The Establishment Of Authority And Influence Over Territories

1. The establishment of authority and influence over territories East India Company’s officially sanctioned monopoly over trade in the East Indies essentially gave it the power to negotiate commercial treaties, establish settlements and even wage wars if it so desired (p.185). While it may have started out with commercial intentions, it eventually diversified into revenue collection and became a ‘Mughal’ vassal, with privileges and tax-exemption. I believe that its significant influence was not just due to military superiority, but also political shrewdness. For example, it forced the ruling ‘nawab’ Siraj-ud-Daula to be the first aggressor by defying his orders. This in turn gave it moral justification to retaliate and depose him. Its†¦show more content†¦Their main goal was still to improve the imperial siphoning of wealth from Indian soil (p. 210). Each time there was widespread condemnation of the Company’s activities, they seem to have proposed shallow reforms meant to appease rather than improve, such as the banning of private trading after Clive’s first term and the reform of brutal imperial governance by Palmerston. All of these seem to have been purely superficial in nature and so they all eventually failed. 2. Reasons for its rise and decline The initial rise of the East India Company can be attributed to the complacent attitude of the ‘Mughals’, who were aware of the Europeans’ militarism, but felt a false sense of security in their own power to oppose them if the need arose (p.185). However, the actual credit for the rise of imperialism in India should probably go to East India Company’s frontline employees. These ambitious employees began gave in to their corrupt greed and basically forced the Company to become an imperial power. Especially cunning employees like Robert Clive even managed to receive funding from rivals like the Dutch East India Company (p. 191). Sporadic victories in battle by frontline employees seem to have yielded three simultaneous benefits; they repelled