British Empire Writing 

LTC Ticen; VMI; English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies; Spring 2015

A Timeline of Key Events in the British Empire

• 1600 – The British East India Company is founded.

The coat of arms of the British East India Company. Source: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eastindia.html

The British East India Company was founded on the last day of 1600 under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies. Over the course of the next 257 years, the British East India Company would prove to be an essential element in the expansion of the British Empire into India and Asia. The British East India Company began as an importer of spices from South Asia but would later grow to encompass a variety of luxury items to include tea and opium. The British East India Company provided its own militia to protect against foreign competition from the Dutch and Portuguese. In 1708, the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies merged with its one of its English competitors to become the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies. In 1813, the British government took over the company’s monopoly on trade to the East Indies, and in 1834 the British East India Company worked as a government agency until the Indian Mutiny in 1857 after which the Colonial Office took complete control of imperial affairs in East Asia. In short, the British East India Company was in many ways the cornerstone of British governance in East Asia for the greater portion of the Empire’s reign.

Sources:                                                                                                                                                                 http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eic.html

• 1829 – The practice of Sati becomes prohibited.

A woman performing the practice of Sati. Source: http://www.kashgar.com.au/articles/life-in-india-the-practice-of-sati-or-widow-burning

The Hindu practice of Sati was an ancient religious practice that would occur following the death of a Hindu man. In Sati, the widow of the deceased would throw herself onto his burning funeral pyre as an act of devotion to her husband and family. Sati was practiced across the many castes in Hinduism and was considered an honor and was believed to purge all of the widow’s sins. It was outlawed first during the Mogul period because the Islamic Mogul Emperors found the practice to be barbaric.

The practice of Sati came again under fire when the British Empire came into power in India in the 19th century. Again the practice was regarded as barbaric by British standards, and in 1829 it became prohibited to practice Sati throughout the Empire. Sati persisted however, as most things did, in other parts of India that were not directly under the rule of the British Empire. The few accounts of Sati that were written about condemn the practice but describe it as being “courageous, pious, and voluntary”. The abolition of Sati during the 19th century proves the dominance of the British Empire over India in more than simple economic fashion. The prohibition of Sati also highlights the extent of British encroachment into everyday Indian life which would eventually prove volatile in the early 20th century as the independence movement grew.

Sources:                                                                                                                                                           http://www.kashgar.com.au/articles/life-in-india-the-practice-of-sati-or-widow-burning

• 1857 – The Indian Rebellion occurs.
• 1858 – The Government of India Act is passed.
• 1885 – The Indian National Congress if formed.
• 1897-1945 – Subhas Chandra Bose
• 1919 – The Amritsar Massacre occurs.
• 1930 – The Salt March occurs in India.
• 1947 – India gains independence.
• 1948 – Ghandi is assassinated.
• 1950 – India becomes a Federal Republic.