India in the 19th century: the map, culture and economy of the country. What was India in the 19th century?

India in the 19th century, being a giant colony of small England, reluctantly succumbed to the complex and contradictory process of Europeanization, since the achievements and benefits of Western civilization did not take root well on this earth, as, fortunately, almost all the shortcomings. The Indians did not accept new orders, because they valued their own great culture and traditional way of life.

Conquest

The British did not hurry - almost a hundred years it took them that India in the 19th century completely lost state independence. True, England almost did not suffer losses, since the conquest of the country was carried out by the hands of the Sipaev - Indian soldiers who are in the service of the British.

The last to surrender was Punjab, a state created by the great Maharaja (prince) Singh. While the Maharajah was alive, it stood unshakably, and with his death in 1837 the power did not fall into such strong hands. The state disintegrated and became a very easy prey for the British. The feudal administration is far from centralized, which India knew in the 19th century. The map shows well how fragmented the country was.

The answer to the colonization was an uprising that lasted two years (1857-1859), and here the civilized Englishmen completely recouped - the people were literally drowned in blood. And again almost a hundred years it took to gain independence. Moreover, India in the 19th century after the suppression of the uprising chose peaceful ways of struggle, which is unprecedented in the new history.

Characteristics of conquest

India in the early 19th century, like any other country, and before the British knew the conquests. However, all the newcomers adapted to the social and economic life of the new homeland. Just as the Normans became English or the Manchus - the Chinese, the aliens became part of the people of India.

The English as conquerors were very different from all previous ones. Between them and the conquered territories was a real chasm of differences - how the culture of India in the 19th century differed from the culture of England, and the very way of life, the system of values, traditions and habits.

The Englishmen openly despised the natives, did not enter the new world, and did not let the Indians into their own. Even the simplest farmers and workers settled in India were ranked among the highest ruling class. Nothing to do, only hatred is mutual.

The British brought with them capitalism and a Western form of government. In the first case - expanse for exploitation, in the second - the management of small feudal principalities under the control of its own colonial administration.

Colony robbery

India in the 19th century was a peculiar, but extremely rich country. The treasures of the Indian rajas flowed continually to England. There is no thin without good - it was this high-calorie fuel that fueled the industrial revolution in England.

The initial direct colonial plundering gradually became legal: the East India Company plundered the country to the point of taxation. India has traded with the whole world since ancient times, now there were no moves to Europe for the Indian goods, but Indian counterparts were bursting from the British. As a result, the entire textile industry of the country came to naught, artisans were left without work.

The economy of India in the 19th century is such that the population was on the verge of extinction. Thousands and thousands of Indians died starving, as the governor reported in the thirties: "The weavers' bones dotted all the plains of India ..." The welfare of England, its welfare in the 19th century, is entirely the result of the robbery of the people of India.

The popular uprising

The disasters of the masses in India have multiplied not only from exploitation and violence. The contemptuous cruelty of the English towards the local population has transcended all bounds of humanity. When preparations were made for the forced conversion of Hindus and Muslims into the Christian faith, discontent with the conquerors reached a peak.

Now the feud extended not only to the poor weavers, but also to a large part of the local feudal aristocracy, which was significantly infringed upon by the colonial government and subjected to excessive looting. Sipai - Indian army in the service of the British - also rebelled, in May 1857, interrupting British officers and capturing Delhi.

Thus began a popular uprising that swept the whole of the Northern and vast parts of Central India. The British only after two years with great difficulty suppressed this insurrection. Feudal India could not wrest victory from capitalist England. The country was frightened: a huge number of people were tortured and shot. Roadside trees everywhere served as gallows. The villages were burnt together with all the inhabitants. After such tragedies, relations between India and England are unlikely to ever become cloudless.

Economic development

India in the second half of the nineteenth century is becoming a market for England and a source of raw materials. Finished goods from India were exported so little that they are not worth mentioning, and they were all more luxuries than necessities. But fully exported: wheat, rice, cotton, jute, tea, indigo. It was imported: furniture, products made of silk, wool and leather, kerosene, glass, matches and a long-long list.

The main gain of the British in India is the import of own capital. Borrowings were given under the draconian interest. Thus, financing of attempts to conquer neighboring countries, for example Afghanistan, was carried out. These loans were paid, of course, by the poor and hungry Indian peasantry.

The English capitalists invested in the processing of local raw materials, in the construction of railroads, in the jute industry, in the plantation of tea, coffee, sugar cane, and rubber.

Nevertheless, agriculture was so weak that the country could not even feed itself. Famine and epidemics were repeated almost every year. So, from 1851 to 1900, hunger, in which whole regions died out, was fixed 24 times. Only Englishmen are guilty of this, landlords and usurers are a "dirty trio", as the people called them.

Indian Renaissance

Endless wars and colonial expansion almost killed the great Indian culture: architecture, painting, all arts and all trades went into decline. I must say that the British did not fully accept and did not understand the value of Indian culture, so they did not raise its level at all. To the withdrawal of the British from India (1947), almost ninety percent of the population did not know the letters in general.

However, the national culture, like a song, "you will not suffocate, you will not kill." This was also India in the 19th century. Having come into contact with the western, Indian culture began a profound transformation. This particularly affected religion.

The Great Enlightener

The father of modern India, as his compatriots call it, Ram Mohan Roy, an outstanding reformer and public figure of the beginning and first half of the nineteenth century, was the son of a brahmana. This means that he could spend his whole life "in heaven" - in peace, joy and happiness. But from sweet conversations with the gods, he descended to the sinful land - sow the seeds of knowledge and care for the sprouts of feelings, as Rabindranath Tagore put it.