Editing Western imperialism in Asia (section)

==British in India==
{{more citations needed|section|date=September 2023}}

===Portuguese, French, and British competition in India (1600–1763)===
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The English sought to stake out claims in India at the expense of the Portuguese dating back to the [[Elizabethan era]]. In 1600, [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] incorporated the [[British East India Company|English East India Company]] (later the British East India Company), granting it a monopoly of trade from the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Strait of Magellan. In 1639, it acquired [[Madras]] on the east coast of India, where it quickly surpassed Portuguese Goa as the principal European trading Centre on the Indian Subcontinent.

Through bribes, diplomacy, and manipulation of weak native rulers, the company prospered in India, where it became the most powerful political force, and outrivaled its Portuguese and French competitors. For more than one hundred years, English and French trading companies had fought one another for supremacy, and, by the middle of the 18th century, competition between the British and the French had heated up. French defeat by the British under the command of [[Robert Clive]] during the [[Seven Years' War]] (1756–1763) marked the end of the French stake in India.

===Collapse of Mughal India===
{{main|Company rule in India}}
[[File:Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey.jpg|thumb|[[Robert Clive]], 1st Baron Clive]]

The British East India Company, although still in direct competition with French and Dutch interests until 1763, following the subjugation of Bengal at the 1757 [[Battle of Plassey]]. The British East India Company made great advances at the expense of the [[Mughal Empire]].

The reign of Aurangzeb had marked the height of Mughal power. By 1690 Mughal territorial expansion reached its greatest extent encompassing the entire Indian Subcontinent. But this period of power was followed by one of decline. Fifty years after the death of Aurangzeb, the great Mughal empire had crumbled. Meanwhile, marauding warlords, nobles, and others bent on gaining power left the [[Subcontinent]] increasingly anarchic. Although the Mughals kept the imperial title until 1858, the central government had collapsed, creating a power vacuum.

===From Company to Crown===
{{main|British Raj}}
[[File:British Empire 1921.png|thumb|upright=1.75|The [[British Empire]] in 1920]]
[[File:Surrender of the Peishwa Bajirao II.jpg|thumb|The surrender of [[Baji Rao II|Bajirao II]] in 1818.]]

Aside from defeating the French during the Seven Years' War, [[Robert Clive]], the leader of the East India Company in India, defeated [[Siraj ud-Daulah]], a key Indian ruler of Bengal, at the decisive [[Battle of Plassey]] (1757), a victory that ushered in the beginning of a new period in Indian history, that of informal British rule. While still nominally the sovereign. The transition to formal imperialism, characterized by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] being crowned "Empress of India" in the 1870s, was a gradual process. The first step toward cementing formal British control extended back to the late 18th century. The British Parliament, disturbed by the idea that a great business concern, interested primarily in profit, was controlling the destinies of millions of people, passed acts in 1773 and 1784 that gave itself the power to control company policies.

The East India then fought a series of [[Anglo-Mysore Wars|Anglo-Mysore wars]] in [[South India|Southern India]] with the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Sultanate of Mysore]] under [[Hyder Ali]] and then [[Tipu Sultan]]. Defeats in the [[First Anglo-Mysore War|First Anglo-Mysore war]] and stalemate in the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War|Second]] were followed by victories in the [[Third Anglo-Mysore War|Third]] and the [[Fourth Anglo-Mysore War|Fourth]].<ref name="Naravane3">{{Cite book |last=Naravane |first=M. S. |title=Battles of the Honourable East India Company: Making of the Raj |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2014 |isbn=978-81-313-0034-3 |place=New Delhi |pages=172–181}}</ref> Following Tipu Sultan's death in the fourth war in the [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)]], the kingdom would become a protectorate of the company.<ref name="Naravane3"/>

The East India Company fought three Anglo-Maratha Wars with the [[Maratha Empire|Maratha Confederacy]]. The [[First Anglo-Maratha War]] ended in 1782 with a restoration of the pre-war ''status quo''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of Wadgaon, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Wadgaon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623110244/https://www.britannica.com/topic/battle-of-Wadgaon |archive-date=23 June 2022 |access-date=23 June 2022}}</ref> The [[Second Anglo-Maratha War|Second]] and [[Third Anglo-Maratha War|Third Anglo-Maratha]] wars resulted in British victories.{{sfn|Hunter|1907|p=203}}{{sfnp|Capper|1997|p=28}} After the Surrender of Peshwa Bajirao II on 1818, the East India company acquired control of a large majority of the Indian Subcontinent.{{sfnp|Trivedi|Allen|2000|p=30}}{{sfnp|Nayar|2008|p=64}}

[[File:Battle of ferozeshah(H Martens).jpg|thumb|The [[First Anglo-Sikh War]], 1845-1846]]
Until 1858, however, much of India was still officially the dominion of the Mughal emperor. Anger among some social groups, however, was seething under the governor-generalship of [[James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 10th Earl of Dalhousie|James Dalhousie]] (1847–1856), who annexed the [[Punjab region|Punjab]] (1849) after victory in the [[Second Anglo-Sikh War|Second Sikh War]], annexed seven princely states using the [[doctrine of lapse]], annexed the key state of [[Oudh]] on the basis of misgovernment, and upset cultural sensibilities by banning Hindu practices such as [[Sati (practice)|sati]]

The 1857 [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Rebellion]], an uprising initiated by Indian troops, called sepoys, who formed the bulk of the company's armed forces, was the key turning point. Rumour had spread among them that their bullet cartridges were lubricated with pig and cow fat. The cartridges had to be bit open, so this upset the [[Hindus|Hindu]] and [[Muslims|Muslim]] soldiers. The [[Hinduism|Hindu religion]] held cows sacred, and for Muslims pork was considered [[haraam]]. In one camp, 85 out of 90 sepoys would not accept the cartridges from their garrison officer. The British harshly punished those who would not by jailing them. The Indian people were outraged, and on May 10, 1857, sepoys marched to [[Delhi]], and, with the help of soldiers stationed there, captured it. Fortunately for the British, many areas remained loyal and quiescent, allowing the revolt to be crushed after fierce fighting. One important consequence of the revolt was the final collapse of the Mughal dynasty. The mutiny also ended the system of dual control under which the British government and the British East India Company shared authority. The government relieved the company of its political responsibilities, and in 1858, after 258 years of existence, the company relinquished its role. Trained civil servants were recruited from graduates of British universities, and these men set out to rule India. Lord Canning (created earl in 1859), appointed Governor-General of India in 1856, became known as "Clemency Canning" as a term of derision for his efforts to restrain revenge against the Indians during the Indian Mutiny. When the Government of India was transferred from the company to the Crown, Canning became the first [[viceroy]] of India.

The Company initiated the first of the [[Anglo-Burmese Wars]] in 1824, which led to total annexation of Burma by the Crown in 1885. The [[British rule in Burma|British ruled Burma]] as a [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|province of British India]] until 1937, then administered her separately under the [[Burma Office]] except during the [[Japanese occupation of Burma]], 1942–1945, until granted independence on 4 January 1948. (Unlike India, Burma opted not to join the [[Commonwealth of Nations]].)

===Rise of Indian nationalism===
{{main|Indian independence movement}}

The denial of equal status to Indians was the immediate stimulus for the formation in 1885 of the [[Indian National Congress]], initially loyal to the Empire but committed from 1905 to increased self-government and by 1930 to outright independence. The "Home charges", payments transferred from India for administrative costs, were a lasting source of nationalist grievance, though the flow declined in relative importance over the decades to independence in 1947.

Although majority [[Hindus|Hindu]] and minority [[Muslims|Muslim]] political leaders were able to collaborate closely in their criticism of British policy into the 1920s, British support for a distinct Muslim political organisation, the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] from 1906 and insistence from the 1920s on separate electorates for religious minorities, is seen by many in India as having contributed to Hindu-Muslim discord and the country's eventual [[Partition of India|Partition]].