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Date
|
Event
|
Topics
|
| Details |
1733 |
Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wants to add excise tax to tobacco and wine. Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax. |
*Economics
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1754 |
Dupleix recalled to France in humiliation; Robert Clive returns to England in triumph. First Royal troops not belonging to the East India Company dispatched to India. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1756 |
The Seven Years War with France--Pitt's trade war--begins. |
*France
*Economics
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1757 |
The Nawab of Bengal tries to expell the British, but is defeated at the battle of Plassy; the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive, who then sets up a puppet as Nawab and changes money and land for the services of the East India Company army. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1758 |
India stops being merely a commercial venture; England begins dominating it politically. The
East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade.
|
*India
*Colonialism
*East India Company |
| Details |
1763 |
Peace with France gives back everything Pitt fought to obtain (Newfoundland fishing rights, Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar trade], Dakar [gum trade]). John Wilkes is imprisoned in the Tower for his North Briton article; the judge Lord Camden rules against the government, thereby outlawing "general warrants," instruments of arbitrary imprisonment. |
*France
*Colonialism
*Economics |
| Details |
1767 - 1799 |
Anglo-Mysore Wars. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1770 |
Raynal, Histoire des deux Indes. |
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1772 |
Warren Hastings becomes Governor of Bengal. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1775 |
War with American Colonies begins. |
*American Revolution
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1780 |
Mahrattas and Hyder Ali fight against the British until 1804. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1780 |
Ireland: Colonial trade opened to Irish goods. |
*Ireland
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1782 |
The British acquire the Mysore districts in India. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1784 |
Sir William Jones, "A Discourse on the Institution of a Society for Inquiring into the History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia." |
*India
*Colonialism
*Orientalism |
| Details |
1784 |
Pitt's India Act gives the Crown the power to guide Indian politics (as opposed to officers of the East India Company alone).
|
*India
*Colonialism
*East India Company |
| Details |
Jan 15, 1784 |
India: The Asiatic Society of Bengal is founded with Sir William Jones as president. His address to the committee, "A Dissertation on the Orthography of Asiatick Words in Roman Letters," is published in the Society's Transactions in 1788. |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1786 |
Warren Hastings, Memoirs Relative to the State of India |
*India
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1788 - 1792 |
Usually considered the period of mass abolitionist agitation, led by Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Pitt. The West Indian port system is renewed and expanded (through 1792). Government seeks to expand British colonial cotton growth. |
*Abolition
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1801 |
Abolition: A struggle begins over the sale of St. Vincent and Trinidad crown lands. St. Bartholomew is captured, as are all Danish West Indies. |
*Abolition
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1802 |
Wilberforce postpones a general abolition motion. Plantation expansion is blocked in Trinidad and St. Vincent. The Peace of Amiens between England and France restores slave colonies to prewar status except for Trinidad, San Domingo, and Louisiana. |
*Abolition
*France
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1803 |
Sugar prices begin to rise again. |
*Colonialism
*Economics |
| Details |
1804 |
Commons passes a general abolition bill for the first time since 1792. Lords tables the bill on grounds of late reception. Abolitionists resolve to revive activity, but without mass petitioning. Surinam is recaptured by the British. Sugar prices good. |
*Abolition
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1805 |
Commons narrowly defeats abolition. An order-in-council ends the African trade to conquered slave areas by 1807 and immediately reduces annual "imports" to 3 percent of the existing slave population. |
*Abolition
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1807 |
Sierra Leone becomes a crown colony. Sugar prices continue downward. Madeira, Curacao, and the Danish West Indies are captured by the British. |
*Colonialism |
| Details |
1808 |
The Abolition Act takes effect. Sugar prices continue to be very low. Mariegalante and Desirade are captured by the British. |
*Abolition
*Colonialism |
