Early Settlements of the Europeans and Establishment of English Domination in Madras Presidency

Abstract

The fall of the Vijayanagar kingdom was reverberated the whole of South India in a state of political chaos and consequent economic distress. From 1757 the British had used their control over South India to promote their own interests. But it would be wrong to think that the basic character of their rule remained the same throughout. It passed through several stages in its long history of nearly 200 years. The nature of British rule and imperialism, as also it policies and impact, changed with changing pattern of Britain’s own social, economic and political development. To begin with ever before 1757, the English East India Company was interested only in making money. It wanted a monopoly of the trade with India and the East,so that there would be no other English or European merchants or trading companies to compete with it. The Company also did not want the Indian merchants to compete with it for the purchase in India or sale abroad of Indian products.