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Robert Clive
Robert Clive (1725-1774), also known as 'Clive of India' and Baron Clive of Plassey, masterminded the expansion of the East India Company in India. Best known for his victory at Plassey in Bengal in 1757, Clive's reputation suffered in his...
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Robert Clive
A portrait by Nathanial Dance of Robert Clive (1725-1774), Governor General of Bengal and representative of the East India Company. Known as 'Clive of India' for his expansion of EIC interests in the subcontinent, the military commander and...
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Battle of Plassey
The Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 saw Robert Clive's East India Company army defeat a larger force of the Nawab of Bengal. Victory brought the Company new wealth and marked the beginning of its territorial expansion in the subcontinent...
Definition
Black Hole of Calcutta
The Black Hole of Calcutta refers to a prison cell which was used to hold 146 mostly British prisoners captured after the Nawab of Bengal had taken over the city from the East India Company. Interred on 20 June 1756 in a tiny cell in Fort...
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Fall of the East India Company
The British East India Company (1600-1874) was the largest and most successful private enterprise ever created. All-powerful wherever it colonised, the EIC's use of its own private army and increasing territorial control, particularly in...
Definition
Robert II of Scotland
Robert II of Scotland ruled as king from 1371 to 1390. Born Robert Stewart, he succeeded the heirless David II of Scotland (r. 1329-1371) and so founded the royal house of Stewart. Dividing Scottish estates between his many offspring, Robert...
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Robert Clive & The East India Company Rule in India, c. 1765
A map illustrating the transformation of the East India Company from a hopeful merchant venture in 1600 with isolated trade outposts governed by isolated and mostly independent town councils into a major ruler of large territories in India...
Definition
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings (1732-1818) was appointed the Governor of Bengal by the British East India Company (EIC) in 1772 and became its first Governor-General in India from 1774 to 1785. Under his tenure, the EIC ruthlessly expanded its territory...
Definition
Sepoy
A sepoy was an Indian soldier in the armies of various states and European trading companies in the Indian subcontinent and then, from the second half of the 19th century, in the British Indian Army. Recruited from many different population...
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Clive at the Siege of Arcot
A 1913 illustration by Ernest Wallcousins showing Robert Clive at the siege of Arcot, India in 1751. Clive seized Arcot and then defended it against an army of Chandra Sahib, the nizam of Hyderabad. (Taken from Pioneers in India, by Johnston...