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Home Great Britain and India, 1763-1823 1763-1823; Part 7 |
1763-1823; Part 7For nearly ten years after Wellesley's departure little occurred in India. It was a period of inaction and of non-intervention. But the anarchy in various parts of India soon necessitated British action. Enormous bands of brigands, " human jackals", roamed over Central India, burning and killing and robbing wherever they went. Sometimes these Pindaris) as they were called, crossed into British territory and did immense damage. Such a state of things could not continue, and on Lord Hastings' arrival as governor-general (1814-23) our policy was changed into one of action. Lord Hastings first had a war with Nepaul - the home of the brave Gurkhas - which led to some annexation of territory and to a satisfactory settlement of our relations with that country. In 1817 came the struggle with the Pindaris, which led also to a war with the Mahrattas. The result was that both Pindaris and Mahrattas submitted; a good deal of territory was annexed, including the territories of the Peshwa of Poona, whilst the boundaries of the various native states in the centre of India were delimitated. There for the present we may leave Indian affairs. Thanks chiefly to Wellesley and Hastings, the British power had been substituted in India for that of the Great Mogul. That eastern empire which had been the dream of Napoleon's ambition had become an accomplished fact with his greatest enemies.Nor is India the only part of our empire which was developed in the later part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The discoveries of Captain Cook between 1768 and 1779 had given to Great Britain the opportunity of developing a third great continent in Australia How the opportunity was utilized will be told later. |
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