British Expansion: Mysore, Maratha and Sikh Wars, Subsidiary Alliance and Lapse

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How the Company expanded

After Bengal the Company used three tools: war, the Subsidiary Alliance and annexation by decree. Its main rivals were Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Maratha confederacy (the Peshwa at Poona with the Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle and Gaekwad houses) and the Sikh kingdom of Punjab. Each was defeated separately, often while the others stood aside, and each war ended in a treaty that exams pair with it.

Anglo-Mysore Wars

Hyder Ali, a soldier who rose to power in the Wodeyar kingdom of Mysore, fought the First War (1767-69), reached the outskirts of Madras and forced the Treaty of Madras (1769), which restored conquests and promised mutual help. In the Second War (1780-84) Hyder routed Colonel Baillie at Pollilur (1780), lost to Eyre Coote at Porto Novo (1781) and died in 1782; Tipu fought on until the Treaty of Mangalore (1784). The Third War (1790-92) began after Tipu attacked Travancore; Cornwallis allied with the Marathas and the Nizam, and by the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792) Tipu gave up half his kingdom, paid a heavy indemnity and handed over two sons as hostages. In the Fourth War (1799) under Wellesley, Tipu died defending Seringapatam, and the Wodeyar dynasty was restored to a smaller Mysore under a Subsidiary Alliance. Tipu sought French help and planted a Tree of Liberty at Seringapatam.

Anglo-Maratha Wars

The First War (1775-82) began when the Bombay government backed Raghunath Rao (Raghoba), a claimant to the Peshwaship, by the Treaty of Surat (1775); after a humiliating British defeat at Wadgaon (1779), the Treaty of Salbai (1782), mediated by Mahadji Scindia, restored the earlier position and kept peace for about twenty years. Peshwa Baji Rao II, driven out of Poona by Yashwantrao Holkar, signed the Treaty of Bassein on 31 December 1802 and accepted a Subsidiary Alliance. The Scindia and Bhonsle chiefs saw this as the surrender of Maratha independence, and the Second War (1803-05) followed; Arthur Wellesley won at Assaye and Lake at Laswari in 1803, and the chiefs signed the treaties of Deogaon (Bhonsle) and Surji-Arjungaon (Scindia). The Third War (1817-18), fought under Lord Hastings, ended Maratha power: the Peshwa was defeated at Kirkee and Koregaon, the Peshwaship was abolished, Baji Rao II was pensioned off to Bithur near Kanpur, and a small state of Satara was created for Shivaji's descendant Pratap Singh.

Anglo-Sikh Wars

Ranjit Singh had accepted the Sutlej as his boundary with the British by the Treaty of Amritsar (1809), signed with Charles Metcalfe. After his death in 1839 Punjab fell into disorder. In the First War (1845-46), under Governor-General Hardinge, the Sikhs lost at Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon; the Treaty of Lahore (1846) took the Jalandhar Doab, kept the boy Duleep Singh as ruler with his mother Rani Jindan as regent and a British Resident at Lahore, and Kashmir was sold to Gulab Singh of Jammu. The Second War (1848-49) began with Mulraj's revolt at Multan; after Chillianwala and the decisive British victory at Gujrat, Dalhousie annexed Punjab in 1849, sent Duleep Singh to England and took the Koh-i-Noor.

Subsidiary Alliance

Lord Wellesley (1798-1805) turned a device first used by Dupleix into a system. An allied ruler had to keep a British force in his territory and pay for it in cash or by ceding land, accept a British Resident at his court, employ no other Europeans, and make no war or alliance without British consent; in return the Company protected him from enemies at home and abroad. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to accept, in 1798, followed by Mysore (1799), Awadh (1801) and the Peshwa (1802). The ruler kept his throne but lost his independence, disbanded his own army and often sank into debt, while the Company gained a large army paid for by Indian rulers.

Doctrine of Lapse

Lord Dalhousie (1848-56) held that if the ruler of a dependent state died without a natural heir, the state lapsed to the Company; an adopted son could inherit private property but not the throne. Under it he annexed Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Udaipur in Chhattisgarh (1852), Jhansi (1853) and Nagpur (1854). He also stopped the pension of Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Baji Rao II, and ended the titles of the Nawab of the Carnatic and the Raja of Tanjore. In the same years he annexed Lower Burma (1852) after the Second Anglo-Burmese War and took Berar from the Nizam (1853).

Annexation of Awadh, 1856

Awadh had been a loyal ally under a Subsidiary Alliance since 1801, and Lapse could not be applied to it. Dalhousie annexed it in 1856 on the ground of misgovernment, relying on the reports of the Residents Sleeman and Outram, and sent Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta. The annexation angered the many sepoys of the Bengal army who came from Awadh, and its taluqdars lost estates in the revenue settlement that followed. Lapse and the Awadh annexation together explain why Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow became major centres of the Revolt a year later.

Key facts

Mysore war treaties: First, Madras 1769; Second, Mangalore 1784; Third, Seringapatam 1792 (Tipu lost half his kingdom); Fourth, 1799, Tipu killed at Seringapatam under Wellesley.
Hyder Ali beat Baillie at Pollilur (1780) but lost to Eyre Coote at Porto Novo (1781); he died in 1782 during the Second Mysore War.
Maratha treaties: Surat 1775 (with Raghoba), Salbai 1782 (ended the First War), Bassein 1802 (Baji Rao II accepted a Subsidiary Alliance), Deogaon and Surji-Arjungaon 1803 (Second War).
Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-18) under Lord Hastings abolished the Peshwaship; Baji Rao II was pensioned to Bithur; Koregaon (1 January 1818) was one of its battles.
Sikh treaties: Amritsar 1809 (Ranjit Singh and Metcalfe, Sutlej boundary); Lahore 1846 (after the First War); Punjab annexed 1849 under Dalhousie after Chillianwala and Gujrat.
Subsidiary Alliance (Wellesley): first accepted by the Nizam of Hyderabad (1798), then Mysore (1799), Awadh (1801) and the Peshwa (1802).
Doctrine of Lapse annexations in order: Satara 1848, Jaitpur and Sambalpur 1849, Udaipur 1852, Jhansi 1853, Nagpur 1854.
Awadh was annexed in 1856 on the ground of misgovernment, not under Lapse; Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was sent to Calcutta.
Governor-General and war: Warren Hastings - First Maratha, Second Mysore; Cornwallis - Third Mysore; Wellesley - Fourth Mysore, Second Maratha; Lord Hastings - Third Maratha; Hardinge - First Sikh; Dalhousie - Second Sikh.

Quick revision

Mysore: Madras 1769, Mangalore 1784, Seringapatam 1792, Tipu killed 1799; Maratha: Surat 1775, Salbai 1782, Bassein 31 Dec 1802, Assaye 1803, Peshwaship ended 1818; Sikh: Amritsar 1809, Lahore 1846, Punjab annexed 1849; Subsidiary Alliance by Wellesley, Nizam first 1798; Doctrine of Lapse by Dalhousie, Satara 1848 to Nagpur 1854; Awadh annexed 1856 for misgovernment

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