Number of words: 484 The hinterlands of Bombay were then controlled by a set of powerful Maratha principalities. These states, the most important of which had their capitals in Gwalior, Baroda, Indore and Nagpur, were founded after the region was wrested away from the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth century by the Maratha leader Shivaji … Read more
Number of words: 389 Of course, China too had acted early to ban the importation of opium, and the laws passed in 1729 were re-enacted twice more, once in the late eighteenth century and then again in the early nineteenth century. Because of these bans, the East India Company could not formally or explicitly acknowledge … Read more
Number of words: 374 The plant whose profile most closely resembles that of the opium poppy is the coca bush (Erythroxylum coca), the leaves of which can also be processed into the addictive drug cocaine. But for most of its long history coca was a grassroots psychoactive, used by indigenous populations in South America, where … Read more
Number of words: 779 Largely because of tea, China was consistently among four countries from which Britain bought its imports. The value of the goods that Britain received from China vastly exceeded what it got from most of its colonies: In 1857, for example, the computed real value of imports into the United Kingdom from … Read more
Number of words: 541 The seed from which this story begins is that of the tea bush T (Camellia sinensis), which produces most of the world’s tea. The oldest tea leaves go back 2,150 years and were found in the tomb of China’s Jia Ding Emperor. Beginning as an elite practice, tea drinking advanced quickly … Read more
Number of words: 250 The roots of India’s Chinese communities go back to the late eighteenth century, when the first Hakka migrants settled near Calcutta. Over time the community thrived; it ran several schools, temples and newspapers, and many of its members became successful professionals and entrepreneurs. Many Chinese Indians never visited China and had … Read more
Number of words: 279 The rebellion of 1857 brought the East India Company to its end. Its territories in India were put directly under government control. The Governor-General was replaced with a Viceroy, a representative of the Crown. The ratio of Europeans to Indians in the army was pushed up to 1:3 from 1:9. That … Read more
Number of words: 357 Aurangzeb’s big push was into the southern peninsula. He shifted to the Deccan in 1682 and would never see Delhi again. He lived in a constant state of campaigning for the next twenty-six years. Aurangzeb extended the empire but he also destroyed it. The never-ending wars were disastrous—for the Land and … Read more
Number of words: 528 The city of Vijayanagar was established just after the brutal raids of Alauddin Khilji’s general, Malik Kafur. Around 1336, two brothers, Hukka and Bukka, appear to have got together to defeat rival groups and build a fortified new city. This city was called Vijayanagar or City of Victory. At its height … Read more
Number of words: 1,056 Babur was a direct descendent of Ghengis Khan from his mother’s side and Taimur the lame on his father’s side. However, Taimur’s empire had been largely lost by the time Babur was born. At the age of twelve, Babur inherited a tiny kingdom in the beautiful Ferghana valley in Central Asia. … Read more
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