East India Company, English
East India Company, EnglishA chartered company of London merchants that gradually transformed trading privileges in Asia into a territorial empire centred on India. Chartered in 1600 , the Company soon lost the Spice Islands (Moluccas) to the Dutch, but by 1700 had secured important trading ports in India, notably Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. In the mid-18th century Anglo-French hostility in Europe was reflected in a struggle for supremacy with the French East India Company . The English commander Clive outmanoeuvred the French governor Dupleix in south India, then intervened in the rich north-eastern province of Bengal. Victory over the Bengal ruler in 1757 initiated a century of expansion, the East India Company emerging as the greatest...
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