Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today, and my top priority is to make sure that by the end of our lesson, you are able to successfully meet our learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the East India Company, where we are asking ourselves, when did Mughal authority in India collapse? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the activities of the East India Company during the 17th century and assess its relationship with the Mughal Empire.

There are four key words which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are merchants, textiles, factories, and Mughal Empire.

Merchants are people whose job is to buy and sell goods.

Textiles are fabrics made by weaving materials like cotton.

Warehouses and trading posts set up by the East India Company were called factories.

And the Mughal Empire ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent during the 17th century.

So today's lesson will be split into free parts, and we'll begin by focusing on the foundation of the East India Company.

In the 17th century, Europeans often thought of the world beyond their continent in terms of east and west.

Areas such as modern day India and Southeast Asia were considered Eastern.

These lands were sometimes referred to as the Indies or East Indies.

The location of India and Southeast Asia can be seen highlighted on the map on the screen.

So, thinking about what we've heard so far, which two of the following areas were often referred to as part of the Indies or East Indies? Was it Australia, Eastern Europe, India, or Southeast Asia? Remember, you are looking for two areas to answer this question.

So pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said, the two areas that were often referred to by Europeans as being part of the Indies or East Indies were India and Southeast Asia.

Europeans began sailing to the Indies at the end of the 15th century.

By the start of the 17th century, European merchants and governments, including the Portuguese, Dutch, and English, were becoming more interested in expanding their trade with the Indies.

So let's check our understanding of what we just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "European merchants and governments were not interested in the Indies." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that England, Portugal, and the Dutch Republic wanted to expand their trade with the Indies.

The second says that England wanted to expand its trade with the Indies, although other European countries like Portugal were not interested.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A, England, Portugal and the Dutch Republic were just some of the European countries who wanted to expand their trade with the Indies.

In 1601, a new company was created in England, the East India Company, or the EIC.

The EIC was set up to help increase English trade with the Indies.

The EIC was founded and funded by merchants, so people who buy and sell goods, but it also received the support from Queen Elizabeth I of England.

So, let's reflect on what we've just heard.

What was the name of the English company set up to increase the country's trade with the Indies? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the name of the English company set up to increase the country's trade with the Indies was the East India Company, the EIC.

And let's try another question, which monarch supported the foundation of the EIC? Was it King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, or King James I? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B, Queen Elizabeth I was the monarch who gave her support to the foundation of the English East India Company.

The support which the EIC received from English monarchs went beyond having the simple right to trade goods.

Over the 17th century, the EIC also gained special permission to declare war and make peace to negotiate with foreign leaders and also to command its own armies.

These powers were all supposed to support the success of the EIC's trade that they can seem a little bit weird to us today when we think about a company having all these powers that we would normally associate with a country.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

There's a statement on the screen that reads, "The East India Company was given some violent powers to help it expand English colonies in the Indies." I want you to change one word to correct that sentence.

So pause a video here and press Play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the incorrect word was colonies and changed it to trade.

The East India Company was given some violent powers, such as the right to command armies and to declare war, and this was to help it expand English trade in the Indies.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about the foundation of the East India Company into practise.

There are free statements on the screen.

They say, the English with the only European country trading in the East.

The East India Company was founded and funded by Queen Elizabeth I.

And the East India Company was founded to conquer lands in India peacefully.

Each of those statements is incorrect.

You should correct each statement and provide additional detail to support your corrections.

So pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So we had three statements, each of which was incorrect.

I asked you to correct each of them and provide additional detail to support your corrections.

So your answers could have included: The English were one of many European countries trading in the East.

Portuguese and Dutch merchants were also involved in trade in the Indies.

For the second statement, your correction may have looked like the East India Company was founded and funded by English merchants.

However, the company also received royal support from Queen Elizabeth I.

And for the third statement, your correction may have looked like, The East India Company was founded to expand English trade in the East.

However, the EIC was granted some violent powers such as the right to command armies to achieve this aim.

So really well done if you managed to correct each of those statements in a similar way to how we've just seen and you have managed to support all of those corrections with relevant factual details.

So we are now ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are gonna focus on the activities of the East India Company.

When the East India Company was founded, its priorities were focused on trade.

The leaders of the EIC wanted the company to make profits, to compete with European rivals for trade, and to expand English trade with the Indies.

The first voyage by the East India Company to the Indies left England in 1601 involving a fleet of five ships.

The ships from this first voyage returned to England two years later, having sailed to Southeast Asia and back.

The company ships returned with large quantities of spices, especially pepper, which they had traded for on islands such as Java and Sumatra.

However, not all of the cargo the English ships returned to England was obtained through trade.

The fleet had also obtained large amounts of textiles after it attacked a Portuguese ship sailing in the seas around Southeast Asia.

Initially, the EIC preferred to focus its trading activities in Southeast Asia.

This was the region where the famous Spice Islands could be found.

These islands produced goods such as nutmeg and cloves, which were very valuable back in Europe.

The company hope to become the main purchaser of these spices from Southeast Asia, which would allow it to resell them at high prices back in Europe.

However, competition from their Dutch rivals, which sometimes became extremely violent, forced the EIC to focus most of its attention on trading along the coasts of the Indian subcontinent.

Although the company could not obtain spices such as nutmeg from India, it was able to buy large quantities of pepper, tea, and Indian textiles, which were highly valued back in Europe.

By 1670, the EIC was trading 360,000 pounds worth of goods per year.

That's equivalent to over 40 million pounds in today's currency, and the EIC's profits only continued to rise over the rest of the 17th century.

So, thinking about what we've heard so far, I want you to identify two goods, which the EIC aimed to purchase in the East to sell back in Europe.

So pause video here and press Play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done if you identified any of the two goods from the following list.

So the EIC aimed to purchase goods such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, tea, and textiles, which could all be obtained in India and Southeast Asia, and hoped to then sell them back in Europe.

To support its trading activities the East India Company set up factories.

These were trading posts or warehouses where goods could be stored securely.

Two different images of EIC factories in India can be seen on the screen.

From these factories company officials could sell goods to local merchants and stock the items they gained through trade until new ships arrived, which could transport the goods back to Europe.

The EIC had 23 factories in India in 1647, and by the end of the 17th century, its most important factories were located in Madras, now known as Chennai, Calcutta, or modern-day Kolkata, and Bombay, which is now known as Mumbai.

Other European countries also established their own factories in India and tried to take control of the trade along different areas of the Indian coast.

As a result, conflicts between the EIC and other Europeans, especially the Portuguese, were common in the early 17th century.

In Bombay, the EIC used a castle to defend their local position in the event of any attacks, whilst large forts were constructed to help defend both Madras and Calcutta.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of everything that we've just heard.

What was the main purpose of the EIC's factories in India? Was it to manufacture goods for trade, to store goods for trade, or to provide jobs involved in trade? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B, the main purpose in EICs factories in India was to store goods for trade.

They were essentially warehouses or trading posts, not factories like we tend to think of them in the modern day.

And which reason best explains why English factories in India were fortified in the 17th century? Was it to protect the EIC from extreme weather, to protect the EIC from Indian attacks, or to protect the EIC from European attacks? Pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C: the reason why English factories in India were fortified in the 17th century was to help protect them from European attacks, especially from rival powers such as the Portuguese.

So we are now ready to put all of our knowledge into practise.

We have two parts to task B.

Firstly, which two adjectives from the following list most appropriately describe the activities of the East India Company? The adjectives you have to choose from are peaceful, poor, successful, and violent.

Once you've completed question one, I then want you to justify why each of the adjectives you chose in part one can appropriately describe the activities at the EIC.

So pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to reflect on all of your answers.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So for the first part of task B, I asked you which two adjectives from our list could appropriately describe the activities at the East India Company.

Any adjectives that you should have chosen were successful and violent.

So Weldon, if you picked those two adjectives.

For the second part of task B, I ask you to justify why each of those adjectives we chose in question one could appropriately describe the activities of the EIC.

So your answers may have included, The activities of the EIC could be described as successful, because its trade allowed it to make large profits.

For example, in 1670, the EIC's trade in goods like pepper and textiles was worth 360,000 pounds.

The activities of the EIC could be described as violent, because the company sometimes used force against its rivals.

For example, the very first company voyage from 1601 to 1603 involved an attack on a Portuguese ship to steal its cargo of textiles.

So well done if your own justifications look something like those two models, which we've just seen.

So now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we are going to focus on the East India Company and the Mughals.

When the East India Company arrived in India, large areas of the continent were under the rule of Mughal Empire.

Mughal power was important in influencing the freedoms and actions of the East India.

The East India Company did not only depend upon the rights given to it by English monarchs to carry out its activities.

It was also necessary for the company to secure the permission of local rulers in the areas where it wanted to trade.

In 1615, King James I of England sent Sir Thomas Roe to India.

Roe's mission was to persuade Emperor Jahangir, the leader of the Mughal Empire, to allow the English East India Company to set up a factory in Surat and ban other Europeans from carrying out their trade in that area.

Although this agreement was very important for the EIC, it also benefited Jahangir.

The emperor required the company to provide him with gifts and used the English as a way to keep the power of Europeans in India, especially the Portuguese and a Dutch, under control.

As the EIC became more wealthy and successful during the 17th century, it looked for opportunities to take more power for itself.

In 1685, negotiations over the trading rights of the EIC in Bengal and Eastern area of the Mughal Empire failed to produce any agreements.

In response to this failure, the company refused to pay some of the new taxes which were introduced in the Mughal Empire, and the EIC's leader in India, Josiah Child began to plan military action.

The EIC hoped to take power for itself over Bengal and to pressure the Mughals into granting it more generous trading rights across the whole empire.

This began a war which lasted from 1686 until 1690.

However, despite commanding thousands of soldiers and a number of naval ships, the forces of the East India Company were defeated by those of Emperor Aurangzeb.

In fact, the Mughals captured all of the Company's factories in India during the conflict, which has sometimes been known as Child's War.

After four years of fighting, the EIC accepted defeat and agreed to pay 150 million rupees to Emperor Aurangzeb, worth roughly 3.

5 million pounds today, and sent some of its officials to ask Aurangzeb for a pardon, for forgiveness.

Ultimately, the Mughal Emperor chose to forgive the East India Company for its actions and returned their factories to them.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

What was the outcome of Child's War? Was it that the East India Company defeated the Mughals, that the East India Company and Mughals were unable to defeat one, or that the Mughals defeated the East India Company? Pause video here and press Play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C, during Child's War, the Mughals defeated the East India Company, which was forced to surrender.

So now we're ready to put all of our knowledge about the company and the Mughals into practise.

On the screen, we have Sam's view.

Sam says that by the end of the 17th century, the East India Company was more powerful than the Mughal emperors in India.

Do you agree with Sam's view? I want you to write one paragraph to explain your answer.

So pause the video here and press Play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So we had Sam's view where he said, "By the end of the 17th century, the East India Company was more powerful than the Mughals Emperors in India." And I asked you, did you agree with Sam's view? Your answer may have included.

I do not agree with Sam's view that the East India Company was more powerful than the Mughals by the end of the 17th century.

For example, when the two sides fought one another during Child's War, the Company was defeated and the Mughals took control over all of the EIC's factories.

This suggests the Mughals were still more powerful than the EIC, as a company was not strong enough to defend itself from Mughal attacks." It's really well done if your own response looks something like that model.

And that means we've now reached the end of our lesson.

So we're in a good position to summarise our knowledge about the arrival of the East India Company.

We've seen that the East India Company was set up in 1601 to help expand English trade with the East.

The EIC had to compete with trade rivals such as the Portuguese and Dutch, sometimes violently.

The EIC constructed factories such as those in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras to support their trading activities.

In the 17th century, the EIC remained heavily reliant on Mughal goodwill to continue its activities in India.

When the EIC fought the Mughals during Child's War, they were soundly defeated.

So really well done for all of your hard work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources today, and I look forward to seeing you again in future as we think further about the East India Company and the Mughal Empire, and continue to ask ourselves, when exactly did Mughal power in India collapse.