Explanation: Britain, at one point, managed to leverage itself into a position of control over all of India. In part, this was because the India-based Mughal Empire, one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries on the face of the earth, chose to fall apart at a very inopportune time, splitting India into a hundred different opposing states just as the Brits started sniffing around for colonial concessions.
The other reason is that the Brits REALLY wanted that newfangled tea - first by routing trade from China through the British East India Company, and then by growing tea directly in India itself in the 19th century.
This is a very timely post as I’ve been listening to The Steam House by Jules Vern on LibriVox and it takes place in mid-19th century India having been written in the late-19th century and has entire chapters and passages devoted to the history of Indian colonization to give context. It’s also neat because the book imagines RVs long before RVs were invented and characters correctly predict future technological advances that were still 30-50 years off at the time the book was published
Explanation: Britain, at one point, managed to leverage itself into a position of control over all of India. In part, this was because the India-based Mughal Empire, one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries on the face of the earth, chose to fall apart at a very inopportune time, splitting India into a hundred different opposing states just as the Brits started sniffing around for colonial concessions.
The other reason is that the Brits REALLY wanted that newfangled tea - first by routing trade from China through the British East India Company, and then by growing tea directly in India itself in the 19th century.
This is a very timely post as I’ve been listening to The Steam House by Jules Vern on LibriVox and it takes place in mid-19th century India having been written in the late-19th century and has entire chapters and passages devoted to the history of Indian colonization to give context. It’s also neat because the book imagines RVs long before RVs were invented and characters correctly predict future technological advances that were still 30-50 years off at the time the book was published
Actually it started with spices, like black pepper.
Then they came with guns and did the “divide and rule” thing, by letting the kings fight each other.
Were there a billion people in India at the time of British colonization?
It highlights the entire subcontinent, but I think even considering that, you’re right, the population was considerably less.