Humanities April 14, 2011
The Colonization of India The colonization of India was very slow and very subtle. Europe’s first contacts in India were made initially by the Portuguese. The Portuguese traveled there by sea and took over Indian trade and commerce. In 1492 a Papal Bull was declared, allowing the Portuguese to go to Kerala (May 18th, 1498). They went in search of spices, and Christians. Later in another voyage in 1500 it became the Portuguese mission to convert Indians as well as manipulating the spice trade. 95 years later, in 1595 the Dutch began to invade India. Now two European influences were controlling India. Both the Dutch and Portuguese had prominent influence in India but the most came from England around the year 1600. India at the time was a very powerful place due to its trading possibilities. It had very valuable spice products that many nations desired, especially the English. That is why in 1600 the British East India Trading Company was created, “After a Dutch company made tremendous profits trading with the spice islands in South-east Asia (known as the East-Indies) eighty English Merchants joined together to form the British East India Company in 1600. Timid traders compared to the Portuguese and Dutch, the English merchants concentrated on amassing wealth. “ (Indian Independence, 7) The trading company was the first way the English asserted themselves in India. In 1665, they gained even more power through the gaining of Bombay (because King Charles married a Portuguese princess) In 1696 the Mughals prohibited more settlement gaining England a mass amount of money. England asserted itself in India through social power, and money. In 1773, as