New
New
Year 8

The growth of the East India Company as a private army

I can explain why the British East India Company grew in power during the first half of the 18th century.

New
New
Year 8

The growth of the East India Company as a private army

I can explain why the British East India Company grew in power during the first half of the 18th century.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Trade was considered important for a country's power in the 18th century.
  2. The British East India Company and French Compagnie des Indes competed over trade in India.
  3. The British and French made alliances with Indian successor states.
  4. The EIC and Compagnie des Indes recruited private armies, mostly made up of sepoys.
  5. The EIC and Comapgnie des Indes used their armies to fight against one another, and to support their Indian allies.

Keywords

  • Successor states - a successor state is a smaller country which is formed after a larger country begins to breakdown

  • Alliance - an alliance is an agreement between two or more countries to work together

  • Nawab - a nawab was an Indian ruler who declared their loyalty to the Mughal emperor but ruled a local area as they wished

  • Sepoy - a sepoy was an Indian soldier serving in a European army

  • Recruited - someone is recruited if they agree to join an organisation, especially an army

Common misconception

The East India Company relied entirely on European soldiers.

The EIC increasingly recruited sepoy soldiers to serve in its army from the late-1740s onwards.

At the end of the lesson, ask pupils to discuss whether it seemed like the Mughals were still in control of events in India by the middle of the 18th century. Students may be prompted by asking them how involved the Mughal emperors seemed to be in major events like the Carnatic Wars.
Teacher tip

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Nizam al-Mulk governed in Hyderabad without interference from the Emperors.
Correct Answer: Mughal, mughal
Q2.
After 1724, which group of people in the Deccan had to swear loyalty to Nizam al-Mulk?
priests
soldiers
Correct answer: officials
nawabs
Q3.
Bengal was the region of the Mughal Empire.
Correct Answer: richest, wealthiest
Q4.
The rulers of Bengal used the title...
Emperor
King
Sultan
Correct answer: Nawab
Q5.
When Persian forces invaded the Mughal Empire in the late 1730s, the Nawab of Bengal to send troops to support the Mughal army.
Correct Answer: refused, declined
Q6.
was sacked by invading Persian forces in the year 1739.
Correct Answer: Delhi, delhi

6 Questions

Q1.
During the early eighteenth century, the East India Company competed with the Compagnie des Indes to secure alliances with various Indian rulers.
Correct Answer: French, french
Q2.
Why were rival networks of alliances able to develop across India in the early eighteenth century?
Britain and France had grown in power and wealth.
The Mughal Empire had collapsed.
Correct answer: Mughal authority in India had decreased.
Q3.
Which important British trading post was captured by the French in 1746?
Delhi
Correct answer: Madras
Bengal
Calcutta
Q4.
Following the First Carnatic War the East India Company and the Compagnie des Indes...
withdrew from the Indian subcontinent.
Correct answer: built up the size of their armies in the Indian subcontinent.
reduced the size of their armies in the Indian subcontinent.
agreed never to attack one another again.
Q5.
Indian soldiers serving in European armies became known as...
Correct Answer: sepoys, Sepoys
Q6.
The East India Company and Compagnie des Indes supported different sides in a conflict over who should be the Nawab of...
Correct Answer: Arcot, arcot

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