BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN INDIA

p. 357-361

Objectives
Describe the British takeover of India
Identify positive and negative aspects of British colonialism in
India
Trace early nationalist movements in India

Why it matters now

India, the second most
populated nation in the world,
has its political roots in this
colony.

British Expand Control over India

East India Company Dominates

East India Company operates

largely independently from the
English government

Sepoys
An Indian soldier serving under British
command

British Expand Control over India

Britains Jewel in the Crown

Jewel in the crown

So called because of its importance in the British
Empire, both as a supplier of raw materials and
as a market for British trade goods

Restrictions were put into place to keep

India from operating its economy on its
own

Local competition was eliminated

Textiles from England flooded the
market at cheap prices
Driving out local producers

British Expand Control over India

British Transport Trade Goods
Railroads help transport raw materials
Tea
Indigo
Coffee

Cotton
Jute
Opium

Crimean War Jute

American Civil War - Cotton

British Expand Control over India

Impact of Colonization

Negative

Loss of political and

economic power
Resistance to Indian
owned industry
Loss of selfsufficiency (cash
crops)

Positive

3rd largest railroad

network
Modern roads,
telephones, telegraphs,
dams, bridges, and
irrigation canals allowed
India to modernize
Sanitation
improvements
End to local warfare

The Sepoy Mutiny

Indians Rebel

Sepoy Mutiny
An 1857 rebellion of Hindu and
Muslim soldier against the British
in India
Angered over new Enfield Rifle
cartridges
85 of 90 soldiers refused to accept
the cartridges jailed

British troops sent in to aid

Weak leadership lead to the
defeat of the Indians
Took more than a year for East
India Company to regain
control
Hindus did not Muslim
Muslims did not want Hindus

The Sepoy Mutiny

Turning Point
British take Direct Control
Raj
British rule after India came under the British
crown during the reign of Queen Victoria

Minister in London directed policy to

governor-general in India Viceroy

What British action caused the sepoys

refusal of the cartridges to escalate?

Jailing of the rebellious soldiers

Nationalism Surfaces in India

Nationalist Groups Form

Ram Mohun Roy

Campaigned to move
India away from
traditional practices
If there was no change,
outsiders would continue
to control them

Indian National Congress

1885
Primarily Hindu faction

Muslim League
1906
Muslim