Plassey and the East India Company
A trading company wins a battle by bribery and starts governing Bengal.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 8 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Robert Clive defeats the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey in 1757, having arranged in advance for a large part of the opposing army not to fight. The Company acquires the right to collect Bengal's revenues in 1765, becoming a territorial government answerable to shareholders. The Bengal famine of 1770, in which perhaps ten million died, occurred under its administration. Company rule over India lasts until 1858.