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're 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've been asking ourselves, when did Mughal authority in India collapse? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain why the British East India Company grew in power during the first half of the 18th century.

There are five keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are successor state, alliance, nawab, sepoy and recruited.

A successor state is a smaller country, which is formed after a larger country begins to breakdown.

An alliance is an agreement between two or more countries to work together.

A nawab was an Indian ruler who declared their loyalty to the Mughal emperor, but ruled a local area as they wished.

A sepoy was an Indian soldier serving in a European army.

And someone is recruited if they agree to join an organisation, especially an army.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts and we'll begin by focusing on European rivals.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, European trade rivalry became very intense.

European countries strongly believed that expanding their trade would help to make them stronger.

European countries aimed to increase their own trade and disrupt that of their rivals.

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

What was the main aim of European countries like Britain for trade in the 18th century? Was it to increase their own and that of others? Was it to increase their own and disrupt that of other countries? Or was it to disrupt their own and increase that of other countries? 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 B.

In the 18th century, European countries like Britain aimed to increase their own trade and to disrupt that of other countries.

They believed that this would help make them stronger compared to some of their European rivals.

India was an important location for European trade.

Goods ranging from pepper, spices, tea, and textiles to ingredients for gunpowder could be purchased from India.

This led to many European countries competing over Indian trade.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we just heard.

I want you to identify three goods which Europeans hoped to obtain by trading in India.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your responses.

Okay, so well done to everybody who identified three from the following goods that Europeans wanted to obtain.

So you may have said pepper, spices, textiles, tea, and even ingredients for gunpowder.

So we can really see from that that there was a wide range of goods which Europeans hoped to gain from trading with India.

The British East India Company, the EIC, managed British trade with India in the 18th century.

Other European nations set up similar companies to expand their trade with India, including the Dutch VOC and the French Compagnie des Indes Orientales.

During the 18th century, Britain's main European rival was France.

The two countries fought one another in multiple wars in Europe.

This rivalry also extended to war between the countries in their colonies in North America and the Caribbean.

Similarly, the trade rivalry between the EIC and the Compagnie des Indes eventually led to conflict between Britain and France in India too.

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

Who was Britain's main rival for Indian trade in the 18th century? Was it France, the Netherlands or Portugal? 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 A.

France was Britain's main rival for Indian trade in the 18th century.

And let's try another question.

What was the name of the French trading company which rivalled the British EIC? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was the Compagnie des Indes.

The Compagnie des Indes was the French trading company set up to challenge the British East India Company in India.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about European rivals into practise.

Study the statements on the screen.

The first says that merchants travelled to India to sell goods, spices, and textiles, which were highly valued in Europe.

The second says European countries aimed to increase the trade of one another during the 18th century.

And the third says that the Dutch were Britain's main European rivals in India during the 18th century.

However, each one of those statements is incorrect.

For each statement, I want you to change one word to correct it.

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

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

So I asked you to change one word in each statement to correct it, and your answers should have been as follows.

Your first sentence should have looked like European merchants travelled to India to purchase, not to sell goods such as spices and textiles, which were highly valued in Europe.

In the second sentence, you should have written disrupt rather than increase.

European countries aimed to disrupt the trade of one another during the 18th century.

And in the third sentence, you should have changed Dutch to French.

The French were Britain's main European rivals in India during the 18th century.

So well done if you made the right corrections to each of those statements.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we're going to focus on war and conflict in India.

In the 1730s and 1740s, Britain and France's rivalry in India developed into direct conflict between the EIC and the Compagnie des Indes.

The decline of Mughal power and the rise of successor states in India helped to make this development of British and French rivalry possible.

The emergence of successor states to the Mughal Empire during the early 18th century was seen as an opportunity by both the British East India Company, the EIC, and the French Compagnie des Indes.

Both companies worked to establish alliances with different successor states, which could help boost their own trade and disrupt that of their rival.

Meanwhile, for the leaders of the successor states, cooperation with the Europeans became a useful way of securing extra funding and weaponry, which could be used in their own struggles against other Indian states.

In this way, networks of alliances involving the British and French became more widespread during the 1730s and 1740s.

For instance, the EIC gained support from the nawab of Arcot whilst the French were the support of the nawab of Bengal.

These rival networks of alliances had not been able to develop previously when Mughal authority across India had been stronger.

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

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "The Weakening of Mughal authority allowed the rivalry between Britain and France in India to increase." 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 true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Britain and France made alliances with the leaders of different Mughal successor states.

And the second says that Britain and France made alliances with the Mughal emperor to disrupt each other's trade.

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 the correct justification was A, Britain and France made alliances with the leaders of different Mughal successor states.

And let's try another question.

This time I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence.

The British East India Company agreed an alliance with the nawab of blank.

So what's the missing word? 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 missing word was Arcot.

The British East India Company agreed an alliance with the nawab of Arcot.

Similarly, the French Compagnie des Indes made an alliance with the nawab of Bengal.

So the two companies made alliances with different Mughal successor states, as we've already heard.

In 1740, war began in Europe, pitting Britain and France at war with one another.

The war in Europe would continue for eight years and quickly spread to other regions of the world where Britain and France fought one another, including India.

The conflict in India became known as the First Carnatic War as it occurred mainly in the Carnatic region, a coastal area of India where both Britain and France hoped to gain a trading advantage.

The map on the screen shows the Carnatic region shaded in black.

In 1746, a French army arrived in India and attacked the EIC's base at Madras, now known as Chennai, which was only lightly defended despite being one of the three main trading posts used by the British in India.

After just six days, the British at Madras were forced to surrender, and the French remained in control of the town for the remainder of the conflict until it was finally returned back to Britain during peace negotiations.

In 1748, Britain and France officially agreed to a peace deal intended to end the fighting between them in Europe and beyond.

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

What happened during the First Carnatic War? Was it that a British army conquered the Compagnie des Indes base at Madras, Chennai? That a French army conquered the EIC's base at Madras? Or that the French and British conquered the Mughal base at Madras? 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.

During the First Carnatic War, a French army conquered the EIC's base at Madras.

This capture was very significant because Madras was one of the three largest EIC bases in India.

So now we're ready to put our knowledge of war and conflict in India into practise.

We've been given Aisha's view and she says that because they were competing over trade, British and French rivalry in India remained peaceful.

So is Aisha's view correct? I want you to explain your answer, and as you do so, you should consider the different methods used by both countries to expand their Indian trade.

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

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

So we had Aisha's view where she said because they were competing over trade, British and French rivalry in India remained peaceful.

And I asked you whether Aisha's view was correct.

So your answer may have included Aisha's view is not correct.

The rivalry between Britain and France over Indian trade did involve some peaceful behaviour, such when they made alliances with Indian successor states like Bengal and Arcot.

However, this rivalry also became violent as the EIC and Compagnie des Indes fought one another during the First Carnatic War between 1746 and 1748.

So well done if your own response look something like that model, which we've just seen, and now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of today's lesson where we're going to think about sepoy armies.

Although war between Britain and France officially ended when they made peace in 1748, rivalry continued between them in India.

In the years after 1748, both the EIC and the Compagnie des Indes continued to look for ways to increase their power compared to the other.

Despite an official peace agreement which was made between Britain and France in 1748, the decision was made by the EIC to increase its military strength in India.

2,000 soldiers recruited in Europe were sent out to help protect the power of the EIC in India.

This was largely a response to the success of French attacks during the previous war.

The new force was more than 10 times larger than which had protected Madras when the French captured it in 1746.

As the EIC and Compagnie des Indes began building up their own military strength in India, they started to recruit growing numbers of Indian soldiers to serve in their armies.

These Indian soldiers serving in European armies became known as sepoys.

The French began employing sepoy to make up a majority of their forces in India and were copied by the British soon afterwards.

The European companies were able to recruit Indian soldiers more effectively than most Indian states because although they paid their soldiers similar wages, the EIC and Compagnie des Indes ensured that pay was delivered reliably, unlike the leaders of many Indian successor states.

Equipped with their own private armies, as well as European technologies and effective training practises, the French and British quickly grew in strength compared to other powers in India.

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

How did the EIC respond to the events of the First Carnatic War? Was it that it recruited more soldiers for its army, that it reduced the size of its army, or that it asked the Mughal emperor for support? 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 A.

After the First Carnatic War had finished, the EIC made the decision to recruit more soldiers for its army.

2,000 soldiers from Europe were sent out to help protect the EIC in India.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement, which reads the EIC and Compagnie des Indes only recruited European soldiers for their armies.

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 the correct answer was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that sepoys made up a small number of the soldiers serving in the European companies' armies, and the second says that sepoys ended up as a majority of the soldiers serving in the European companies' armies.

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 the correct justification was B.

Sepoys ended up as a majority of the soldiers serving in the European companies' armies.

The addition of many sepoys significantly increased the fighting strength of both the EIC and the Compagnie des Indes.

As a result of their rising power, Indian rulers became more eager to gain the support of the EIC and Compagnie des Indes to help them in their own power struggles.

For both companies, involvement in these struggles provided further opportunities to try and exclude their rivals from valuable Indian trade markets.

Between 1749 and 1754, although Britain and France were officially at peace, the EIC and Compagnie des Indes continued to fight against one another indirectly.

When a war began over who should be the nawab of Arcot, a state in southern India, the British and French supported different sides.

This conflict became known as the Second Carnatic War.

During this conflict, the EIC and Compagnie des Indes fought against one another in battles, which involved European and sepoy soldiers, alongside troops provided by their Indian allies.

For instance, in 1752, an EIC army led by Robert Clive successfully defended the town of Arcot.

Clive's forces were made up of 200 British soldiers, 300 sepoys and 600 troops provided by the EIC's ally in Arcot.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we just heard.

What issue triggered the Second Carnatic War involving the EIC and Compagnie des Indes? Was it whether to accept Mughal authority, a disagreement over who should become nawab of Arcot, or was it the outbreak of war in Europe? 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 B.

The Second Carnatic War was triggered by a disagreement over who should become nawab of Arcot.

And the EIC and Compagnie des Indes supported different sides in the conflict.

So we're now ready to put all of our knowledge from today's lesson into practise.

I want you to explain how the power of the British East India Company increased in the first half of the 18th century.

As part of your answer, you may refer to alliances and sepoys.

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 I asked you to explain how the power of the British East India Company increased in the first half of the 18th century.

And your answer may have included, the British East India Company increased its power in the first half of the 18th century by creating alliances with Indian leaders and recruiting its own private army.

For example, the EIC won the support of Indian leaders, such as the nawab of Arcot so that both sides offered one another support against their rivals.

The EIC also began recruiting more Indian soldiers, especially sepoys after 1748, allowing it to gain fighting strength in India.

For instance, during the battle over Arcot in 1752, the EIC's fighting force was mainly made up by sepoys and troops provided by the nawab of Arcot.

So really well done if your own response looked something like our model there by managing to refer to both of our keywords, sepoys and alliances, and getting some specific factual details included as part of the answer.

So now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about the growth of the East India Company as a private army.

We've seen that European countries aim to strengthen their power by increasing their own trade and disrupting that of their rivals.

The British East India Company and French Compagnie des Indes rivalled one another in India.

The British and French made alliances with different Indian states, such as Arcot and Bengal.

And the EIC and Compagnie des Indes recruited large private armies, largely made up of sepoy soldiers, which fought one another and supported each side's allies during the Carnatic Wars.

So it really well done for all of your hard work throughout 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 continue to ask ourselves when exactly did Mughal power collapse in India?.