Lord Wellesley
Also called: Richard Wellesley · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Rebels and the Raj"
Meaning
Lord Wellesley (Richard Wellesley) was Governor-General of the East India Company's territories in India from 1798 to 1805. Earlier officials had made similar deals, but he turned the Subsidiary Alliance into a regular system. Under this system, an Indian ruler kept British troops at his own cost, accepted a British Resident (a Company officer posted at his court) and dealt with other states only through the British. Wellesley used this system, and war, to spread Company power very fast.
Example
Hyderabad was among the first states to accept the Subsidiary Alliance, in 1798. In 1801, Wellesley forced the Nawab of Awadh to give up about half of his territory to the Company. After that, the Nawab had to act on the Resident's advice. Wellesley also fought the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, in which Tipu Sultan died at Seringapatam in 1799. The surveyor Francis Buchanan worked for a time as Wellesley's surgeon.
Don't confuse with
- Doctrine of Lapse: this was a 19th-century rule that took over a state when its ruler died without a natural male heir. The Subsidiary Alliance did not take over the state. It controlled a living ruler through troops and a Resident.
Related concepts
- Divide and rule
- Dastak
- Black Hole of Calcutta
- Siraj-ud-daulah
- Robert Clive
- Battle of Plassey
- Mir Jafar
- Mir Qasim
- Battle of Buxar 1764
- Treaty of Allahabad 1765