Back In Past

In the 1400s, people in Europe loved and admired spices. The majority of them were from Asian nations, particularly India. It took a long time to transport the spices across Asia and Europe on camelback. To make the journey easier, they sought out a different sea route from Europe to Asia.

Europe at the time knew absolutely nothing about the geographical area of Asia. That seems to have been confirmed by the Arabs! They were also scammed by fraudsters who took advantage of their ignorance. Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman who wrote a book full of fantastic tales called "The Travels," was one of the biggest con artists of the era.

The Portuguese were the first European nation to make significant efforts to methodically map the bodies of water amid all the confusion. The king's younger brother, Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–460), supported mapping and exploration and established a sailing school to prepare crew members for the task of sailing vessels around the coast of Africa. A new excursion was planned for 1497 under Vasco da Gama (1469–1524). There were three ships: the traditional Barrio, the smaller San Rafael, and the flagship San Gabriel. Along the way, a supply ship without weapons traveled with the other two ships. On July 8, 1497, the ships sailed away for India under the protection of King Emanuel. On April 14, 1498, he sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, continued up the east coast of Africa, and anchored at Malindi, which is now also in Kenya. There, the sultan gave da Gama a skilled pilot referred to as a "Moor from Gujarat." He was known as Malema Cana, but that is all we know about him.

The ships arrived at the open port of Kozhikode (also known as Calicut) on the Malabar coast on May 20, 1498, after a 23-day journey, thanks to a good pilot and favorable weather conditions. He told Vasco da Gama that he would have to return with some gold to buy spices from the raja who was in charge at the time, Samudrin, or the Lord of the Sea (mispronunciation: Zamorin). Vasco da Gama received a hero's welcome, making King Manuel II of Portugal very happy. Once the sea route to Asia was discovered, it was heavily used by traders.

The Portuguese's accomplishments and lucrative trade with India captivated the British towards India. The English/British East India Company was established on December 31, 1600, by a small group of traders who had been given a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603; r. 1558–1603) of England. The Company was sent to India in 1615, and it established its first settlement there on the western coast of Surat after obtaining the Mughal emperor Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Salim's (commonly known as Jahangir, 1569–1627) consent to trade with India through a Farman (royal order). The company won Surat after defeating the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally at Suvali in 1612. The Company established the city of Madras (Chennai) in 1639 on the land they took from the Raja Damarla Chennapa Nayakar of Chandragiri on the eastern coast.

In 1650, the Mughal emperor Muhi al-Din Muhammad (commonly known as Aurangzeb, c. 1618–1707) authorized the company to conduct business in Bengal. Consequently, the business established its first trading post at Hugli around 1651 (Hooghly). The company was given permission to mint money, build forts, maintain an army, and declare war or peace as necessary by King Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) of England in 1661. He also granted the company the city of Bombay in exchange for $10 per year (which he had acquired from Portugal when he wed Princess Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), the Portuguese Princess).

Job Charnock (1630–1693) established an English factory at the site that is now known as Sutanuti in 1690. Fort William was the name given to it after it was fortified. The business received a 1691 exemption from Bengali customs duty in exchange for paying Rs 3,000 annually. In 1717, Mughal emperor Farrukh Siyar (1683–1719) allowed the British to conduct duty-free business in Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa (Odisha) in exchange for a yearly payment of Rs 3,000. In the middle of the 18th century, conflicts between English and French economic interests occurred in South India's Carnatic region. This led to three Anglo-French wars known as the Carnatic Wars (1744–1763, roughly 20 years in length). The French were ultimately defeated by the British, who revealed them as competitors in trade with India. Three Anglo-French conflicts, known as the Carnatic wars (1744–1763, approximately 20 years in length), resulted from this. In the end, the British were victorious over the French and exposed them as competitors in the trade with India.