India (1800–1870)

From the 17th century Britain’s East India Company traded in India and gradually became a political power; after the battle of Plassey in 1757 it began to control Bengal. Over the following decades the company took land through wars and treaties with rulers. Most of its army consisted of Indian soldiers — sepoys. In 1857 sepoys rose at Meerut: they were angered by new cartridges and service rules and by rumours that their beliefs were being insulted, and peasants and rulers also had grievances. Leaders such as Rani Lakshmibai took part, and the last ruler of the Baburid (Mughal) dynasty, Bahadur Shah II was named as a symbolic leader. The uprising was suppressed by 1858; that year the company was abolished and India passed under direct rule of the British Crown, and in 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.