01. The Indian Subcontinent

Indian Subcontinent comprises the countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It also included Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Maldives in different times in history.

Before its independence in 1947, India was never one nation but always a collection of different kingdoms and cultures with no single sovereign identity. Historically, the subcontinent region was largely divided into three regions of political power centers.

1. Magadha region: Staring from the area of Bihar along the river Ganga, Magadha expanded to include most of  Bengal followed by Orissa. It was bounded on the north by the river Ganges, on the east by the river Champa, on the south by the Vindhya mountains and on the west by the river Sone. The region was mostly independent until the Moghul occupation and even then maintained self governance.

2. The Northern region comprising of Delhi-Punjab-Rajasthan including Haryana, Gujarat and Pakistan. Early Persian and Afghan conquerors came to India through Khyber Pass in the northwestern mountains (Peshwar region) upto Delhi and ruled this region. The northwestern part of Rajasthan and Gujrat was ruled by Rajput kingdoms.

3.The Deccan plateau covers the majority of the southern part of the country. It is located between three mountain ranges and extends over the earlier kingdoms of Mysore and Maratha, and the current states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.


The European spice trade was monopolised by Arab and Venetian merchants. The western European nations began to search for another route to the spice islands of India and Indonesia. In 1492 Columbus set out to discover India but ended up discovering America instead. Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope of South Africa and landed at Calicut ( in the present-day Indian state of Kerala), discovering the sea-route to India  in 1498. For more than 100 years Portugal was the dominant power in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese strategy was to control the East Indies (Indonesia) trade by controlling the sea lanes to Europe and the major ports of the East.  Eventually England, France, the Netherlands and Denmark, floated East India Companies.

The Mughal Empire was the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent between the mid-16th century and the early 18th century. The Mughal dynasty was founded when Babur, hailing from Ferghana (Modern Uzbekistan), invaded parts of northern India and defeated Ibrahim Shah Lodhi, the ruler of Delhi, at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. The greatest portions of Mughal expansion was accomplished during the reign of Akbar (1556–1605). The empire was maintained as the dominant force of the present-day Indian subcontinent for a hundred years further by his successors Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb.In 1602 the Dutch East India Company came into existence by authority of the Estates-General of the Netherlands. In 1664 the French East India Company was organized by state authorization under Louis XIV. The English founded the East India Company, which set up its first factory at Surat in 1612.

In the decades after the death of Aurangzeb, in 1707, the Moghul empire fragmented into numerous semi-independent territories - seized by local officials or landowners whose descendants become the rajas and nawabs of more recent times. Moghul emperors continue to rule in name for another century and more, but their prestige is hollow.

The various European interests took advantage of internal conflicts and established colonies in the country by training local recruits, sepoys, to safeguard the company establishments.  In 1650  the British East India Company obtained a license for trade in Bengal and a factory was set up in 1651 at Hugli.   In 1698 the factory was fortified and called Fort William. The villages of Sutanati, Kalikata and Gobindpore were developed into a single area called Calcutta. Calcutta became a trading center for East India Company.  Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company  began expanding its influence, fighting the Indian rulers and the French, Dutch, and Portuguese traders simultaneously.