Empire · approximate1795 – 1839 · 44 years
British India (1805)
The largest empire in history — at one point the British crown ruled a quarter of the world's land and people.
What it was
Built piecemeal from the 17th century onward through trading companies, naval power, settler colonization, and outright conquest, the British Empire reached its greatest extent in 1922 covering 35 million km² and 458 million people. Decolonization between 1947 and 1980 dismantled most of it; Hong Kong's 1997 return to China is sometimes cited as the closing date.
Why it mattered
English as a world language, common-law legal systems across five continents, the borders of dozens of modern states, and the shape of global trade are all direct legacies — for better and for very much worse.
From Wikipedia
Company rule in India was the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated and replaced with Mir Jafar, who had the support of the East India Company; or in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar; or in 1773, when the Company abolished local rule (Nizamat) in Bengal and established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General of Fort William, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance.
Wikipedia: Company rule in India·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Dashed borders mark empires whose extent we can date but whose precise frontiers are contested or undocumented.
- SOURCEreconstructed from Natural Earth country boundaries
- DETAILreconstructed-clipped-country
- SNAPSHOT1805
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire24
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity (any of its time-slices), best-documented first.
- Battle of Imphal1944World-changing
- Battle of Kohima1944World-changing
- Indian Rebellion of 18571857–58Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Bengal Wars of Succession1756–65Major conflict · 500K dead
- Second Anglo-Mysore War1780–84Major conflict · 100K dead
- Major conflict · 20K dead
- Battle of Tanga1914Major conflict
- Battle of Keren1941Major conflict
- Mysore Wars1766–99Significant · 600K dead
- Battle of Buxar1764Significant · 50K dead
- Burmese Wars1824–85Significant · 50K dead
- Sikh Wars1845–49Significant · 50K dead
- First Anglo-Sikh War1845–46Significant · 20K dead
- Second Anglo-Sikh War1848–49Significant · 20K dead
- Fourth Anglo-Mysore War1798–99Significant · 8.0K dead
- Third Carnatic War1756–63Significant
- First Anglo-Mysore War1767–69Significant
- Significant
- Third Anglo-Mysore War1790–92Significant
- Significant
- British Expedition to Tibet1903–04Significant
- Duar War1864–65Regional
- Regional
- Tirah Campaign1897–98Regional
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1795 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: British India (1805) (1795 – 1839). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/british-india-1805 · Sources & methodology