The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) V. The 2nd Anglo-Maratha War: Holkar

 

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806)

V. The 2^nd Anglo-Maratha War: Holkar

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is Part V of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India Company, between 1798 and 1807, established hegemony over India through conquest.

In the last Part, British India had, within a year, first vassalized the nominal Maratha leader or Peshwa, and then destroyed the Europeanized armies of the Maratha lords Shinde and Bhonsle. In the process, the British gained control of not just the core Maratha territories in central India, but also the northern regions of Hindustan and Rajputana, including the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.

At this point, the chief official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, might have finally considered his expansionist ambitions fulfilled. But conquering all this land was only half the equation: the new territories also had to be defended and held. And this was easier said than done, since British Indian forces were now stretched thin throughout the subcontinent, and Mornington’s bosses in the EIC refused to let him hire any more. This was especially dangerous, considering that the British had not actually defeated all the Maratha domains: there was still one left – that of Holkar.

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) IV. The 2nd Anglo-Maratha War: Shinde & Bhonsle

 

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806)

IV. The 2^nd Anglo-Maratha War: Shinde & Bhonsle

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is Part IV of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India Company, between 1798 and 1807, established a hegemony over South Asia through conquest.

In the last Part, the British had, for better or for worse, begun their reorganization of feudal Indian society, from the establishment of a landed gentry class, to the insistence that everybody follow European standards of political behavior. At the same time, British India continued acquiring and absorbing subsidiary allies, extending its reach further and further into the subcontinent.

Despite these ‘achievements’, however, the chief official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, remained unsatisfied. In fact, with the downfall of his political patron back in Britain, he was now under increasing time pressure to fulfill his ambitions, before his bosses in the East India Company removed him from office. This dynamic might have pushed Mornington to make his boldest move yet, and attempt to impose his authority over the great lords of the Maratha Empire.

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) III. Colonial Reorganization

 

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806)

III. Colonial Reorganization

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is Part III of a five-part series on how, between 1798 and 1807, Britain and its East India Company established a hegemony over India through conquest.

In the last Part, the chief official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, had just conquered the south Indian power of Mysore and suppressed the resistance of its feudal lords. Now, with unquestioned authority over their territory, Mornington and his reform-minded colleagues began to use that authority to reorganize feudal Indian society along ‘rational’ Enlightenment principles, not just to render India more accessible to European exploitation, but also to increase the subcontinent’s level of development. Both were ultimately meant to achieve what Mornington had promised his skeptical bosses back in London: a boost to the profit of the East India Company and its shareholders.

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) II. The 4th Anglo-Mysore War

 

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806)

II. The 4^th Anglo-Mysore War

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is Part II of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India Company, between 1798 and 1807, established hegemony over India through conquest.

In the last Part, the chief official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, had just arrived on the subcontinent, determined to achieve something to advance his political ambitions. Unexpectedly, he had scored an early success when a major indigenous power, Hyderabad, submitted to Company rule. Now, Mornington would return to his intended target: the south Indian power of Mysore.

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) I. Background & Grand Strategy

 

The British Conquest of India (1798-1806)

I. Background & Grand Strategy

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. When it comes to conquest in the late 18^th Century, we usually think first of Revolutionary France and its attempts to establish hegemony over Europe. But during the same period, Britain – or more accurately its East India Company – also conquered out a hegemony in South Asia, one that was just as extensive and certainly longer-lasting than the French attempt.

In a series of wars between 1799 and 1806, British Indian forces decisively defeated almost all their indigenous rivals on the subcontinent: most notably the Sultanate of Mysore in the south, and the Maratha Empire in the center and north. In the process, British rule expanded throughout the coasts and up the Ganges River, seizing many old and famous states along the way. By the end of the period, there was no longer any doubt: Britain alone dominated this ‘Jewel in the Crown’.

These events are usually interpreted as an inevitable consequence of European military superiority, but in fact, throughout this period most British strategymakers opposed and even tried to stop expansion. That it happened anyway was arguably due to one man – the chief official of India, Richard Wellesley, the Earl of Mornington – and his desire to conquer the subcontinent for his own political gain.

Ironically, India would give a bigger boost to the career of Richard’s younger brother, Arthur Wellesley, later to achieve military fame as the Duke of Wellington. To minimize confusion, this video series will refer to Richard as ‘Mornington’ and Arthur anachronistically as ‘Wellington’. Together, they – alongside other generals and officials – would not only produce a seminal example of European imperialism, but also forcibly induct South Asia into the European world order and lay the groundwork for the modern states that exist there today.

This is Part I of a five-part series, where we will go over the situation in India during the 1790s, as well as examine why Britain embarked on conquest.

The Geopolitics of the Mughal Empire (28/03/2017)

 

The Geopolitics of the Mughal Empire

Nowadays the Mughals might be better-known for the Taj Mahal , but from 1526 to the 1700s they were also masters of the Indian subcontinent,  ruling over most of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, or almost 20% of the global population.

In this video, derived from Jos Gommans’ book Mughal Warfare , we’ll examine the geographic conditions – both physical and human – that influenced the Mughal conquest of India. While India’s situation has obviously changed a lot since the 16th Century, the video still contains a few ideas on how we can analyze the relationship between a land’s geography and its politics – or in other words, geopolitics .