_-_Robert_Clive_(1725%E2%80%931774),_1st_Baron_Clive_of_Plassey,_%27Clive_of_India%27_-_1180917_-_National_Trust.jpg){kind=link}
Introduction
Robert Clive was a brilliant and courageous officer in the private army of the British East India Company. More than anyone else, he ensured that India’s princes and people became partners with Britain rather than Dutch or French possessions, so shaping the character of India’s democratic, legal and economic institutions to this day.
IN 1744, eighteen-year-old Robert Clive went out to India as a lowly clerk, bearing a reputation for indiscipline.* But after enlisting in the militia of the British East India Company, which was vying with the French government for the control of trade with India, Clive proved to be a resourceful and daring leader.*
Trapped in a fort at Arcot, and unimpressed with his gunners, Clive manned the artillery himself, lifting the siege and losing only five or six of his own men.* He married* and returned to England to build himself a second career in Parliament, only to be urgently recalled to a restless Bengal in 1756. It was Clive who liberated Calcutta after the infamous ‘Black Hole’ incident the following year.*
The culmination of Clive’s Indian career was the Battle of Plassey in 1757, which cemented Britain as India’s almost exclusive partner in business and in government.* The relationships which Clive secured became the foundation of the British Raj, and of modern India.
The British East India Company was founded in 1600 to open up trade with Asia. The Dutch founded their own in 1602, and the French (at this time still a monarchy) in 1664. Austria, Denmark, Portugal and Sweden also had East India Companies, albeit briefly. Indian princes allied with one colonial power or another, and played them off against each other, while the colonial powers were hoping to deprive European rivals of wealth and military power. Many states on the European continent felt threatened by the ambitions of the Kings of France, and both Spain and France were vying with Britain for territory in the Caribbean and North America.
Not to put too fine a point on it, he operated a classic protection racket, undertaking to protect local businesses from broken windows.
See The Siege of Arcot, and Courage Under Fire.
His courtship was characteristically bold. See Blind Date.
See The Black Hole of Calcutta.
See .
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
