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Imperialism In India

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India was greatly desired by other countries. It had plentiful natural resources, such as tea, indigo, coffee, cotton, jute, and opium. The ruling empire in India at the time, the Mughal Empire, prevented other countries from taking over, however, the Mughal Empire was collapsing and lost power after the Seven Years’ War (Beck, 357-358). It was after the war when Britain gained control over India by the Treaty of Paris (The, 7)(Sarah, 1). Britain was then able to create the British East India Company to make profit from all the resources India had to offer. The company ruled over India, and they even had their own army of Indian soldiers called sepoys. British rule helped India get new, advanced technology and improved daily life, although, it also disrupted the people’s traditions and caused many problems (Beck, 357-358). India was affected by imperialism in a negative way politically and economically, but also in a both positive and negative way socially. Imperialism made a negative impact on India politically. Britain controlled the entire government, and the …show more content…
During the East India Company’s rule, India’s great difficulty was this: all of its affairs had access to the Company’s Court of Directors only and were scarcely settled by the Parliament” (Smith, 84).
Congress was not made up of Indian citizens but instead “westernized middle class professionals far removed from the destitute masses” (Reuther, 8). Natives were not able to take high government positions and did not get much of a say in their government. This means the government had an unfair balance of power between the British and Indians. The British government also imposed high taxes on Indians (Smith, 57), and most British officials were racist towards natives (Beck, 358). After imperialism, India’s government was completely run by the British, and it was not beneficial for Indian

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