East India Company: #5 - Finale

Even as Napoleon was still a possible threat, Richard Wellesley became the Governor General of the EIC. And he came with two goals, says William Dalrymple in The Anarchy: secure India for the British and:

“… to eradicate all traces of French influence before any French military expedition could arrive.”

Wellesley used the fact that the four powers in India, the EIC, the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and Tipu were at odds with each other, always switching alliances based on whoever seemed the greater threat.

At the same, Nelson sunk the French fleet “wrecking Napoleon’s hopes of using Egypt as a secure based from which to attack India”. That, however, didn’t change Wellesley’s policy: by now, he had converted the EIC into a “privately owned imperial power with a standing army and territorial possessions far larger than that of its parent company”! Tipu was killed in battle, the factionalism in the Marathas ensured they’d never stand united against the British, and the Nizam of Hyderabad had become a vassal state.

That left Shah Alam, the Mughal emperor without real power. Wellesley recognized that while powerless, Alam still held “symbolic authority, and his decisions instantly conferred legality”. Shah Alam recognized his status (powerless) and agreed to such a deal with the EIC. And as the EIC got stronger, the Indian money lenders and financers lent more to them and thus made them even stronger. Finally, the EIC signed treaties with the Rajputs and thus practically all of India fell under their control. As Edmund Burke later wrote:

“The Constitution of the Company began in commerce and ended in Empire.”

Ironically, though, at the time:

“In London there was surprisingly little awareness as yet of what had been achieved.”

But by 1825, there was growing opposition in Parliament to the existence of the Company. After all, with an army and area under control larger than England itself, how could the Company not be seen as a threat to England itself?! By 1833, its trading rights were revoked turning it effectively into a governing corporation. And after the Revolt of 1857, England took over the governance of India. The Company, for all practical purposes, had finally ceased to exist.