East India Company · 1600-1785

The East India Company in India

A London trading company arrives in Mughal India asking for permission to trade, and about 160 years later it rules Bengal. Students follow the Company from Surat, Madras and Calcutta to the battlefield of Plassey, and ask how traders became rulers, and at what cost.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1700 to AD 1783
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A London trading company arrives in Mughal India asking for permission to trade, and about 160 years later it rules Bengal. Students follow the Company from Surat, Madras and Calcutta to the battlefield of Plassey, and ask how traders became rulers, and at what cost.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain how the East India Company changed from a trading company into a ruling power in India.
  • Locate Surat, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Plassey on the map.
  • Describe the effects of Company rule on the people of Bengal.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1700

The Mughal giant

Open the map in 1700 and zoom in on India. Find the Mughal Empire and compare its size with England. Why did the first English traders have to ask the emperor's permission?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1700

Coastal trading posts

Find Surat and Bombay on the west coast, Madras on the south-east coast and Calcutta in Bengal. Why did the Company build its bases on the coast rather than inland?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1783

A new map

Jump to 1783 and look at India again. Find Bengal, Madras, the Maratha Confederacy and Mysore. Is the Mughal Empire still the great power of India?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. From 1615 the English envoy Thomas Roe spent years seeking favour at the Mughal court. Why was the Company so weak in India at first?
  2. Most soldiers in the Company's armies were Indians, called sepoys. Why would Indian soldiers serve a British company?
  3. At Plassey, Clive won partly through a secret deal with the Nawab's commander, Mir Jafar. Was that a victory or a bribe?
  4. In 1769-1770 millions died in a famine in Bengal while the Company kept collecting taxes. Who was responsible?
  5. Should a private company be allowed to rule millions of people? Why did Parliament begin to control it in 1773?
4

Game round

10 min

Play a round of Rule History as Akbar, the Mughal emperor, whose empire was at its height when the first English traders arrived. Discuss: his successors let a foreign company trade, and later collect taxes. Which decisions would you make differently to protect the empire?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.