Empire · 1757–1947 · Middle East & South Asia

British India (Company Rule and the Raj)

Also known as British Raj, British East India Company

The English East India Company began as a trading firm with posts at Surat, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. As Mughal power waned, its victory at Plassey in 1757 made it master of Bengal, and over the next century it conquered or subordinated most of the subcontinent, ruling through armies of Indian sepoys and alliances with princes.

The great rebellion of 1857 led the British Crown to take direct control in 1858, and Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1876. The Raj, governed by a viceroy and the Indian Civil Service, built railways and universities but drained wealth and presided over deadly famines. The Indian National Congress, and from the 1920s Gandhi's mass non-violent campaigns, pressed for self-rule. In 1947 Britain withdrew, partitioning the Raj into India and Pakistan amid terrible violence.

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Years

1757–1947

Capital

Calcutta; Delhi from 1911-12 (New Delhi inaugurated 1931)

Greatest extent

1930, about 4.99 million km²

Region

Middle East & South Asia

c. 5.0M km² (Wikipedia: British Raj; the 1901 census, by contrast, gave 1,766,597 sq mi, c. 4.58M km²), including the princely states and Burma, separated in 1937