History (Medieval India History :- Advent Of The Europeans In India)

Medieval India History :- Advent Of The Europeans In India

Portuguese

 *Vasco-de-Gama reached Calicut via cape of good hope in 1498

 *Was warmly welcomed by Zamorin (Ruler of Calicut)

 *Francis – De – Almeida →  1st Portuguese governor in India

 *In 1510, Albuquerque became governor → Captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur

 *Goa became capital of Portuguese settlements in India

 *Built fort at Calicut & encouraged his countrymen to marry Indian girls

 *Albuquerque died in 1515 leaving Portuguese as strongest Naval power in India

Dutch (Netherlands)

 *In 1602, Dutch East India company came to India

 *Subsequently they won over Portuguese & emerged as most dominant European trade power

 *Pulicat was their main center in India, later replaced by Nagapattinam

 *1650 (17th century), English began to emerge as big colonial power in India.

 *Anglo Dutch rivalry lasted for 70 years, during which Dutch lost their settlements to British one by one

British

 *English east India Company was established in 1600

 *Charter for the same was issued by Queen Elizabeth of England

 *Captain Hawkins of England arrived at royal court of Jahangir in 1609 seeking permission to establish England trade center at Surat, but was refused by Jahangir due to Portuguese pressure

 *Later in 1613, Jahangir issued a farman (permission letter) to English to establish their trade center hence British established their 1st trading factory at Surat in 1613

 *In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe came to India as ambassador of James 1 (King of England) & obtained permission from Jahangir to settle English trading factories in different parts of India

 *Bombay, Madras & Calcutta became 3 presidency towns of English settlements in India by 1700 with capital Calcutta

French

 *French east India Company was formed in 1664 establishing their 1st factory at Surat →  by Francis Caron

 *Francis Martin founded Pondicherry in 1673 & became 1st governor of Pondicherry

 *Henceforth Pondicherry became headquarter of French possessions in India

- In beginning of 18th century, English & French were competing for their supremacy in India, Mainly in Karnatic & Bengal region. After 3 Karnatic wars, finally French were crushed & limited to Pondicherry

Dane (Denmark Settlements)

 *Settled at Tranquebar & Serampore (Headquater) in Bengal

 *Failed to strengthen themselves in India

 *Sold all their settlements to British in 1845