The Making of Today: The Battle of Vijaydurg and Power in the Indian Ocean, January-March 1756

At the start of 1756 the Maratha navy was destroyed at the fort of Vijaydurg by the British East India Company, and the Marathas themselves. The Sarkhel, or Grand Admiral, of the Marathas, Tulaji Angre, had been rebelling so the peshwa, prime minister, allied with an enemy to take down the Sarkhel. This was a

World History: Britain in India

The last time that we looked at India Britain had managed to edge out its European competitors thanks to victory in the Seven Years’ War. This post will look at British rule in India from the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1765 until the start of the twentieth century – a period marked by

World History: The Mughals

Today we are looking at the last of the so-called ‘Gunpowder Empires’: the Mughals. The Mughals are perhaps one of the most influential of India’s empires with many aspects and images of India which the West has originating from the Mughal Empire. Since the 1990s India’s Hindu right has been on the rise, currently the

World History: Colonialism

A depiction of Columbus In 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. Hardly two years later on June 7 1494 Pope Alexander VI divided this ‘New World’ along a line 370 leagues west of the Portuguese held Cape Verde islands with the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portugal would hold everything east of this line while Castille-Aragon