Test Your Knowledge of European Trade in India

Study Notes

Foreign travelers and traders left accounts of their experiences in India in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Written sources include literature, travel accounts, diaries, government documents, and manuscripts.
Archives like the National Archives of India and Tamil Nadu Archives preserve historical documents.
Paintings, statues, and historical buildings like forts and museums are sources of modern Indian history.
Coins provide insight into administrative history.
After the capture of Constantinople in 1453, European nations sought new sea routes to the East.
Portugal was the first to discover a sea route to India, with Vasco da Gama reaching Calicut in 1498.
Francisco de Almeida and Alfonso de Albuquerque were important Portuguese governors in India.
The Dutch followed the Portuguese into India in 1602 with the United East India company.
The Portuguese and Dutch both established trading centers and factories in India, but Portuguese power declined in the 17th century.

The Dutch founded their first factory in Masulipatnam in 1605 and captured Amboyna from the Portuguese.
They monopolized the trade in black pepper and other spices and traded silk, cotton, indigo, rice, and opium.
The English East India Company remained engaged in rivalry with the Portuguese and the Dutch throughout the 17th century.
The British established their first factory in Masulipatam in 1611 and obtained Madras as a lease in 1639.
The East India Company built its famous factory known as Fort St. George in Madras.
The British acquired the Zamindari of the three villages of Sutanuti, Kalikata, and Govindpur in 1698, which later grew into the city of Calcutta.
The Danish established settlements at Tranquebar and Serampore but sold all their settlements in India to the British in 1845.
The French East India Company was formed in 1664 and established factories in different parts of India, particularly in the coastal regions.
Pondicherry became the most important and prosperous French settlement in India.
Joseph Francois Dupleix was appointed as the Governor of the French East India Company in 1742.

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