In the late 1400’s, the demand for Eastern spices was in high in Europe. A group of business men approached Queen Elizabeth about a royal charter to exclusively trade with the East. The Queen granted the royal charter in 1599. A year later, five ships left for India. Over the years, this trading company called the East Trading Company rapidly grew and added many more trading posts. The company hired Indians to protect the posts. These Indian defenders were called Sepoys. The Sepoys protected the trading post from opposing countries such as France and Portugal. By 1857, the East Trading Company controlled most of the sub-continent, through military control and or imperial influence. The East India Company began to function as India government. The company had an army of soldiers, forts, and court system.
In 1854, it was the beginning of the end of the East India Company. The company loss their monopoly over India; accumulated huge debts due to the wars; occupation of India; and the Sepoys revolted against the company. In 1858, British government had to step and take control of the Indian territories.
The enactment of “Government of India Act”, took control of India from the East India Company to the Royal Monarchy of Britain. Until 1947, India was England’s top producing colony.
Born in India and educated in England, Mahatma Gandhi became one of India most famous leader in the struggle for India’s independence from British rule. He introduced the technique of peaceful civil disobedience called satyagraha. The “Salt March” was an example of satyagraha. To protest the high taxes on salt, Gandhi urged the Indian people to make their own salt from salt from the Ocean.
ARGUMENT:
As I read this PowerPoint created by Tomo Hereford and Annabelle Cella, I have a sense that they were slightly on the side of the East India Company. Although they did represented both sides of the conflict very well, they did not go into details of the abusive treatment of the Indian people or the complete destruction of the sub-continent by East India Company. This presentation is not a persuasive piece; it is more of an informative presentation.
Source:
The authors of this PowerPoint are Tomo Herford and Annable Cello. I was not able to find any additional information about the authors. I am assuming that they are students. The PowerPoint was unbiased. I believe that the information presented is reliable because my previous in-depth studies on this subject coincided with their findings in this sideshow.
No comments:
Post a Comment