Download The British Raj: The History and Legacy of Great Britain's Imperialism in India and the Indian Subcontinent AudioBook Free
The English East India Company dished up as one of the key players in the formation of the English Empire. From its roots as a trading company attempting to maintain with its superior Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish competitors to its tenure as the ruling power of the Indian subcontinent to its eventual hubristic downfall, the East India Company provides as a lens through which to explore the much larger economic and public forces that shaped the formation of a global English Empire. As an exclusive company that became a non-state global power in its own right, the East India Company also provides as a cautionary story all too relevant to the modern world's current politics and economical situation. On its most elementary level, the East India Company played an important part in the introduction of long-distance trade between Britain and Asia. The trade in textiles, ceramics, tea, and other goods brought an enormous influx of capital in to the British market. This not only fueled the Industrial Revolution, but also created a demand for luxury items among the center classes. The economical progress provided by the East India Company was one element in Britain's ascendancy from a middling regional power to the most powerful nation on the planet. The profits made by the East India Company also created incentive for other Western powers to check out its business lead, which resulted in three hundreds of years of competition for colonies around the world. This technique proceeded to go well beyond Asia to affect most of the earth, including Africa and the Middle East. Beyond its obvious affect in areas like trade and business, the East India Company also dished up as a point of social contact between European Europeans, South Asians, and East Asians. Quintessentially British isles practices such as tea drinking alcohol were made possible by East India Company trade. The products and cultural practices traveling backwards and forwards on East India Company boats from one continent to another also reconfigured the way societies around the globe looked at sexuality, gender, school, and labor. On the much darker level, the East India Company fueled white supremacy and Western concepts of Orientalism. Ultimately, the business's activity over the Indian subcontinent resulted in further British engagement there, and the British isles Raj, a period of British isles dominance and guideline over India that formally started in 1857 and lasted until 1947, remains an extremely debated topic among historians, political researchers, the British isles people, and the people of modern India. It's necessary to seek a knowledge of people, forces, and incidents shaping the history of British isles India to reach at valid conclusions about the British-Indian experience also to understand the ongoing split over its legacy.
