CHALLENGING THE BRITISH RULE: THE INDIAN MUTINY OF 1857

Summary of events
The British had been in India since the early seventeenth century, when the East India Company had established trading settlements (known as factories) at Surat (1612) and Madras (1640), and later at Bombay (1661) and Calcutta (1690). In the early days the Company was there purely for trade and not to take political control of India. In the early eighteenth century the central administration of India began to break down; the Mogul Emperor found it difficult to maintain his authority against ambitions local princes. In this situation the Company trading posts were forced to defend themselves both against hostile princes and against rival French trading companies. Both sides trained and equipped Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, to help defend their settlements.

By 1764, largely thanks to the work of Robert Clive, who successfully supported friendly princes against hostile ones, the French threat had been curbed, and Company control was established in Bengal and Bihar and in the areas around Madras and Bombay. The job of running these areas was fast becoming too much for the East India Company, so the 1784 India Act gave the British government overall authority; this was to be exercised through the Governor-General, based in Calcutta, who would decide the political policy to be followed in the British parts of India, while the Company continued to control trade. During the Franco-British wars (1793-1815) the Company got itself into financial difficulties and the British government gradually took over most of its functions.

Successive Governors-General after 1800 were anxious to extend the area of British control. By 1857, partly through a series of bloody wars and partly by political manoeuvring, the vast majority of India and Burma was either directly controlled by the British government or had accepted British protection.
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