to Marthanda Varma of Travancore at Colachel (1741), the first defeat of a European navy by an Indian ruler.

The English East India Company

The English Company was a joint-stock company of merchants, with a monopoly of eastern trade granted by Queen Elizabeth I. Key steps:

• Captain Hawkins visited Jahangir (1609) but failed to get trading rights.
• Battle of Swally (1612): the English defeated the Portuguese near Surat; Jahangir then allowed a factory at Surat (1613).
• Sir Thomas Roe (1615–19), envoy of James I, obtained permission to trade throughout the Mughal empire.
• Golden Farman (1632) from the Sultan of Golconda allowed free trade in his ports for a fixed annual payment.
• Francis Day acquired Madras from a local Nayaka in 1639 and built Fort St George.
• Bombay was leased to the Company in 1668 by Charles II for £10 a year.
• Job Charnock founded a settlement at Sutanuti (1690); with Kalikata and Gobindapur it became Calcutta, and Fort William was built in 1700.
• Farrukhsiyar's Farman (1717), called the Magna Carta of the Company, gave duty-free trade in Bengal for ₹3,000 a year and the right to issue dastaks (passes). Misuse of dastaks by Company servants for private trade later caused conflict with the Nawabs.

The French and the Carnatic Wars

The French Company was a state-controlled company set up under Colbert in 1664. François Caron set up the first French factory at Surat (1668). Francois Martin founded Pondicherry (1674), which became the French headquarters. Other centres were Chandernagore, Mahe, Karaikal, Yanam and Masulipatnam.

Anglo-French rivalry in India mirrored their wars in Europe. Joseph François Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry from 1742, was the first European to see that Indian rulers could be used through interference in succession disputes and by training Indian soldiers (sepoys) in European methods.

The Battle of St Thome showed that a small, disciplined European-trained force could beat a large Indian army. The Battle of Wandiwash decided that the English, not the French, would rule India.

Why the English succeeded

• Nature of the company: the English Company was a private enterprise run by merchants who took quick decisions; the French company depended on the French state and its finances.
• Naval supremacy: the Royal Navy could protect English shipping and cut off French reinforcements.
• Bengal's wealth: after Plassey (1757), the English had the resources of the richest province, which paid for their wars in the south.
• Three strong bases: Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, compared with French dependence on Pondicherry.
• Capable leadership and unity: Clive, Eyre Coote and Lawrence worked together, while the French leaders Dupleix, La Bourdonnais and Lally quarrelled.
• Industrial and financial strength of Britain, with a supportive Parliament and a growing credit system.
• Indifference of the French government, which was more interested in European wars and in its American colonies.

Mains practice question

Q. "The Carnatic Wars were a rehearsal for the British conquest of India." Explain. (150 words)

Framework: Anglo-French rivalry; Dupleix's methods of interference and sepoy armies; lessons learnt by the English (use of Indian rulers, trained sepoys, naval power); Wandiwash ended French hopes; methods later used in Bengal, Mysore and Hyderabad.

Quick self-test

1. Who captured Goa in 1510? *(Afonso de Albuquerque)*
2. Which battle ended Dutch power in India? *(Bedara, 1759)*
3. Which farman is called the Magna Carta of the Company? *(Farrukhsiyar's, 1717)*
4. Which battle decided the Anglo-French contest? *(Wandiwash, 1760)*