Age of Discovery

The “Age of Discovery” (also called the ‘Age of Exploration’) began in the 1400s and continued through the 1600s. It was a period of time when the European nations began exploring the world, discovering new routes, among which, to India, and much of the Far East.

In 1498, the Portuguese arrived in India. Goa was Portugal's first territorial possession in Asia, captured by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510, serving as the main Portuguese base in the East for four and a half centuries.

In 1532, Gujarat came under attack of the Mughal Emperor Humayun and fell. Sultan Bahadur Shah chose to strike-up an alliance with the Portuguese in 1534, signing off the seven islands of Bombay and the strategic town of Bassein to them in a treaty of peace and commerce, bringing to an end Islamic rule on the islands, therewith regaining the Kingdom in 1536, but was later killed by the Portuguese on board a ship when making another deal with them in 1537.

Overtime Portuguese power declined in India as a combination of economy and war. As a small nation it did not have the economic resources to maintain their vast colonial holdings in Asia, Africa and South America. The Danish and Swedish companies similarly were later unable to withstand English competition and left the Indian subcontinent.

In 1605, the Dutch arrived in India, landing in Masulipatam (today's Machilipatnam), Andhra Pradesh. The formation of the Dutch East India Company marked their presence.

In 1612, the British arrived in India. King Charles II of England got the island of Bombay in May 1662, as a part of dowry when he married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of Portugal.

In 1667, the French arrived in India, Dupleix did not appreciate the greater importance of the navy in the colonial expansion in India. The lack of naval strength of the French compared to that of the English was one of the decisive factors for the failure of the French in India.

In 1668, the East India Company acquired Mumbai at an annual rent of 10 pounds from King Charles II, when the city was named Bombay. In a matter of seven years, the population of the city rose from a mere 10,000 to 60,000.

The British came to India with the motive of colonization. Their plans involved using India, which, from the Middle Ages to around 1750 the eastern regions of Afghanistan, Kabulistan and Zabulistan (now Kabul, Kandahar and Ghazni) were recognized as being part of Indian subcontinent (Al-Hind), along its western parts Khorasan, Tokharistan and Sistan, as a feeder colony for their flourishing economy back at Britain.

In 1673, the French settlement in India evolved, when the French purchased Chandernagore from the Mughal Governor of Bengal. In 1674 they acquired Pondicherry from the Sultan of Bijapur, in which, the Governor of “La Compagnie fran?aise des Indes orientales” (French East India Company) Fran?ois Martin, set up a trading center, the outpost eventually became the chief French settlement in India. The objectives of the French, were purely commercial.

In 1741, the Dutch presence in India began to decline following its defeat at the hands of the Travancore Kingdom following the battle of Colachel. By the middle of 1825, the Dutch would lose all their remaining trading posts to the British following the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.

In 1763, the seven year war known as the third Carnatic War in India, ended in a French defeat and with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, thus ending French ambitions of an Indian Empire and making the British the dominant foreign power in India.

From 1858, the British Raj (Hindi rāj, 'Kingdom'; 'Realm'; 'State', or 'Empire') came to be known as the period of direct British rule over the Indian subcontinent, until Mountbatten created Viscount in 1946, and Earl the following year, when in March 1947, was appointed Viceroy of India and oversaw the Partition of India into India and Pakistan. He then served as the first Governor-General of India until June 1948…

Food for thought!