Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The British Take Hold
The British East India Company at this stage was supposedly interested only in trade, not
conquest. But Mysore's rulers proved something of a vexation. In 1780 the Nizam of Hy-
derabad, Hyder Ali, and the Marathas joined forces to defeat the Company's armies and
take control of Karnataka. The Treaty of Mangalore, signed by Tipu Sultan in 1784, re-
stored the parties to an uneasy truce. But meanwhile, within the Company there was a
growing body of opinion that only total control of India would really satisfy British trading
interests. This was reinforced by fears of a renewed French bid for land in India following
Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798-99. It was the governor general of Bengal, Lord
Richard Wellesley, who launched a strike against Mysore, with the Nizam of Hyderabad as
an ally (who was required to disband his French-trained troops and in return gained British
protection). Tipu, who may have counted on support from the French, was killed when the
British stormed the river-island fortress of Seringapatam (present-day Srirangapatnam, near
Mysore) in 1799.
Wellesley restored the old ruling family, the Wodeyars, to half of Tipu's kingdom - the
rest went to the Nizam of Hyderabad and the British East India Company - and laid the
foundations for the formation of the Madras Presidency. Thanjavur and Karnataka were
also absorbed by the British, who, when the rulers of the day died, pensioned off their suc-
cessors. By 1818 the Marathas, racked by internal strife, had collapsed.
By now most of India was under British influence. In the south the British controlled the
Madras Presidency, which stretched from present-day Andhra Pradesh to the southern tip
of the subcontinent, and from the east coast across to the western Malabar Coast. Mean-
while, a fair chunk of the interior was ruled by a bundle of small princely states. Much of
Maharashtra was part of the Bombay Presidency, but there were a dozen or so small
princely states scattered around, including Kolhapur, Sawantwadi, Aundh and Janjira. The
major princely states were Travancore, Hyderabad and Mysore, though all were closely
watched by the Resident (the British de facto governor, who officially looked after areas
under British control).
In 1839 the British government offered to buy Goa from the Portuguese for half a million pounds.
