1. Lord Wellesley_(1798-1805)
1.1. Background
1.2. Significant Events Under Lord Wellesley
1.3. Legacy of Lord Wellesley
2. Subsidiary Alliance System
2.1. Ideation
2.2. Features of Subsidiary Alliance System
2.3. Various stages of Subsidiary Alliances
2.4. Impact of the Subsidiary Alliance Policy
2.5. Advantages to the British
2.6. Demerits
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Topic – Lord Wellesley (1798-1805) (Notes)
Subject – History
(Modern Indian History)
Table of Contents
Lord Wellesley (1798-1805)
Lord Wellesley served as Governor-General of Fort Williams from 1798 to 1805. During his reign, the fourth and final Anglo-Mysore war was fought, and Tipu was killed. In addition, the Second Anglo-Maratha War occurred, in which Bhonsle, Scindia, and Holkar were defeated. Wellesley followed the “subsidiary alliance” policy, which was accepted by the rulers of Mysore, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Macheri, Bharatpur, and Oudh, Tanjore, Berar, Peshwa, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Censorship of the Press Act of 1799 was also passed during his tenure, and Fort William College was founded in 1800 to train civil servants.
Background
- Richard Colley Wellesley was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator.
- He was Viscount Wellesley until 1781 when he succeeded his father as the 2nd Earl of Mornington.
- In 1799, he was elevated to the Irish peerage as Marquess Wellesley.
- Between 1798 and 1805, he was the fifth Governor-General of India, and he later served as Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet and as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
- In 1799, he invaded Mysore and defeated Tipu, the Sultan of Mysore, in a major battle, while portraying his adversary as a cruel tyrant who needed to be put down.
- In addition, he started the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
- Lord Wellesley (as Governor-General) arrived in India in 1798, at a time when the British were engaged in a global battle with France.
- Lord Wellesley decided that the time had come to bring as many Indian states under British control as possible.
- By 1797, the two most powerful Indian powers, Mysore and the Marathas had lost ground.
- The Third Anglo-Mysore War had reduced Mysore to a mere shadow of its former glory, and the Marathas were wasting their power in mutual intrigues and wars.
- Political conditions in India were favorable for a (British) expansionist policy: aggression was both easy and profitable.
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