1. BRITISH INDIA
Rosal Group 4

2. BRITISH INDIA
 Background
 India before British Influence
 World events during this time
 What happened?
 Events
 Significant people
 What changed?
 Institutions
 Other aspects

3. BACKGROUND

4. INDIA BEFORE BRITISH INFLUENCE
 World leader in textile manufacturing
 Exported large quantities of silk and cotton cloth
 Prosperity in India
 Mughal Empire was larger, richer, and more powerful than any
other kingdom in Europe
 European traders wished for trading rights in India
 Mughal emperors saw no threat in granting European trading
rights
 Europeans were allowed to build forts and warehouses

5. THE REST OF THE WORLD
Colonies in other parts of the world
were gaining independence

6. WHAT HAPPENED?

7. BRITISH INDIA
 Turmoil started
 Central government collapsed
 French/English rivalry
 British/French rivalry
 Robert Clive from British East India Company
 “Black Hole” of Calcutta
 Recapture of Calcutta  Mughal emperors were forced to
recognize British right to collect taxes

8. BRITISH INDIA
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
 Ranjit Singh
 Robert Clive
 Ram Mohun Roy
 Warren Hastings
 Prime Minister William Pitt
 Lord Cornwallis
 Allan O. Hume
 Surendranath Banerjea
 Mohandas Gandhi
 Queen Victoria
 George V & Queen Mary

9. BRITISH INDIA
 By mid-1800s, British East India Company controlled three -fifths
of Inida
 East India Company goals: make money, improved
roads, preser ve peace, reduce banditry
 Sepoy Rebellion
 Parliament ended rule of East India Company
 India – “brightest jewel” in the crown of the British Empire
 Regulating Act  India Act
 More trade
 Ram Mohun Roy combined views

10. BRITISH INDIA
 Indian National Congress called for greater democracy
 Division of Bengal
 British imports (boycott)
 More protests – Mohandas Gandhi
 Salt March
 Changes in British policies
 Parliament declared Queen Victoria “Empress of India” in
1876
 George V came to British throne, Emperor of India
 British met other demands of Congress Party
 Indians came close to independence, but war broke out
 Independence in 1947

11. WHAT CHANGED?

12. CHANGES IN BRITISH INDIA
 Imported tea
 Introduced western education (ignored Indian traditions)
 Legal procedures
 Missionaries tried to convert Indians to Christianity
 Worked to end slavery & caste system, and improve position of
women in family and society
 Outlawed sati (Hindu custom, widow shall join her husband in
death by throwing herself in his funeral fire)
 Required sepoys to serve or work overseas
 Limited/unequal trade
 Telegraph and postal system

13. CHANGES IN BRITISH INDIA
 Indian agriculture transformed  cash crops
 Condemned rigid caste distinctions, child
marriage, sati, purdah (isolation of women in separate
quarters)
 Introduced medical improvements and new farming methods
 Better contact  Indians developed sense of national unity
 Imperialism – takeover and control of their lands
 Transportation: steamships, railroads, carriages, airplanes
 Hand-woven  machine-made textiles
 Capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi

14. SOURCES
 Elis, E. (1997). Prentic Hall World Histor y: Connections to
Today. Uppec Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
 Perry, M. (1998). Histor y of the World: Revised Edition .
Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Houghton Mif fin Company.