Advent of Europeans

Advent of Europeans

Why Europeans Came to India?

• Some historians believed that Europeans came to India for 3G. God, Gold and Glory. God means to spread religion, Gold means to earn profit from trade and finally to earn its lost glory from the loss in the crusades. This is disputed and there are many views about it.
• Trade in spices and cotton and silk clothes: One thing we are sure that Europeans came mainly for trade and especially trade in spices, specifically black pepper.
• Why spices? Spices were important because spices preserved meat. We should admire the fact that, climate determines our food habit, and Climate of Europe is Cold and their staple diet was meat. And how you can preserve meat if there is no refrigerator? Answer is Spices. So in Europe there was huge demand for spices.
• Silk and Cotton: Moreover, the fine qualities of cotton and silk produced in India had a big market in Europe. As we said earlier some historians believed that europeans came for 3G i.e. God, Gold and Glory.
• God: God means to spread religion, Portuguese were most determined in this task compared to other contemporaries. They built churches, provided incentives to converted.
• Gold: India was biggest economy of that time and merchants were interested trade in spices.
• Glory: Glory means to regain lost glory after triumph of Arabs and Turks over region and so many reasons that are out of context in this lesson.

Why They Required A New Route?

Could not they simply use land route for trade

• 1453: Ottoman Turks occupied Constantinople in 1453 which lied on silk trade route, it was the only practical land route that connected Europe to Asia, and Turks got monopoly over that route. Spices became inaccessible, unaffordable and unavailable in Europe and to Europeans
• Europe in search of new route: As Europe required spices for survival there was a high demand and there was a need of new route to India. A direct sea-link with India would displace the virtual monopoly of the Arabs and Turks over trade in eastern goods, especially spices. So many europeans tried to come to India via sea route and finally Vasco de Game discovered complete sea route to India from Europe via Cape of Good Hope. The word complete is important here. He reached to Calicut, located in Kerala in 1498.
• Subsequently, Portuguese were followed by Dutch ( 1605), English (1608), Danes (1618) and French (1668)
• COMPETITION AMONG EUROPEANS

• Competition: When these Europeans arrived in India they engaged in competition, sometimes this competition led to fighting with each other. That fight was intense and bitter, they sank each others ships.
• This animosity resulted in increased security of goods. Also it was necessary to import and export goods so trading posts were built near the coastal area for the same, these were called factories. So the first thing traders did when they reached India was to built a factory.
• Competition —> Fighting —> Sinking Ships —>

Read History of Israel Palestine Conflict

• WHAT WERE THE FACTORIES?
• Factory was used to store the goods. Today we use word factory for the place where goods are manufactured,
• In those days factories were used for storing goods. Simply these were godowns and person maintaining factories were called Factors. Factories were mainly established in coastal areas near port or on the banks of river close to oceans.
• But when these factories were fortified, there was conflict with local rulers. Local rulers did not liked the idea of fortification of trading posts. Later this became point of conflict and gradually trading companies found it difficult to separate trade from politics.
• SO now with all that being said let us go back to 1498, there are no European Companies trading in India, and Portugal and Spain invested heavily in discovery of new sea routes. And Finally Vasco Da Gama successfully discovered complete sea route to India via cape of good hope. So first we will learn about Portuguese.
• Portuguese: Here we are studying three personalities Vasco Da Gama, Francis De Almieda, Afonso De Albuquerque
• Vasco Da Gama: He came to India in 1498 in Kerala, and received by local ruler Zamorin. As planned Vasco Da Gama bought spices from India and he got 64 times more profit than cost incurred for this voyage when he sold these spices in Europe.
• No he became more thirsty he came back to India again, This time he wanted monopoly over the spice trade to Europe. They also wanted Zamorin to expel all Arab and Egyptian Merchants trading here but Zamorin rejected this demand. This hurted The Portuguese sentiment so later to consolidate their position in Indian Ocean Portuguese established other trading posts on Western Coast of India
• Now can you tell me who was the first to set foot on India? Mughals OR the Portuguese?  Generally we have a notion that Mughals were here before Europeans because we have learnt that they required permissions from Mughal Rulers for building trade posts. But Portuguese came almost 100 years before the other European trading companies, that means they were here even before Mughals came to India.
• So one thing you should note that Portuguese in India came before Mughal Empire. Babur captured Delhi in 1526 i.e. Almost 28 years after the Portuguese first set a foot in India. This is just to give you an overall perspective of Indian Subcontinent at that point of time in history.
• Coming back to Portuguese, let us learn about two Viceroys, Francisco de Almeida and Afonso de Albuquerque, these guys founded a network of trading posts and fortresses along the coast.
• Francis De Almeida: He was the first governor of Portuguese India. As I said the Potrtuguese wanted monopoly over trade in Western coast this angered already existed merchants those were Arab and their Egyptian friends. So these guys fought and as a result Portuguese got more trading posts. Almeida was replaced by Afonso De Albequerque
• Afonso De Albuquerque: He became governor in 1510. He captured Goa, from Bijapur by defeating Adilshahi ruler. Afonso advocated the three-fold grand scheme for Portuguese India of combating Islam, spreading Christianity, and securing the trade of spices by establishing a Portuguese Asian empire. He encouraged his countrymen to marry Indian girls. He built fort at Calicut. He secured trade for Portuguese – Interesting fact is that the Alphonso Mangoes which are famous world wide were named after him.
• Let us Discuss specifically about Goa? Why Goa has distinct culture than other states of India? Why Goa is most Europeanised State of India? Goa was the longest colonised state in India. Portuguese ruled Goa for almost 450 years. That is more than any other region in subcontinent in that period. That is the prominent reason why the culture of Goa is different than other Indian states, it is the most europeanised state of India. There are churches unlike anywhere in India, cuisine is so unique and vibes are different and in overall culture is distinct.
• The Dutch: Almost 100 years after the Portuguese reached India, In 1602, The Dutch East India Company was formed. Dutch means people of Netherlands. In 1605 Dutch came at Surat as trader. Dutch also established trading depots in India at Surat, Broach, Cambay, Nagapatnam, Machilipatnam, Chinsura, Patna, and Agra. They emerged as most prominent European Trade Power though in 17th Century England emerged as formidable opponent and this rivalry lasted for 70 years, and started loosing their settlements one by one. So they acted wisely made strategic pact with British and  shifted their focus to the Indonesian islands, where spices were produced.
• The English: Here we will learn about the establishment of EIC – Captain Hawkins – Then Thomas Munroe and Factories. The success of Portuguese and high profits gained by these merchants, made English Merchants jealous and they took keen interest in Indian Subcontinent.
• On 31st December 1600 AD British East India Company was established at London by a group of private traders. On the same day Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East. Now what does the trade with East meansTrade with East means trade east of Cape of Good Hope.
• In 1608, English came to India, Captain Hawkins, the English commander went to Jahangir’s court to seek permission to trade in Surat. At first, English was permitted, but later on revoked due to pressure from the Portuguese. Again in 1615 Sir Thomas Roe went to court of Jahangir and received many privileges.
• From 1613, Surat was the headquarters for the English East India Company on the west coast. In 1662 Bombay was given to Prince Charles -II of England by Spain as Dowry in marriage of their princes Catharine
• On the south-eastern coast the English East India Company established their factories as Masulipatnam (1611) and Armagaon (1626), a few miles north of the Dutch Settlement of Pulicat.
• In 1639 the English East India Company obtained the lease of Madras from the Raja of Chandragiri and built a fort known as Fort St George. We will discuss elaborately about East India Company in the next lesson. No let us shift our focus to the Danish people.
• The Danes: They came to India in 1620s and settled at Tranqebar in South India on the eastern coast and later at Serampore in Bengal. Danish East India Company failed to consolidate their position in India and later sold all their settlements to British in 1845.
• The French: The last to arrive on Indian soil were French. The French East India Company was formed in 1664 AD and they established their first factory in Surat in 1668. The French East India Company was incompetent in early days.
• Their only achievements were the establishment of settlements at Pondicherry in 1673 and at Chandernagore near Calcutta in 1690-92.
• Fortunes of the French Company revived after 1720 under Dumas at Pondicherry and Dupleix at Chandernagore. Dupleix wanted to overthrow English East India company from Bengal and Carnatic region.
• The French occupied Mauritius in 1721, Mahe on the Malabar Coast in 1725 and Karikal in 1739. The discontent among English and French East India Company rose to such level that they fought three Carnatic Wars.  Finally the French power washed a way in battle of Wandiwash in 1760.  And as a result French was limited to Pondicherry.
• We will cover Anglo French wars in detail in East India Company and British Conquest of India.
• Let us discuss how these companies which came for trade engaged in politics of country.
• Competition amongst the European companies inevitably pushed up the prices at which these goods could be purchased so the prices of goods in India increased as demand increased, and because of competition the profit of these companies reduced, So companies focused on eliminating competitors and if not that targeting other regions, for example, as we discussed earlier the dutch merchants focused on Indonesian Islands after they failed to contain British.
• Companies realised that they could flourish if they secure markets at first and eliminating competitors. This led to fierce battles between the trading companies. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they regularly sank each other’s ships, blockaded routes, and prevented rival ships from moving with supplies of goods. Trade was carried out with arms and trading posts were protected through fortification.
• Remember one thing to control any region, politically first control economy of that region. And these companies were in position to control trade and ultimately economy of the entire subcontinent. This was overview of Interest of trading companies in India. I took this chapter first just to give you an overview of India of that time.
• So in this lesson –
• Why Europeans came to India?
• Why there as a necessity of new trade route?
• How Portuguese reached India and captured Goa ?
• Why Goa is most Europeanized state in India
• Dutch East India Company
• English East India Company
• Danish East India Company
• French East India Company
• How trade led to battles?
• How companies engaged in Politics
• We learnt about Dutch, English and French and how they established factories in India
• We also leant how these trading companies got engaged in battles and simultaneously in politics.watch full video on Advent of Europeans