Editing British Empire (section)

=== East India Company rule and the British Raj in India ===
{{Main|Presidencies and provinces of British India}}
{{See also|Company rule in India|British Raj}}

The East India Company drove the expansion of the British Empire in Asia. The company's army had first joined forces with the [[Royal Navy]] during the [[Seven Years' War]], and the two continued to co-operate in arenas outside India: the eviction of the French from Egypt (1799),{{Sfn|Mori|2014|p=178}} the [[Invasion of Java (1811)|capture of Java]] from the Netherlands (1811), the [[Penang Island#History|acquisition of Penang Island]] (1786), [[Founding years of modern Singapore|Singapore]] (1819) and [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824|Malacca]] (1824), and the [[First Anglo-Burmese War|defeat of Burma]] (1826).{{Sfn|Porter|1998|p=401}}

From its base in India, the company had been engaged in an increasingly profitable opium export trade to [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]] since the 1730s. This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by China in 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China.{{Sfn|Martin|2007|pp=146–148}} In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities at [[Guangzhou|Canton]] of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the [[First Opium War]], and resulted in the seizure by Britain of [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong Island]], at that time a minor settlement, and other [[treaty ports]] including [[Shanghai International Settlement|Shanghai]].{{Sfn|Janin|1999|p=28}}

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British Crown began to assume an increasingly large role in the affairs of the company. A series of acts of Parliament were passed, including the [[Regulating Act 1773]], [[East India Company Act 1784]] and the [[Charter Act 1813]] which regulated the company's affairs and established the sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired.{{Sfn|Keay|1991|p=393}} The company's eventual end was precipitated by the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Rebellion]] in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, Indian troops under British officers and discipline.{{Sfn|Parsons|1999|pp=44–46}} The rebellion took six months to suppress, with heavy loss of life on both sides. The following year the British government dissolved the company and assumed direct control over India through the [[Government of India Act 1858]], establishing the [[British Raj]], where an appointed [[Governor-General of India|governor-general]] administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the [[Empress of India]].{{Sfn|Smith|1998|pp=50–57}} India became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source of Britain's strength.{{Sfn|Brown|1998|p=5}}

A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to [[Famine in India|widespread famines]] on the subcontinent in which it is estimated that over 15&nbsp;million people died. The East India Company had failed to implement any coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule. Later, under direct British rule, commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to have an effect.{{Sfn|Marshall|1996|pp=133–134}}