jjares reviewed India: A Captivating Guide to the History of India, The East India Company and Dutch East India Company on + 3521 more book reviews
This book is a welcome addition to the Captivating History array of books because I suspect Americans know no more of India's history than was shown in the movie Gandhi (like myself). One part I've especially liked is the attention paid to the different religions in India and how they have morphed, tolerated or persecuted each other.
An amazing piece of history was the Portuguese Inquisition taking place in a trading partner's country (India). Talk about gall. The shocking thing was that they persecuted Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Protestants, and even recent converts to Catholicism. Their view was that these were just converting to save themselves. Talk about 'not being able to win for losing.'
After the Portuguese finished purging people of the 'wrong' religion, the British (through the East India Company) came to pillage the wealth of India through trade agreements. Before long, they mustered armies and were fighting with other European nations for trading rights inside India. By 1857, the EIC virtually owned India. But Queen Victoria took India away from the EIC and started to rule the country herself. I was surprised to learn that the Indian Army made up much of England's military force and was heavily used during WWI and WWII. By the end of WWII, the middle class of India was eager for self-rule.
This book gives an excellent explanation of the caste system of the Hindu. I thought the closing sentence of the chapter was particularly poignant, "It is one of the few oppressive regimes in the world in which the people who are revered and the people who are impoverished are genetically one and the same."
**The second portion of this book is about the East India Company. Just because they got a charter from Elizabeth did not mean there was smooth sailing. The EIC found itself surrounded by other European nations, vying for trading contracts with the Indians. They also had to contend with the home crowd that complained about the massive export of British gold and silver to buy Indian (and Chinese) goods.
To combat that drain of gold and silver (because the Chinese only wanted to buy cotton and opium, and wanted to be paid in gold and silver), the EIC decided to dump huge amounts of opium in China and trade it for tea and sugar. The English public wanted tea and sugar, so the EIC (East India Company) traded those goods for opium (that the Chinese government didn't want). It led to wars but by then the EIC had created their own standing armies.
Asian and Middle Eastern empires had (from time immemorial) allowed the natives to conduct their religious affairs without interference. Forced religious conversions engender civil unrest and rebellions. The EIC wanted no part of this. And the EIC continued that policy but by 1833, a new charter required the company to allow Christian missionaries to proselytize in India. The British colonialism showed that they considered the Indians to be lesser beings. Between the missionaries converting the 'heathens' and the British looking down on the Indians, trouble was about to fester. At about the same time, the British government was coming to the conclusion that it should take over the Company in India.
This book offered a fine explanation of a complicated company in a very different time. How and why the EIC became powerful, what they did with their power and how they were finally brought down is all included. Additionally, the author explains how the company changed things then and in the years to follow. There are bios of important participants in the EIC story included.
**The final portion of this book is about the Dutch East India Company. During most of history, kings, queens, and emperors controlled the money, influence, and armies. However, a group of merchants banded together and out-earned any king on earth. The book indicates that the Dutch East India Company was worth 10 times what Apple Corporation is worth today (as of December 2019, they were worth 1 trillion dollars).
This nimble little story explains the beginnings of their 200-year reign over trade and their eventual decline (and the reasons for it). While Spain, Portugal, France, and England were fighting over the New World, the clever Dutch decided to go after trade in the East Indies. The entire economic system we have today comes from this company (first publicly sold stock, formed the first stock market, created stock futures, short selling, stock options, and many more). This company also helped discover Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
An amazing piece of history was the Portuguese Inquisition taking place in a trading partner's country (India). Talk about gall. The shocking thing was that they persecuted Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Protestants, and even recent converts to Catholicism. Their view was that these were just converting to save themselves. Talk about 'not being able to win for losing.'
After the Portuguese finished purging people of the 'wrong' religion, the British (through the East India Company) came to pillage the wealth of India through trade agreements. Before long, they mustered armies and were fighting with other European nations for trading rights inside India. By 1857, the EIC virtually owned India. But Queen Victoria took India away from the EIC and started to rule the country herself. I was surprised to learn that the Indian Army made up much of England's military force and was heavily used during WWI and WWII. By the end of WWII, the middle class of India was eager for self-rule.
This book gives an excellent explanation of the caste system of the Hindu. I thought the closing sentence of the chapter was particularly poignant, "It is one of the few oppressive regimes in the world in which the people who are revered and the people who are impoverished are genetically one and the same."
**The second portion of this book is about the East India Company. Just because they got a charter from Elizabeth did not mean there was smooth sailing. The EIC found itself surrounded by other European nations, vying for trading contracts with the Indians. They also had to contend with the home crowd that complained about the massive export of British gold and silver to buy Indian (and Chinese) goods.
To combat that drain of gold and silver (because the Chinese only wanted to buy cotton and opium, and wanted to be paid in gold and silver), the EIC decided to dump huge amounts of opium in China and trade it for tea and sugar. The English public wanted tea and sugar, so the EIC (East India Company) traded those goods for opium (that the Chinese government didn't want). It led to wars but by then the EIC had created their own standing armies.
Asian and Middle Eastern empires had (from time immemorial) allowed the natives to conduct their religious affairs without interference. Forced religious conversions engender civil unrest and rebellions. The EIC wanted no part of this. And the EIC continued that policy but by 1833, a new charter required the company to allow Christian missionaries to proselytize in India. The British colonialism showed that they considered the Indians to be lesser beings. Between the missionaries converting the 'heathens' and the British looking down on the Indians, trouble was about to fester. At about the same time, the British government was coming to the conclusion that it should take over the Company in India.
This book offered a fine explanation of a complicated company in a very different time. How and why the EIC became powerful, what they did with their power and how they were finally brought down is all included. Additionally, the author explains how the company changed things then and in the years to follow. There are bios of important participants in the EIC story included.
**The final portion of this book is about the Dutch East India Company. During most of history, kings, queens, and emperors controlled the money, influence, and armies. However, a group of merchants banded together and out-earned any king on earth. The book indicates that the Dutch East India Company was worth 10 times what Apple Corporation is worth today (as of December 2019, they were worth 1 trillion dollars).
This nimble little story explains the beginnings of their 200-year reign over trade and their eventual decline (and the reasons for it). While Spain, Portugal, France, and England were fighting over the New World, the clever Dutch decided to go after trade in the East Indies. The entire economic system we have today comes from this company (first publicly sold stock, formed the first stock market, created stock futures, short selling, stock options, and many more). This company also helped discover Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
