Editing Tipu Sultan (section)

== Early military service ==
[[File:War coat of Tipu Sultan.jpg|left|thumb|upright|War coat used by Tipu Sultan of Mysore.c. 1785-1790]]
[[File:Flintlock Blunderbuss Tipoo Sahib Seringapatam 1793 1794.jpg|left|thumb|A [[flintlock]] [[blunderbuss]], built for Tipu Sultan in [[Srirangapatna]], 1793–94. Tipu Sultan used many Western craftsmen, and this gun reflects the most up-to-date technologies of the time.<ref name="Moma">Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</ref>]]

=== Early Conflicts ===
Tipu Sultan was instructed in military tactics by French officers in the employment of his father. At age 15, he accompanied his father against the British in the [[First Mysore War]] in 1766. He commanded a corps of cavalry in the invasion of [[Carnatic region|Carnatic]] in 1767 at age 16. He also took part in the [[First Anglo-Maratha War]] of 1775–1779.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

[[Alexander Beatson]], who published a volume on the [[Fourth Mysore War]] entitled ''View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultaun'', described Tipu Sultan as follows: "His stature was about five feet eight inches; he had a short neck, square shoulders, and was rather corpulent: his limbs were small, particularly his feet and hands; he had large full eyes, small arched eyebrows, and an aquiline nose; his complexion was fair, and the general expression of his countenance, not void of dignity".<ref name=Beatson1>{{cite book |last=Beatson |first=Alexander |year=1800 |title=A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultaun |chapter-url=http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/seringapatam/other/tipu.html |publisher=G. & W. Nichol |location=London |pages=ci–civ |chapter=Appendix No. XXXIII |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130609104725/http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/seringapatam/other/tipu.html |archive-date=9 June 2013}}</ref>

===Second Anglo-Mysore War===
{{main|Second Anglo-Mysore War}}
[[File:Battle of pollilur.jpg|thumb|[[Mural]] of the [[Battle of Pollilur]] on the walls of Tipu's summer palace, painted to celebrate his triumph over the British]] [[File:Tipu Sultan%27s cannon.jpg|thumb|Very small Cannon used by Tipu Sultan's forces now in Government Museum (Egmore), Chennai]]In 1779, the British captured the French-controlled port of [[Mahé, India|Mahé]] which Tipu had placed under his protection, providing some troops for its defence. In response, Hyder launched an invasion of the Carnatic, with the aim of driving the British out of [[Madras]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A history of the British army, Volume 3|first=John William|last=Fortescue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1GlKAAAAYAAJ&q=cornwallis%20medows%20mysore&pg=PA546|publisher=Macmillan|year=1902|pages=431–432}}</ref> During this campaign in September 1780, Tipu Sultan was dispatched by Hyder Ali with 10,000 men and 18 guns to intercept [[William Baillie (East India Company officer)|Colonel William Baillie]] who was on his way to join Sir [[Hector Munro, 8th of Novar|Hector Munro]]. In the [[Battle of Pollilur]], Tipu defeated Baillie. Out of 360 Europeans, about 200 were captured alive, and the sepoys, who were about 3800 men, suffered very high casualties. Munro was moving south with a separate force to join Baillie, but on hearing the news of the defeat he retreated to Madras, abandoning his artillery in a water tank at [[Kanchipuram]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgalleries.org/tipu/tipu311.htm|title=The Tiger and The Thistle – Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India|work=nationalgalleries.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111064154/http://www.nationalgalleries.org/tipu/tipu311.htm|archive-date=11 November 2006}}</ref>

Tipu Sultan defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Annagudi near Tanjore on 18 February 1782. Braithwaite's forces, consisting of 100 Europeans, 300 cavalry, 1400 [[sepoy]]s and 10 field pieces, was the standard size of the colonial armies. Tipu Sultan seized all guns and took the detachment prisoner. In December 1781 Tipu Sultan seized Chittur from the British. Tipu Sultan had gained sufficient military experience by the time Hyder Ali died on Friday, 6 December 1782. Some historians put Hyder Ali's death at 2 or 3 days later or before due to the Hijri date being 1 [[Muharram]], 1197 as per some records in Persian (which can result in a difference of 1 to 3 days due to the Lunar Calendar). He became the ruler of Mysore on Sunday, 22 December 1782 (the inscriptions in some of Tipu's [[regalia]] show it as 20 [[Muharram]], 1197 [[Islamic calendar|Hijri]] Sunday) in a simple coronation ceremony.
He subsequently worked on to check the advances of the British by making alliances with the [[Marathas]] and the [[Mughal Empire|Mughals]]. The Second Mysore War came to an end with the 1784 [[Treaty of Mangalore]].{{Clarify|date=January 2019}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Vs6AQAAMAAJ&q=treaty+of+mangalore&pg=PA139|title=The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803|date=1817|publisher=T.C. Hansard}}</ref>