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East India Company

British trading company (1600–1874)

133 dated entries naming East India Company, drawn from 87 separate years between 1588 CE and 1874 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as British East India Company, English East India Company, Honourable East India Company in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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16th century

  • 1588June 18 – Sailing across the South Atlantic Ocean towards England, near the end of their voyage around the world, Thomas Cavendish and his East India Company fleet stumble across the Portuguese-controlled island of Saint Helena. While Saint Helena has been under the control of Portugal for 80 years, England had been unaware of its existence.source
  • 1595The Scourge of Malice is built and launched, and will go on to be used in the first, second, third and tenth voyages of the East India Company under its later name of Red Dragonsource
  • 1600East India Company granted Royal Charter by Elizabeth I of England (ran until disestablishment in 1874)source
  • 1600December 31 – The East India Company is granted a Royal charter in the Kingdom of England for trade with Asia.source

17th century

  • 1601February 13 – The first East India Company fleet leaves England on its voyage to the East Indies.source
  • 1601April 22 – The first expedition of the East India Company sets sail from England for the Spice Islands with John Davis as pilot-major.source
  • 1607September 5 – Hamlet is performed aboard the East India Company ship Red Dragon, under the command of Capt. William Keeling, anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone, the first known performance of a Shakespeare play outside England in English, and the first by amateurs.source
  • 1612September 5 – England's East India Company gets its first warships and establishes the "'Honourable East India Company's Marine'" to protect its freighters. The force develops over the centuries into the Royal Indian Navy and, after India's independence in 1947, the Indian Navy.source
  • 1612November 30 – Battle of Swally: Forces of the British East India Company and Portugal engage off the coast of India, resulting in an English victory.source
  • 1613October 28 – Keichō embassy: Hasekura Tsunenaga departs Japan in the Date Maru with a Japanese diplomatic mission to the Holy See, scheduled to first travel to Acapulco in New Spain, with a goal of concluding an agreement between Tokugawa Ieyasu and the East India Company, permitting English merchants to live and trade in Japan.source
  • 1616February – English merchants of the East India Company complain that the great troubles and wars in Japan since their arrival have put them to much pains and charges. Two great cities, Osaka and Sakaii, have been burned to the ground, each one almost as big as London, and not one house left standing, and it is reported above 300,000 men have lost their lives, “yet the old Emperor Ogusho Same hath prevailed and Fidaia Same either been slain or fled secretly away, that no news is to be heard of him.” Jesuits, priests, and friars are banished by the emperor and their churches and monasteries pulled down; they put the fault on the arrival of the English; it is said if Fidaia Same had prevailed against the emperor, he promised them entrance again, when without doubt all the English would have been driven out of Japan.source
  • 1616December 22 – An Indian youth (called one of "the first fruits of India") is baptized with the name "Peter" in London at the St. Dionis Backchurch, in a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor, the Privy Council, city aldermen, and officials of the Honourable East India Company. Peter thus becomes the first convert to the Anglican Church in India. He returns to India as a missionary, schooled in English and Latin.source
  • 1617December 15 – Sir Thomas Roe, a representative of England's East India Company, arrives in Ahmedabad at India's Mughal Empire, and seeks an audience with the Emperor, Shah Jahan. The Emperor receives Roe in an audience three weeks later, on January 6.source
  • 1618January 6 – Jahangir, ruler of the Mughal Empire in northern India, gives an audience for the first time to a representative of the British East India Company, receiving Sir Thomas Roe at the capital at Ahmedabad.source
  • 1620July 3 – Captain Andrew Shilling, on behalf of the English Honourable East India Company, lays claim to Table Bay in Africa.source
  • 162225 May – the East India Company ship Tryall sinks when it hits the Tryal Rocks reef off Australia. 94 out of the 143 crew die.source
  • 1623March 9 – Amboyna massacre: Ten English merchants in the service of the British East India Company, together with nine Japanese and one Portuguese, are executed by agents of the Dutch East India Company in Ambon, Maluku (Amboyna).source
  • 1625February 11 – Dutch–Portuguese War: The Battle of Hormuz, one of the largest naval battles ever fought in the Persian Gulf takes place in the Straits of Hormuz as fleets of the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company defend Persia against an attack by ships from the colony of Portuguese India.source
  • 1639August 22 – The British East India Company buys a strip of land from King Peda Venkata Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire for the construction of Fort St. George, the first settlement of British India, so founding modern-day Chennai, capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (celebrated as Madras Day).source
  • 1643December 25 – Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is sighted and named by Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company ship Royal Mary.source
  • 164325 December – Christmas Island is sighted and named by Captain William Mynors of the English East India Company's ship Royal Mary.source
  • 16595 May – first British colonists, from the East India Company, land on Saint Helena.source
  • 1664The British East India Company begins trade in Chinasource
  • 1664November 6 – The oldest hospital in India, the Government General Hospital, is opened at Madras by the English East India Company for the treatment of ill soldiers.source
  • 1665February 21 – In India, Shivaji Bhonsale of the Maratha Empire captures the English East India Company's trading post at Sadashivgad (in the modern-day Indian state of Karnataka).source
  • 1668March 27 – King Charles II of England signs an agreement with representatives of the English East India Company to lease the Indian city of Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) to the company for a rent of 10 pounds sterling per year, with transfer taking effect on September 21.source
  • 166827 July – Bombay is granted to the East India Company.source
  • 1668September 21 – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of March 27.source
  • 166821 September – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of 27 March.source
  • 1674June 12 – The British East India Company arranges a commercial treaty with the Maratha Empire after Henry Oxenden, the company's deputy governor, meets Emperor Shivaji for his recent coronation.source
  • 167412 June – the British East India Company arranges a commercial treaty with the Maratha Empire after Henry Oxenden, the company's deputy governor, meets Emperor Shivaji at his recent coronation.source
  • 1681August 10 – English sea captain Robert Knox of the East India Company publishes his book An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, about his adventures, 20-years imprisonment and escape from Ceylon.source
  • 1681October 27 – Sir John Child of England becomes the new Governor of Bombay province and, unofficially, Governor-General of all of the settlements of the East India Company in India. With the exception of a rebellion by Captain Richard Keigwin during the year 1684, Child expands British control until involving the British in a war with the Mughal Empire.source
  • 1682June 8 – The English trading freighter Johanna is wrecked off of the coast of South Africa with the loss of 10 of her 114 crew, becoming the first of Britain's East India Company fleet to be lost.source
  • 1683December 27 – Richard Keigwin leads a rebellion against the East India Company to take over as Governor of Bombay and most of the British territory in India, driving out Governor Sir John Child and arresting the Deputy Governor, Charles Ward. Keigwin surrenders the office less than a year later.source
  • 1684The British East India Company receives Chinese permission to build a trading station at Canton. Tea sells in Europe for less than a shilling a pound, but the import duty of 5 shillings makes it too expensive for most English people to afford; hence smuggled tea is drunk much more than legally imported tea.source
  • 1684The East India Company receives Chinese permission to build a trading station at Canton.source
  • 1684November 19 – Richard Keigwin, who had arrested the East India Company's Governor of Bombay in 1683, Josiah Child and had taken over as the unauthorized administrator of Bombay, turns control back to the company and its envoy, Sir Thomas Grantham, receiving a general pardon.source
  • 1685January 6 – American-born British citizen Elihu Yale, for whom Yale University in the U.S. is named, completes his term as the first leader of the Madras Presidency in India, administering the colony on behalf of the East India Company, and is succeeded by William Gyfford.source
  • 1686January 3 – In Madras (now Chennai) in India, local residents employed by the East India Company threaten to boycott their jobs after corporate administrator William Gyfford imposes a house tax on residences within the city walls. Gyfford places security forces at all entrances to the city and threatens to banish anyone who fails to pay their taxes, as well as to confiscate the goods of merchants who refuse to make sales. A compromise is reached the next day on the amount of the taxes.source
  • 1686August 4 – Portuguese soldiers hired by the East India Company mutiny rather than follow orders to join the war in Bengal. The ringleaders are quickly arrested and executed, and the mutiny ends.source
  • 1687February 11 – In India, troops under the command of Job Charnock of the East India Company, preparing to go to war against the Nawab of Bengal, Shaista Khan of the Mughal empire, destroy his fortresses located at Thana.source
  • 1689The English East India Company expands its influence, and a Committee of the House of Commons is formed to deal with the concerns of the Company.source
  • 1690August 24 – In India, the fort and trading settlement of Sutanuti is founded on the Hooghly River by the English East India Company, following the signing of an Anglo-Mughal treaty.source
  • 169024 August – In India, Sutanuti – which later becomes Kolkata – is founded by Job Charnock of the English East India Company.source
  • 1692December 5 – John Goldsborough arrives in Madras as the new administrator of the British East India Company.source
  • 1698September 5 – A charter is granted by King William III of England to the new East India Company of England, called "the New Company" or "the English Company" to break the monopoly that has existed in India since 1689 with the existing British East India Company.source

18th century

  • 1702June 16 – The English East India Company founds a settlement on Pulo Condore (modern-day Côn Sơn Island) off the coast of southern Vietnam as an entrepôt for ships travelling between India and China.source
  • 1708The Company of Merchants of London Trading (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) merges with the East Indies, and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies, to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.source
  • 1708Merger (with consent of Parliament) of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company.source
  • 1715October 11 – William Aislabie resigns as the British East India Company's administrator of Bombay and the company's territories and is replaced at year's end by Charles Boone.source
  • 1725January 15 – James Macrae, a former captain of a freighter for the British East India Company, is hired by the Company to administer the Madras Presidency (at this time, the "Presidency of Fort St. George"), and begins major reforms. The area administered is most of Southern India, including what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, parts the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and the union territory of Lakshadweep.source
  • 1728September 18 – John Deane, a colonial administrator of Britain's British East India Company, returns to Calcutta (Kolkata) after an absence of more than two years, and takes office at Fort William to return to administering the Bengal Presidency, an area now covering the Indian state of West Bengal and the nation of Bangladesh.source
  • 1732February 25 – John Stackhouse is appointed by the British East India Company as the new President of the Bengal Presidency and serves for seven years.source
  • 1739July 12 – The British East India Company signs a treaty with the Maratha Empire to gain the right of free trade within the territory.source
  • 1743April 13 – The British East India Company ship Princess Louisa is wrecked off the coast of Maio Island in the Cape Verde Islands, killing 49 of her 179 crew.source
  • 174313 April – British East India Company ship Princess Louisa is wrecked off the coast of Maio Island in the Cape Verde Islands, killing 49 of her 179 crew.source
  • 1750April 7 – Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone, a polygar in Tamil Nadu, raises slogans and launches a rebellion against Company rule in India due to his opposition to the East India Company's tax collection policies.source
  • 1751December 3 – Battle of Arnee in India (Second Carnatic War): A British East India Company–led force under Robert Clive defeats and routs a much larger Franco-Indian army, under the command of Raza Sahib, at Arni.source
  • 17513 December – Battle of Arnee in India (Second Carnatic War): A British East India Company-led force under Robert Clive defeats and routs a much larger Franco-Indian army under the command of Raza Sahib at Arni.source
  • 1755April 2 – A naval fleet, led by Commodore William James of the East India Company, captures Tulaji Angre's fortress Suvarnadurg from the Marathas.source
  • 1755July 17 – In a convoy of ships from Great Britain, returning to India for the East India Company, the lead ship Doddington (on her third voyage) wrecks in Algoa Bay near modern-day Port Elizabeth in South Africa, losing 247 of its 270 passengers and crew, together with a chest of gold coins from Robert Clive worth £33,000. In 1998, 1,400 coins from the wreck site are offered for sale, and in 2002 a portion is given to the South African government. Around twenty survivors of the wreck are eventually able to make safety after an open boat voyage.source
  • 1756February 14 – Battle of Vijaydurg: The Maratha Navy, that has controlled the western coast of India for the Maratha Empire for more than a century, is destroyed by British attackers fighting for the East India Company. On orders of Royal Navy Admiral Charles Watson, the British capture a Maratha ship (the former British warship HMS Restoration), set it on fire, and then float the burning vessel into the Vijaydurg Port where most of Maratha Admiral Tulaji Angre's ships are anchored. The fire soon spreads to the other ships, destroying one large warship armed with 74 cannons, eight gurabs of 200 tonnes apiece, and sixty galbat ships.source
  • 1757January 2 – Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta, India.source
  • 17572 January – Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta in India.source
  • 1757March 23 – The British East India Company takes control of Chandannagar and forces out the French Indian administrators.source
  • 1757June 23 – Battle of Plassey: 3,000 troops serving with the British East India Company under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah with the help of Mir Jafar, at Plassey in India, marking the first victory of the East India Company over India, which lasts until 1857.source
  • 1758February 1 – David Ochterlony, Massachusetts-born general with the East India Company (died 1825)source
  • 1760The East India Company had gained political and economic power over India.source
  • 1762September 24–October 6 – Battle of Manila: Troops of the British East India Company take Manila from the Spanish, leading to the British occupation of Manila and its being made an open port.source
  • 1763July 7 – The British East India Company declares Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, to be deposed.source
  • 17637 July – the British East India Company declare Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, to be deposed.source
  • 1764October 22 – Battle of Buxar: The British East India Company defeats the combined armies of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.source
  • 176422 October – deposed Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim defeated at the Battle of Buxar by the British East India Company.source
  • 1765January 29 – One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ruler of the Bengali people with the support and protection of the British East India Company, abdicates in favor of his 18-year-old son, Najmuddin Ali Khan.source
  • 176512 August – Robert Clive secures the rights for the East India Company to collect taxes in Bengal from Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II.source
  • 1771Warren Hastings of the British East India Company becomes governor of Bengal in India.source
  • 1772April 13 – Warren Hastings begins his service for the British East India Company as Governor of Bengal, arriving at the company's headquarters at Fort William, outside of Calcutta, and including what are now parts of northeast India and Bangladesh. Hastings serves for two years, then later becomes Governor-General of India.source
  • 1772June 10 – The crisis of 1772 is triggered when, following the flight of their partner Alexander Fordyce to France, the London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down (which has been speculating in East India Company stock) suspends payment. The resultant panic causes other banks to fail, extends to Scotland, Amsterdam and the Thirteen Colonies and threatens the East India Company with bankruptcy.source
  • 177210 June – Credit crisis of 1772 is triggered when, following the flight of their partner, Aberdeen-born Alexander Fordyce, to France, the London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down (which has been speculating in East India Company stock) suspends payment. The resultant panic causes failure of other banks, particularly in Scotland, and especially in Edinburgh and the Ayr Bank.source
  • 177210 June – credit crisis of 1772 is triggered when, following the flight of their partner Alexander Fordyce to France, the London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down (which has been speculating in East India Company stock) suspends payment. The resultant panic causes other banks, particularly in Scotland, to fail, extends to Amsterdam and the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, and threatens the East India Company with bankruptcy.source
  • 1773April 27 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act (coming into force on May 10), designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.source
  • 177327 April – Parliament passes the Tea Act 1773 (13 Geo. 3. c. 44), designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.source
  • 1773December 16 – Boston Tea Party: A group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor, in protest against British tax policies.source
  • 177316 December – a group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor in a protest against British tax policies that became known as the Boston Tea Party.source
  • 1775February 26 – The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates.source
  • 1775March 6 – Raghunathrao, Peshwa of the Maratha Empire in India, signs the Treaty of Surat with the British Governor-General Warren Hastings in Bombay ceding the territories of Salsette and Bassein to the British East India Company along with part of the revenues from Surat and Bharuch districts in return for military assistance. This leads to the First Anglo-Maratha War fought between the British and the Marathas, ending with the Treaty of Salbai in 1782.source
  • 1776March 1 – The Peshwa of the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company sign the Treaty of Purandar in which the British are able to secure Salsette Island and accept Sawai Madhavrao as a new Peshwa. The Marathas agree not to recognise existence of the French in India.source
  • 1782December 16 – East India Company: Hada and Mada Miah lead a rebellion in the Indian subcontinent against East India Company officer Robert Lindsay and his troops in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.source
  • 1783April 9–28 – Second Anglo-Mysore War: Siege of Bednore – Tipu Sultan of Mysore with 100,000 troops besieges 1600 British East India Company troops who are obliged to surrender with honours of war.source
  • 1783August 10 – The British East India Company packet ship Antelope (1781) is wrecked off Ulong Island in the Palau (Pelew) group, resulting in the first sustained European contact with those islands.source
  • 178411 March - Treaty of Mangalore signed between a jubilant Tipu Sultan and East India Company bringing a closure to Second Anglo-Mysore War.source
  • 1784August 13 – Parliament of Great Britain passes Pitt's India Act (An Act for the better Regulation and Management of the Affairs of the East India Company and of the British Possessions in India). It requires the governor-general to be chosen from outside the Company and makes company directors subject to parliamentary supervision.source
  • 1786August 11 – Captain Francis Light acquires the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah on behalf of the British East India Company, renaming it Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne, and establishing the settlement of George Town. This is the first colony of the British Empire in Southeast Asia.source
  • 179026 October - Kingdom of Coorg became a Protectorate of East India Company.source
  • 1798October 22 – Capitulation of the French garrison at Hyderabad to East India Company troops under James Kirkpatrick, British Resident.source
  • 17994 May – Battle of Seringapatam: British forces defeat the Sultan of Mysore; his kingdom is divided between the Honourable East India Company and Hyderabad.source

19th century

  • 1803October 14 – Orissa, an area of India along the Bay of Bengal that comprises the modern-day Indian state of Odisha, is occupied by the British under the British East India Company, after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The Maratha Empire formally cedes the area in the Treaty of Deogaon, signed on December 17.source
  • 180317 December - Treaty of Deogaon signed between the East India Company and the Rajah of Berar, Raghuji Bhonsle II. Bhonsle ceded territories, including Cuttack and Balasore, to the British.source
  • 1806July 10 – Vellore Mutiny: Indian sepoys mutiny against the East India Company, for the first time.source
  • 1809British recruits to the British East India Company (and subsequently to the Indian Civil Service) are required to learn at least one Indian language fluently.source
  • 1809May 31 – Mauritius campaign of 1809–11 – Action of 31 May 1809 in the Bay of Bengal: The French frigate Caroline, operating from Isle de France (Mauritius), captures most of a British East India Company fleetsource
  • 1813The East India Company's trading monopoly is abolished.source
  • 1817Madras Regulation Act 1817 brings temples in Madras Presidency under East India Company.source
  • 1818January 1 – Battle of Koregaon: Troops of the British East India Company score a decisive victory over the Maratha Empire.source
  • 1818January 6 – The Treaty of Mandeswar brings an end to the Third Anglo-Maratha War, ending the dominance of Marathas, and enhancing the power of the British East India Company, which controls territory occupied by 180 million Indians.source
  • 18186 January – Treaty of Mundosir annexes Indore and the Rajput states to the British East India Company.source
  • 1818June 3 – Baji Rao II, Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy, surrenders to Sir John Malcolm of the British East India Company, bringing an end to the Third Anglo-Maratha War and giving the company control of almost all of modern-day India.source
  • 1818July 1 – After a war that began on November 5, 1817, the forces of the East India Company defeat Baji Rao II in battle and acquire control over the Maratha Empire.source
  • 1819October 13 – A treaty is entered between the Raja of Cutch Deshalji II, and East India Company, placing the Cutch State under Company rule.source
  • 18242 August - The Treaty of Friendship and Alliance in Singapore was signed. The sultans of Johor cedes Singapore and its islands 10 geographical miles away from it to the British East India Companysource
  • 1826The British East India Company colony of the Straits Settlements is established.source
  • 1826Straits Settlements established as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company.source
  • 18319 October: The Nagar revolt which began in 1830, ended when the British East India Company took over.source
  • 1834The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends. It appoints a Tea Committee to assess the potential of Assam tea.source
  • 1835The British East India Company negotiates a lease of the Darjeeling area west of the Mahananda River, from the Kingdom of Sikkim.source
  • 1839East India Company forces capture Aden to provide a coaling station for ships en route to India, founding the Aden Colonysource
  • 1839Thomas John Newbold is appointed deputy assistant adjutant-general and postmaster to the field force of the East India Companysource
  • 1840East India Company initiated the tea trade in Chittagongsource
  • 1842January 6–13 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak): British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad Khan.source
  • 1845December 22–23 – Battle of Ferozeshah (Anglo-Sikh War): East India Company forces are victorious over those of the Sikh Empire.source
  • 1846March 9 – The First Anglo-Sikh war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Lahore. Kashmir is ceded to the British East India Company, and the Koh-i-Noor diamond is surrendered to Queen Victoria.source
  • 18469 March - the Treaty of Lahore was a peace treaty marking the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War. As a result, Maharaja Ranjit Singh ceded Kashmir to the British East India Company.source
  • 1847Annexation of Punjab (1847): The British East India Company annexed Punjab after the First Anglo-Sikh War.source
  • 1851Naga raids on the East India Company, 1851–65.source
  • 1851The first experimental electric telegraph line, between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour, is opened for the British East India Companysource
  • 1854March – The British East India Company annexes Jhansi State in India under the doctrine of lapse.source
  • 1856February 7 – The Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah, is exiled to Metiabruz and the state is annexed by the British East India Company.source
  • 1857April 8 – Mangal Pandey is hanged for mutiny against the British East India Company army; the execution is a precursor event to the Indian Rebellion of 1857.source
  • 1857May 10 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: The 3rd Light Cavalry of the British East India Company's army rebels against its British officers, thus beginning the rebellion.source
  • 1858August 2 – The Government of India Act, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, transfers the territories of the British East India Company and their administration to the direct rule of the British Crown, through a Secretary of State for India.source
  • 18581 November – the end of the British East India Company's rule in India is proclaimedsource
  • 1874East India Company is dissolved.source

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