Whenever we say ‘East
India Company’, we usually mean the British East India Company. But the truth
is quite different. Apart from the Englishmen, many countries incorporated
their individual ‘East India Companies’
for the purpose of trading with the ‘Orient’, which generally means ‘countries
of the East’, particularly China, Japan and India.
At one time in history, Europe
was not as prosperous as it is today. The economic power, or more
appropriately, the wealth was concentrated in the Orient, including India. In
order to grow richer and to fetch the highly demanded goods from the Orient,
like spices, cotton, silk, etc., trading with the Orient became an economic
necessity, which Europe could not afford to ignore any longer.
But the hurdle was even
more robust. To reach the East, the then Muslim World had to be crossed. Since
the predominantly Christian Europe had bitter relations with the Muslim World
due to religious clashes and religious politics, particularly the Crusades in
various forms, it was even more difficult to get to the Orient. An alternative
was badly needed at this juncture, around 1400 A.D., i.e. some 600 years ago.
And two alternatives
came up. The first one was to round off the African continent from its southern end and reach Indian
Ocean.
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| Alternative No.1 : To reach the Orient via the southern tip of Africa |
The second one was more dangerous. That was, to sail across the Atlantic
to reach Japan, China and thence, India. As the Earth is spherical, if one
moves westward from Europe, was destined to reach the Orient someday.
 |
| Alternative No.2 : Circumnavigation of the Earth. |
Columbus
set out on sail in 1492, on this riskier route reaching an infinitely better alternative
to the Orient. He reached America. Thus began a new chapter and a new era of
discovery. Initially it was believed by the newcomers that they have reached
the ‘Indies’, but actually they were in the Caribbean. They called it ‘Indies’
and its native people ‘Indians’.
Now, to differentiate the
newly discovered ‘Indies’ from the original Indies, these Caribbean Islands
were called ‘West Indies’, while the actual Indies became ‘East Indies’.
Yet, the Orient, including
Indies inter alia, was lucrative for the Europeans. Every country somehow did
it, directly or through the maritime European adventurers. England adopted a
systematic approach to do it. The English merchants created an ‘English East
India Company’. Soon it was followed by the Dutch East India Company of Holland
(Netherlands). Then, French and Danish East India Companies came into existence.
Portugal too tried to establish one and much later, Sweden also did the same.
To understand the whole story better and through
maps, please watch this video.
