How colonization of India influenced Europe Part - I : New Dawn

Colonization of India had a great effect in Europe. The effect was mostly economic but it also had an indirect impact on shaping the political map of  Europe. In this series we will discuss how the presence of India as a British colony reshaped the history of Britain and Europe. In this part I will discuss how all these started like the first footholds of European powers in Indian soil. British were the last in this list but their ability to play the right card at the right moment delivered them the key of entire India in later stages. Which played a crucial role in their struggle in Napoleonic era and other ages of history.   

Vasco Da Gamma

Ancient Connection : 

The Indian goods and exotic items were all available to Europe through Phoenician traders. Greeks knew about India and they had the misconception that it was at the edge of the world. Through Alexander's conquest the western civilization came to a direct contact with India. In later years the successor kingdoms of Alexander's empire like Seleucid Empire and Parthian Empire in later stages were the main connection between India and Europe. The Roman empire conquered most of the western Europe and became the most successful and long lasted empire of the west. They also had indirect trade relation with India through their eastern borders in Asia. India was famous for its spice, precious stones and other valuable exotic goods in western world.

Medieval Magnets : 

After the fall of Roman empire the new kingdoms of Europe had the taste of Indian goods through Byzantine empire. The geographic situation of Constantinople helped it flourished and became one of the richest city in the world. The Battle of Manzikert (1071) ended the influence of Byzantine empire. That also cost them the monopoly they had in goods from east. During the crusade in 11th and 12th century, the trade with European powers became more direct for a brief period of time. The fall of Jerusalem and other crusader states disrupted that contact again. The only source of Indian goods became Italian city states. At this time (From 13th to 15th century) Europe became more dependent on Italian city states for Indian goods. Venice, Milan and other city states of Italy became wealthy and powerful by this (Specially Venice and Milan). Venetian traders had and maintained a good trade relation with Arabian merchants of Asia. So, they had a sort of monopoly on Indian goods in Europe.  The Islamic merchants from Arabia and ottoman empire also became wealthy and powerful because they controlled the trade route. Indian goods traveled places to places and became costlier in every step of its journey to Europe. When it reached European market it became several times more costlier than its original price.

Impact of Ideas : 

During the renaissance period questioning the old ideas and theories became popular in mass. "Earth is round" this theory was established and that had a positive impact on explorers' minds. If the theory was true then the distant lands could be connected through sea. This idea started knocking the minds of adventurers. "India can be connected through sea and establishing a sea route is possible" this idea was started taking shape. The explorers from  Portugal had a strong belief in this theory. They had already started their venture on the western coast of Africa and discovered the true size of that mammoth continent. So, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese noble got the charge of this expedition to find the sea route to India. King Ferdinand provided him three ships and finance. Vasco Da Gama set sail from Lisbon in 1495 with his crew and goods for trade to this uncertain mission. Uncertain because that time it was just an idea. It was on his shoulder to prove that theory was correct.

The Journey of uncertainty : 

The main difficulty to Vasco Da Gama was Africa. This continent is big and that time no one knew how big it was. He started sailing through west African coast line. The sailing continued but there were no end of that wall which was blocking the path between them and India. At last they reached at the bottom of African continent. They faced a strong current there and the area was always covered with thunder storm and mist. They continued their journey through that weather and after three long days at last they passed it. That was discovered by Bartholomew Dias in 1488 and known as Cape of Good Hope. It was the bottom most point of Africa. Now they were in Indian Ocean. The water color was different in this ocean. but they followed their direction to north. They faced many difficulties in their journey. Specially from the Arabian merchants. Who would be obliged to end their monopoly in market ? So, Arabs tried their best to hamper the course of the voyage but never succeeded. After facing many difficulties like pirates and the sabotage efforts from Arabs they finally reached the western coast of India in 1498. The place was called Calicut situated in western coast. They failed to impress the local king with their gifts but they achieved their target. They found the route which could end the monopoly of Arab and Italian merchants and present Indian goods more directly to European market. 

The Voyage of Vasco Da Gama

The Impact :

Though Portugal never did this to help other European nations. Their target was to make Portugal the hub of Indian goods which they achieved for a short period of time. But the route they discovered now opened the door for Europe. Others soon followed like Holland and France. They successively established their trading posts in Indian Soil. Britain was little late in this race and was the last to come. They successively managed to build their trading post at Calcutta (Now Kolkata) situated on the banks of Ganges River in eastern India. The year was 1690 and that was the turning point for Britain. Another thing must be noted, all the powers established the trading posts here were not all direct government enterprises (Only a few had that). They were all private enterprises like Dutch East India Company, French East India Company, Danish East India Company and the most famous of them all British East India Company. The race for power and wealth was started among these private enterprises in Indian soil. We will discuss this power struggle and the effect on their nations in next post. Please do comment if you want to share your idea.

East India Company