Previously, we discussed about  the land revenue experiments here – The First Firangis | Chap 4 | Extracting Land Revenue

Moving on,

If Robert Clive is credited to have won the first hand for EIC and Warren Hastings credited with consolidation of the British ascendancy in India, then it would be no big exaggeration to say that the Marquess of Wellesley was the guy who converted ‘the British Empire in India’ into ‘the British Empire of India.

Like a Boss. #swag #subsidiary alliance

British Empire in India was under a lot of mess before Wellesley’s arrival

1. In the north-western India (the Af-Pak side), the danger of Zaman Shah’s aggression posed a serious threat to the British power in India.
2. In the north and central India, the Marathas remained a formidable political power.
3. The Nizam of Hyderabad employed the Frenchmen to train his
   army.
4. The political unrest in the Karnataka region continued and Tipu Sultan was pain in the arse.

In comes the imperialist Wellesley & his system of Subsidiary Alliance

He wasn’t the first guy to come up with the novel idea of extracting a booty from the rulers in exchange for firangi service, his predecessors had concluded alliances with Indian princes like the Nawab of Oudh and the Nizam of Hyderabad.

But, Wellesley enlarged and consolidated the already existing system. If you were a king back then, this is how your agreement would look like. 

1. You are hereby given the status of a ‘protected state’, in lieu of which you will have to maintain a large standing army commanded by a British officer.
2. That means, even if you do not have war, these guys would be paid a salary + your soldiers would be paid a pink slip and send off!
3. You cannot keep any french/ portuguese/ european nationality in your court. The only firangi you will talk to would be a Brit. And just to make sure, we will have a british resident deployed in your court.
4. You may, however do whatever you want in terms of your internal matters. But your external relations will be observed by us.

If we were to draw a quick strip for you (being the ruler), these were the 3 prominent outcomes of the deal for you.

The kingdoms which succumbed to this policy were – Hyderabad, Oudh, Tanjore, Surat, Karnatak and after much resistance – the Marathas (Holkars & Scindia).

You might at this time wonder whether our Indian rulers were so ill-equipped that they lost the wars that easily? That’s hardly the case. But to do justice with that, we will need to take a fresh digression to look at the wars which were fought with Mysore & Marathas.

Will do that in the next chapter.

Two questions for you – 

#1. What’s with the name – Marquess of Wellesley. What’s Marquess?

#2. It was said that Tipu had a Jacobin club in his capital. What was that and why did it worry the Brits?