EUROPEAN PENETRATION INTO INDIA
GS PAPER — 1, INDIAN HISTORY, MODERN INDIAN HISTORY
India’s economic and cultural relations with Europe return to the age of ancient history. During the center Ages also the trade between Europe and India and South-East Asia was carried on along several routes. The Asian a part of the trade was carried on mostly by Arab merchants and sailors, while the Mediterranean and European part was the virtual monopoly of the Italians. Goods from Asia to Europe skilled many nations and lots of hands before they reached Europe.
Before the Europeans arrived, no enemy had ever invaded India from the ocean. Europeans came slowly initially in search of trade instead of invasion. They sought valuable spices from what they called the Malay Archipelago. When small European ships first landed on the shores of South Asia within the early 1600S in search of spices, they encountered merchants on the periphery of the Mughal Empire (1526–1858), a kingdom larger and more powerful than any country in Europe at the time.
The Mughals ruled over a huge and diverse land of deserts, large navigable rivers, thick forests, plateaus, grasslands, and mountains. Many of those physical barriers separated various linguistic, religious, and ethnic groups. there have been religious Sikhs in Punjab to the West, Muslims in Bengal to the East, Hindu Maratha tribes within the Deccan Plateau, Tamil speakers within the South, and Hindu princes in Hyderabad. the very best mountains within the world — the Himalayas — blocked interaction with China. Invaders, before the British, came overland from the northwest from what’s today Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Conquerors from these lands brought cultural influences like Islam, the Persian language, and Afghani ethnic groups. The hub of the Mughal Empire was within the densely populated northern region along The Ganges Basin. The rich soil and river system there was ideal for farming, transportation, and communication. The Mughal Empire’s weakest presence was along its coasts and this can be one explanation for its eventual downfall.
The Mughal Empire reached its peak around 1700 and for several reasons began to say no even as the British began to extend their presence. By the center of the 18th century, the Mughal Empire was a shadow of its glorious past. It could not hold off invaders from the northwest. In 1739, Nadir Shah, the Persian king sacked Delhi and killed over 20,000 people. The Persians stole the royal jewels, including the Darya-e Noor diamond, one among the oldest and largest diamonds within the world. They also took the famous peacock throne. Ahmad Shah Abdali, then the King of Kabul (Afghanistan) attacked Delhi within the 1750S and 1760S. then, the Mughal Empire still claimed sovereignty over large areas but in practice was simply the seat of a little kingdom. For the subsequent hundred years, independent successor states acknowledged Mughal rule but paid little or no tribute. This development had virtually destroyed the Mughal Empire in India.
ENTRY OF EUROPEANS IN INDIA
The arrival of Europeans in India was the result of the direct and indirect consequences of the autumn of Constantinople to Turks in 1453. The capture of Constantinople (and two other Byzantine splinter territories soon thereafter) marked the top of the Roman Empire, an imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople also dealt a huge blow to Christendom, because the Ottoman armies thereafter were liberal to advance into Europe without an adversary to their rear. the autumn of Constantinople also severed European trade links with Asia leading many to start seeking routes east by sea and keying the age of exploration. This paved the way for the start of the age of discovery.
In the fifteenth century, the mantle of Christendom’s resistance to Islam had fallen upon Portugal; moreover, the Portuguese had inherited the Genoese tradition of exploration. it’s reported that the thought of finding an ocean route to Ocean had become an obsession for Henry the Navigator (1394–1460), and he was also keen to seek out how to bypass the Muslim domination of the eastern Mediterranean and every one the routes that connected India to Europe. In 1454, Henry received a bull (Papal charter) from Pope Nicholas V, which conferred on him the proper to navigate the “sea to the distant shores of the Orient”, more specifically “as far as India”, whose inhabitants were to be delivered to help Christians “against the enemies of the faith”.
To Read More: https://www.vanicademy.com/2020/10/06/india-and-her-neighbours-1947-1964/
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