The Beginnings Of European Settlements In India

INDIA'S trade relations with Europe date back to the Greeks' early days. Several routes were used to transport goods between Europe and India and Southeast Asia during the middle Ages. One option was to travel by sea along the Persian Gulf, then overland through Iraq and Turkey before returning by sea to Venice and Genoa. 

 

•    Another option was to travel via the Red Sea, then overland to Alexandria, Egypt, and then by sea to Venice and Genoa. A third, less travelled overland route led to the Baltic via the passes of India's north-western frontier, Central Asia, and Russia. 

 

•    The Arab merchants and sailors dominated the Asian trade, while the Italians had a virtual monopoly on the Mediterranean and European trade. Goods travelling from Asia to Europe passed through a number of states and hands. 

 

•    Every state imposed tolls and duties, and every merchant profited handsomely. There were also many other challenges along the way, such as pirates and natural disasters. Despite this, the trade remained extremely profitable. This was primarily due to Europeans' pressing demand for Eastern spices, which commanded high prices in European markets. 

 

•    During the winter months, when there was little grass to feed the cattle, the Europeans relied on salted and peppered meat, and only a liberal use of spices could make this meat palatable. As a result, until the 17th century, European food was as spicy as Indian food.

 

•    Following the Ottoman conquest of Asia Minor and the capture of Constantinople in 1453, the old trade routes between the East and the West came under Turkish control. 

 

•    Furthermore, the merchants of Venice and Genoa monopolised trade between Europe and Asia, refusing to allow the new nation states of Western Europe, particularly Spain and Portugal, to participate in the old routes.

 

•    However, the West Europeans were unwilling to give up trade with India and Indonesia because it was too expensive. Spices were in high demand, and the profits to be had in the spice trade were enticing. The rumoured fabulous wealth of India was an added draw, as there was a severe gold shortage throughout Europe, and gold was required as a medium of exchange if trade was to continue unhindered. 

 

•    As a result, West European states and merchants began looking for new and safer sea routes to India and Indonesia's Spice Islands, then known as the East Indies. They wanted to break the trade monopolies of the Arabs and Venetians, avoid Turkish hostility, and establish direct trade relations with the East.

 

•    They were well-equipped to do so, thanks to significant advances in shipbuilding and navigation science during the 15th century. Furthermore, the Renaissance had instilled in the people of Western Europe a strong sense of adventure.

 

•    Portugal and Spain took the first steps, with their seamen, sponsored and controlled by their governments, ushering in a golden age of geographical exploration. Columbus of Spain set out to reach India in 1494, but instead discovered America. 

 

•    Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new and all-sea route connecting Europe and India in 1498. He sailed around Africa, passing through the Cape of Good Hope on his way to Calicut. He returned with a cargo that sold for 60 times what he paid for the trip.

 

•    These and other navigational breakthroughs ushered in a new era in world history. The discovery of America and the Cape route to India, according to Adam Smith, were "the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind."

 

•    The 17th and 18th centuries would see a massive increase in global trade. The vast new continent of America was opened to Europe, completely altering the relationship between Europe and Asia. Precious metals abound on the new continent.

 

•    Its gold and silver poured into Europe, boosting trade and providing some of the capital that would soon propel European nations to the forefront of trade, industry, and science. Furthermore, America was supposed to be an endless market for European manufacturers.

 

•    In the middle of the 15th century, European countries' penetration of Africa was another major source of early capital accumulation or enrichment.

 

•    Foreigners were initially drawn to Africa because of its gold and ivory. However, trade with Africa soon became centred on the slave trade. Spain and Portugal had a monopoly on this trade in the 16th century. Later, it was dominated by merchants from the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom. 

 

•    Thousands of Africans were sold as slaves in the West Indies, North and South America, year after year, especially after 1650. Slave ships transported manufactured goods from Europe to Africa, exchanging them for Negroes on the African coast, transporting these slaves across the Atlantic and exchanging them for colonial produce from plantations or mines, and finally bringing this produce back to Europe and selling it. 

 

•    The commercial supremacy of England and France was to be based on the enormous profits of this triangular trade.

 

•    The demand for slaves on the Western hemisphere's sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations and mines was insatiable, as the slaves' harsh working conditions and inhumane treatment resulted in a high mortality rate. 

 

•    Furthermore, Europe's small population could not have provided the low-cost labour required to fully exploit the New World's land and mines. While there is no exact figure for how many Africans were sold into slavery, historians estimate that it was somewhere between 15 and 50 million.

 

•    While massive population losses crippled African countries and societies, the slave trade and slave-labour plantations provided a significant portion of West European and North American prosperity. 

 

•    Furthermore, profits from the slave trade and slave-laboured plantations helped finance the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. The wealth extracted from India later played a similar role.

 

•    Slavery was abolished in the nineteenth century after it lost its economic importance, but it was openly defended and praised as long as it was profitable. 

 

•    The slave trade was supported by the monarch, ministers, and members of Parliament, church dignitaries, public opinion leaders, merchants, and industrialists. 

 

•    In the United Kingdom, for example, Queen Elizabeth, George III, Edmund Burke, Nelson, Gladstone, Disraeli, and Carlyle were all proponents of slavery.

 

•    European merchants and soldiers began the long process of penetrating and then subjecting Asian lands to their control in the 16th century. 

 

•    As commerce and then political power gradually shifted westward towards the Atlantic coast, the prosperity of Italian towns and merchants was destroyed.