The English East India Company in British colonial history (1599-1833)

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Even today, more than hundred-seventy years after its dissolution, the English East India Company is still well known for having been the most flourishing and prosperous of all European trading companies in Asia. However, while generally pursuing the interests of a trader, the Company gradually transformed into a territorial power which built fortified bases on Indian soil, maintained its own independent army, fought pirates and finally even took possession of Indian provinces former ruled by native kings. In short, during the two-hundred-thirty-four years of its existence, the East India Company developed from an English merchant organisation, aiming at securing its monopoly privileges, into a sovereign power which ultimately paved the way for the transformation of the Indian subcontinent into a British crown colony. Thus, the story of the East India Company represents a chapter of English economic and colonial history that had a major impact on the formation of the British Empire.