Theme 6Part A · The British conquest
Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
1798 to 1893 · subsidiary alliance, doctrine of lapse, and the wars at the edges
Wars won territory, but treaties and laws won almost as much. This theme looks at the two great legal instruments of expansion, Wellesley's subsidiary alliance and Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse, then follows the frontier wars that set the outer limits of British India.
Event 11798 to 1805
Wellesley's subsidiary alliance
Lord Wellesley, Governor General from 1798 to 1805, came to India determined to make the Company supreme before the French could return. His main tool was a treaty that turned Indian rulers into allies who paid for their own disarmament.
How a subsidiary alliance worked
- The ruler acceptsa British force stationed in his state, and pays for it in cash or by ceding territory
- He gives uphis foreign relations: no war or treaty without the Company
- He expelsall other Europeans, above all the French, from his service
- He hostsa British Resident at his court
- The Company promisesto defend him and, in theory, not to interfere inside his state
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
Hyderabad was the first under Wellesley (1798), then Mysore and Tanjore (1799), Awadh (1801), the Peshwa (1802), Bhonsle (1803), Scindia (1804), and the Gaekwad (1805). Holkar held out for longest.
Rulers who fell behind with the payments gave land instead. The Nizam ceded the ceded districts (Rayalaseema, 1800); Awadh gave up half its territory, the Doab and Rohilkhand (1801).
Why it suited the Company
- An army paid for by someone else, posted inside the ally's territory.
- The French shut out of every Indian court.
- Any default became a reason to take land.
What it did to the allies
- Rulers lost the means and the reason to govern well: the Company protected them whatever they did.
- Disbanded soldiers swelled the Pindari bands.
- Debt, misrule and, in the end, annexation for misgovernance, as in Awadh.
Event 21848 to 1856
Dalhousie: lapse and annexation
Lord Dalhousie, Governor General from 1848 to 1856, believed British rule was better than any Indian rule and looked for every lawful way to extend it.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
A dependent state whose ruler died without a natural heir could not pass to an adopted son without the Company's consent, and would lapse to the Company. Taken this way: Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850, later restored), Udaipur in Chhattisgarh (1852), Jhansi (1853) and Nagpur (1854).
Berar was taken from the Nizam (1853) to pay for the subsidiary force. Awadh, a loyal ally for half a century, was annexed in February 1856 on the ground of misgovernment, and Wajid Ali Shah was sent to Calcutta.
Dalhousie refused to continue the titles and pensions of the Nawab of the Carnatic and the Raja of Tanjore, refused the pension of Nana Saheb, adopted son of the last Peshwa, and announced that the Mughal title would end after Bahadur Shah II.
| Year | Method | Ruler or heir wronged | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satara | 1848 | lapse | adopted son of Appa Sahib |
| Jhansi | 1853 | lapse | Rani Lakshmibai, for her adopted son Damodar Rao |
| Nagpur | 1854 | lapse | widows of Raghuji III |
| Berar | 1853 | debt of the subsidiary force | the Nizam |
| Awadh | 1856 | misgovernment | Wajid Ali Shah and Begum Hazrat Mahal |
Event 31814 to 1893
The frontiers: Nepal, Burma, Sindh, Afghanistan
Once India was conquered, the Company and then the Crown pushed its edges outward to secure them: against the Gorkhas, the Burmese, the Amirs of Sindh, and Russia in Central Asia.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
The Anglo Gorkha War. After early defeats, Ochterlony wins and the Treaty of Sugauli (1816) takes Kumaon, Garhwal and the Simla hills for the Company. Nepal keeps its independence, a British Resident sits at Kathmandu, and the recruitment of Gurkhas begins.
First war (1824 to 1826): the Burmese had taken Assam and Manipur; by the Treaty of Yandabo Burma cedes Arakan and Tenasserim, gives up its claims to Assam, Cachar and Jaintia, and recognises Manipur as independent. Second war (1852): Dalhousie annexes Pegu, Lower Burma. Third war (1885): Dufferin annexes Upper Burma on 1 January 1886.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
Bound by treaties since 1832, the Talpur Amirs of Sindh are attacked by Charles Napier, who wins at Miani and Dubba (1843). Ellenborough annexes Sindh, a conquest even British critics called unjust.
Fearing Russia, Auckland sends the Army of the Indus through the Bolan to put Shah Shuja on the throne at Kabul in place of Dost Mohammad (1839), after a Tripartite Treaty (1838) with Ranjit Singh. Kabul rises in 1841; in the retreat of January 1842 almost the whole force of about 16,000 soldiers and camp followers is lost, and Dr Brydon reaches Jalalabad alone.
The second war (1878 to 1880) ends with the Treaty of Gandamak (1879), which gives Britain control of Afghan foreign policy. The Durand Line (1893) fixes the border between British India and Afghanistan.
The Great Game
- Russia advanced across Central Asia through the nineteenth century: Tashkent (1865), Samarkand (1868), Merv (1884).
- British India alternated between a forward policy (control Afghanistan) and masterly inactivity (leave it alone as a buffer, John Lawrence's line).
- Both Afghan wars were forward policy; both ended with the British withdrawing and paying the Amir.
Frontier wars in order
- 1814 to 1816 Anglo Gorkha War; Sugauli
- 1824 to 1826 First Burmese War; Yandabo
- 1839 to 1842 First Afghan War
- 1843 Sindh annexed
- 1852 Second Burmese War; Pegu
- 1878 to 1880 Second Afghan War; Gandamak
- 1885 Third Burmese War
- 1893 Durand Line
Who's who14 people
People
Lord Wellesley
Governor General 1798 to 1805
Subsidiary alliance; called himself a Bengal tiger.
Lord Dalhousie
Governor General 1848 to 1856
Doctrine of lapse; annexed Punjab, Pegu and Awadh.
David Ochterlony
general
Won the Anglo Gorkha War.
Lord Amherst
Governor General
First Burmese War.
Lord Auckland
Governor General
First Afghan War.
Lord Ellenborough
Governor General
Annexed Sindh (1843).
Charles Napier
general
Conquered Sindh.
John Lawrence
Viceroy
Masterly inactivity towards Afghanistan.
Lord Lytton
Viceroy
Second Afghan War.
Mortimer Durand
diplomat
Drew the Durand Line (1893).
Dost Mohammad
Amir of Afghanistan
Deposed in 1839, restored in 1842.
Shah Shuja
Afghan claimant
British puppet at Kabul, killed in 1842.
Wajid Ali Shah
Nawab of Awadh
Deposed in 1856.
Rani Lakshmibai
Jhansi
Her adopted son refused recognition (1853).
Key terms11
Terms
- Subsidiary alliance
- Wellesley's treaty system of 1798: a paid British force inside an allied state.
- Resident
- The Company's agent at an Indian court, often its real ruler.
- Doctrine of lapse
- Dalhousie's rule that a dependent state without a natural heir passed to the Company.
- Paramountcy
- British supremacy over the Indian states.
- Ceded districts
- Rayalaseema, ceded by the Nizam in 1800.
- Treaty of Sugauli
- 1816; ended the Anglo Gorkha War.
- Treaty of Yandabo
- 1826; ended the first Burmese War.
- Great Game
- The rivalry of Britain and Russia in Central Asia.
- Forward policy
- Control of Afghanistan to keep Russia away from India.
- Masterly inactivity
- John Lawrence's policy of non interference in Afghanistan.
- Durand Line
- The 1893 boundary between British India and Afghanistan.