Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T10:41:35.518Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Noises Off: The Seven Years War in Bengal – Unseating a Nawab, 1756–57

from Part I - Dealing with the French Menace, 1744–61

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2013

G. J. Bryant
Affiliation:
Ph.D. from King's College London
Get access

Summary

The Nabob [Alivardi Khan] is coming down … with an intent to bully all the [European] settlements out of a large sum of money; Clive, ‘twould be a good deed to swinge the old dog. I don't speak at random when I say that the Company must think seriously of it, or twill not be worth their while to trade in Bengal.

Robert Orme (Calcutta councillor) to Robert Clive at Madras, 25 August 1752.

I flatter myself that the Expedition will not end with the retaking of Calcutta only; and that the Company's Estate in these parts will be settled in a Better and more lasting condition than ever.

Clive (Madras) to the secret Committee of the Court of Directors, London, 11 October 1756, on his appointment to command the relief mission to Bengal.

Old soldiers at home believe Our exploits in India have been much of the same Nature as those of Fernando Cortes.

Clive (Bengal) to his then friend, Henry Vansittart (Madras), 20 August 1759.

While there was every expectation at Madras that renewed conflict with France in Europe in 1756 would terminate the provisional Anglo-French truce in the Carnatic, it was not so certain that fighting between them would occur in Bengal. Here the Nawab was deemed to be strong enough to deter the Europeans from it and, anyway, neither had the spare resources to open up a second front deliberately.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Emergence of British Power in India, 1600-1784
A Grand Strategic Interpretation
, pp. 107 - 144
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×