European Trading Companies visit to India | UPSC, MPPSC, UPPSC, SSC CGL etc Competitive Exams
European companies arrived in India for the purpose of doing business but they were slowly infiltrated by the grandeur of India and started expanding their empire.
Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama was the first to discover the sea route between India and Europe in 1498 AD by reaching the coast of Calicut.
The sequence of arrival of European trading companies in India is -
Portuguese
Dutch
English
Danish
The French
Portuguese -
Vasco da Gama, the first Portuguese and first European traveler in India, traveled to India on 17 May 1498 AD with the help of a Gujarati pioneer named Abdul Manik after traveling for 90 days.
After discovering this new sea route, he reached Calicut port on the west coast of India, where he was welcomed by the Hindu ruler Zamorin.
Vasco da Gama faced opposition from the already trading Arabs and returned in 1499 AD.
The goods he had taken, especially pepper, he sold at 60 times the price of his entire journey.
In 1505, Francisco de Almeida came to India as the first Portuguese governor and lived until 1509 AD.
After this, in 1509 AD Alfonso the Albuquerque was appointed Governor of India which expanded the Portuguese Empire.
Albuquerque conquered Goa in 1510 AD from Yusuf Adil Shah, the ruler of Bijapur and made it a major trading center.
The Portuguese opened their first trading house in Cochin in 1503 AD.
He became the Governor of Nina-da-Cunha in 1538 AD He shifted the capital from Cochin to Goa.
In 1542 Martin Alphonso D'Souza became governor and with him came the Jesuit Saint Francisco Xavier.
In 1961, the British Crown Prince II was married to Princess Catherine of Portugal in which the British were given dowry by the Portuguese to Bombay British.
The Portuguese brought potatoes, tobacco, corn from Central America to India, and the Portuguese also contributed to the formation of the shipbuilding and printing press in India.
Dutch -
The Dutch arrived after Portuguese in India. The Dutch first arrived in India in 1596.
The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602 AD by order of the Dutch Parliament.
The first kothi in India was established by the Dutch in 1605 at Masulipatnam.
Their other factories were also located at Pulicat, Surat, Bimilipatnam, Karikala, Chinsurah, Patna, Nagapattinam etc.
The Dutch remained an important trading power in the 17th century, exporting important items such as indigo, salt, cotton textiles, silk, opium etc. from India.
In the 18th century, Dutch power began to weaken before the British.
The Battle of Bedera took place in 1759 AD between the British and the Dutch, in which the Dutch power was completely destroyed and by 1795 the British drove them out of India.
English -
The British were the most influential of all the trading companies coming from Europe.
On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted the Charter of Rights to the East India Company under which he could trade with India for 15 years.
Captain Hawkins went to the court of Mughal emperor Jahangir in 1609 AD for the purpose of opening a trading cell in India, but initially he did not get permission.
In 1615, James I made Sir Thomas Roe his ambassador and brought him to the court of Jahangir.
The sole purpose of Sir Thomas Roe was to enter into a trade treaty with Jahangir and to open trading houses in various parts.
The first kothi (factory) in India was opened by the British at Surat and the first trading kothi on the southwest coast was established in 1611 at Masulipatnam.
In 1668, Charles II paid the company 10 pounds of annual rent to the company in Mumbai in dowry from Portugal.
In 1698 AD, the zamindari of Sutanuti, Kalighata and Govindpur were received by the British for Rs.1200 which later developed into Calcutta which was called Fort William.
Sir Charles Eyre became the first president of Fort William in 1700 AD.
In 1715 AD, John Sermon went to the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar's court with a mission, from which he received a decree that he could do business in Bengal for free at an annual rent of Rs 3000.
Danish -
Danish East India Company of Denmark was founded in 1616 AD.
This company failed to consolidate its position in India and eventually went on to sell all its assets to the British by 1845.
The Danish had some of their factories and settlements in 1620 AD at Travancore (Tamil Nadu) and 1676 AD at Serampore (Bengal) in which Serampore was the chief.
The French-
The first French company was founded in 1664 AD by the efforts of Colbert, the minister of the French Emperor Louis Fourteenth, it was called 'Companies des Indes Orientales'.
In 1668, Franco Caro received the decree from Aurangzeb and opened the first factory in Surat.
The second kothi was opened by the French in 1669 AD at Masulipatnam.
Francis Martin obtained the village of Purducherry in 1673 from Sher Khan, Subedar of Vallikondapur, which laid the foundation of Pondicherry.
Martin founded Pondicherry and was its first chief.
In 1674, Shaista Khan, the Subedar of Bengal, allowed the French to build a kothi at Chandranagar.
After 1742, Dupleix intervened in the Indian states and expanded French powers.
Due to which, their conflict with the British started, there were three wars between these two powers which are famous in the name of Karnataka war.
First Carnatic War 1746–48 AD, Second Carnatic War 1749–54 AD, Third Carnatic War 1757–63 AD.
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