On this page, you will find NCERT Class 8 History Chapter 2 Notes Pdf free download. CBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 SST From Trade to Territory will seemingly, help them to revise the important concepts in less time.

From Trade to Territory Class 8 Notes Social Science History Chapter 2

CBSE Class 8 History Chapter 2 Notes Understanding the Lesson

1. Aurangzeb – the last powerful Mughal emperor, established his control on a very large area now known as India. He died in 1707 which resulted in:

  • Establishment of regional kingdoms.
  • Mughal governors took over the control.
  • Several powerful regional kingdoms came into existence.

2. British arrival by the IInd half of 18th century resulted in:

  • Emergence of new power.
  • They came as small trading company.
  • They were reluctant to grab the different territories.

3. After Aurangzeb the Mughals were only symbolical representatives.

4. Revolt of 1857 was naturally led by Bahadur Shah Zafar (the last Mughal Emperor)

5. In 1600, East India Company (E.I.C.) acquired the royal charter from Queen Elizabeth – I, the Queen of England.

  • The Charter granted the sole right to East India Company for trading with the East.
  • It granted absence of fear of competition in market for the East India Company.
  • They made a huge profit by their way of buying cheap and selling dear i.e. to buy the available goods at cheaper rate and sell them at a huge cost back in Europe.

6. Before East India Company, Portuguese already had established themselves in India with the base at Goa.

7. Vasco da Gama (Portuguese explorer) was the discoverer of sea route to India in 1498.

8. Dutch were also exploring the way to trade Indian Ocean by 17th century.

9. The things which India had for the purpose of trade with Europe were: pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon.

10. Rising competition amongst the several traders other than East India Company resulted in battles between the trading companies.

11. Battles were fought not only among the trading companies but also with local rulers that made the company to involve into politics also.

12. Ist English factory – on the Banks of the River Hugli in 1651.

13. Factory, a base from where the ‘factors’ operated, had a warehouse where goods for export were stored.

  • By 1696 – Beginning of fort building around the factory.
  • Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb issued farman granting ‘right to trade duty free’ to the company.

14. Early 18th Century saw conflict between the company and Nawabs of Bengal.

15. Nawabs of Bengal: Murshid Quli Khan (Ist Nawab) was followed by Alivardi Khan (IInd Nawab) and then Sirajuddaulah (IIIrd Nawab.)

16. Nawabs refused to grant concession to the East India Company.

17. Conflicts between the Nawabs and the East India Company for several rights and their denial by the Nawabs led to famous battle of Plassey.

18. The Battle of Plassey

  • After the death of Alivardi Khan in 1756, Sirajuddaulah become the Nawab.
  • The Company was thinking on ways to replace Sirajuddaulah and space a puppet ruler who would willingly give the concessions and other privileges in trade to the company.
  • The Company started motivating and helping rivalries of Nawab – Sirajuddaulah.
  • Sirajuddaulah finally got involved and infuriated and this led to the Battle of Plassey.
  • Resulted in defeat of Sirajuddaulah.

19. Reason, why Nawab Sirajuddaulah got defeated, was because Mir Jafar, one of Siraj’s commanders, never fought the war with the forces he was leading as commander. In short we can say, Mir Jafar cheated Nawab Sirajuddaulah as he was promised by the Company that he would get the post of Nawab after the defeat of Nawab Sirajuddaulah.

20. Battle of Plassey was the Ist major victory of the Company over Indian territory.

21. Finally Mir Jafar got placed as Nawab with the prime objective of expansion of trade.

22. The moment when Mir Jafar protested, he failed proving himself as the puppet ruler, so he was removed from the post of Nawab.

23. After the removal of Nawab Mir Jafar, Mir Qasim was placed on the seat of Nawab by the Company.

24. When Mir Qasim started complaining and interfering in company’s trade, he was defeated in the Battle of Buxar in 1764 and was removed from the post of Nawab.

25. Mir Jafar was again reinstalled as the Nawab of Bengal by the East India Company.

26. Mir Jafar died the very next year in 1765.

27. In 1765, Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of Bengal Provinces.

28. Appointment of the Company as the Diwan resulted in the beginning of exploitation of the vast revenue resources of Bengal.

29. By the early 18th century the Company trade with India had expanded.

30. Outflow of gold from Britain got slowed after the Plassey Battle and was entirely stopped after the Company got Diwani.

31. The Company expenses were now financed by revenues from India.

32. After the Battle of Buxar, a Resident was appointed in the Indian states by the Company.

  •  Residents were political and commercial agents of the Company who were serving the interests of the Company only.
  • With the help of Residents, the Company started getting involved in the internal matters of the states and provinces.
  • This all forced the states into subsidiary alliance.
  • This alliance stopped Indian rulers and they were disallowed to have their independent armed forces.
  • They were to be protected by the Company and had to pay for the ‘forces’ who protected them.
  • The Company was supposed to maintain the purpose of the protection.
  • Failure of payment by the rulers led to the capturing of their territory by the company.
  • Awadh and Hyderabad were the examples for the ceding of the territory on the ground of this subsidiary alliance.

33. The feeling of threat for the Company at any time during those days in their political and economical interest would result in direct military confrontation by the Company.

34. The best example of Military confrontation is State of Mysore:

  • The leadership of Haider Ali, one of the most powerful rulers of that time and his successor son Tipu Sultan, also one of the most powerful ruler of that time, made Mysore a great power under them.
  • Mysore was the controller of the profitable trade of the Malabar Coast from where the Company purchased pepper and cardamom.
  • In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom.
  • He disallowed local merchants from trading with the company.
  • He even established a close relationship with the French in India.
  • With the help of the French, he modernised his army.
  • Relationship of Tipu Sultan with the French and their help in getting his army modernised made the British furious.
  • Haider and Tipu were seen as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous by the Britishers who needed to be crushed.
  • This made the Company to fight four wars with Mysore.
  • In the last Battle of Srirangapatna, the Company ultimately got victory.
  • Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Srirangapatna.

35. The Marathas were also subdued in a series of wars.

  • 19th century saw the Company’s aggressive policy of territorial expansion and under the Governor-General Lord Hastings 1813-1823 a new policy of Paramountcy was initiated.
  • With the policy of Paramountcy, the Company claimed their authority as paramount and supreme.
  • This policy was used in annexation of several states.

36. Late 1830’s made the Company worried about Russia. It was thought that Russia might expand across Asia and enter India from north-west.

  • This fear made British willing to secure their control over the north-west.
  • A prolonged war was fought with Afghanistan (1838-1842) and establishment of the Company rule was seen there.
  • Two prolonged wars were fought with the Sikh kingdom also.

37. Governor-General Lord Dalhousie’s time period experienced the maximum annexation.

38. A policy was devised by Lord Dalhousie which came to be known as Doctrine of Lapse.

  • The policy claimed that if a ruler died without a male heir then his kingdom would be annexed by the Company.
  • Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854) are some fine examples who were annexed by the Company applying the Doctrine policy of Annexation.
  • In 1856 Awadh was also annexed by the Company but this time it was annexed with an added argument by the British – they said they were ‘obliged by duty’ to take over Awadh in order to free the people from ‘misgovernment’.
  • Misgovernment was cited as reason behind Awadh annexation.
  • Later Awadh also joined the great revolt of 1857.

39. When Warren Hastings became the governor-general of India, he introduced several administrative reforms focusing majorly on justice and its spheres.

40. Uniform Military culture was developed in early 19thcentury.

  • Soldiers were trained in European style.
  • Cavalry dominated the Army.
  • Rural areas had large number of armed peasants.
  • Awadh and Benaras started recruiting peasants into their army.
  • The East India Company adopted the method of recruitment from Awadh and Benaras.
  • Army recruited with this process by the British was known as sepoy army (From Indian word Sipahi (soldier)).

41. This is how the whole process of direct rule over 63% of territory and 78% of the population over India took place and this is how company transformed its motive from trading to territorial expansion.

From Trade to Territory Class 8 CBSE Notes Important Terms

Mercantile: A business enterprise that makes profit primarily through trade, buying goods at cheap rates and selling them at higher prices to the market.

Farman: Royal order.

Puppet: A person who is used like a toy and is controlled by someone who supervises him.

Injunction: Instruction.

Subservience: Willingness to obey others without any question.

Confederacy: a league or alliance.

Qazi: A magistrate or a judge.

Mufti: Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give ruling on religious matters.

Impeachment: Removal/ Impeaching of a govt, official before an appropriate tribunal.

Dharmashastras: It is a genre of Sanskrit text which refer to treatise (Shastras) of Hinduism of Dharma.

Sawar: Men on horses were termed as Sawars.

Musket: An infantry man’s heavy gun with long barrel, fixed from shoulders.

Matchlock: An early type of gun with a lock in which a piece of wick or cord is placed and ignited by a match.

Notes of History Class 8 Chapter 2 Time Period

1498: Vasco da Gama discovered the sea-route to India.

1600: The East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East.

1651: The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli.

1696: Began building a fort around the factory set up on the banks of the river Hugli.

1756: Alivardi Khan died and Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal.

1764: Battle of Buxar.

1765: MiorJafar died and Diwan appointed for provinces of Bengal.

1782-99: Tipusultan was the ruler of Mysore

1767-69: The first battle between the company and the Mysore

1780-84: The second battle between the company and the Mysore

1790-92: The third battle between the company and Mysore

1799: The last battle between the company and the Mysore. Tipu sultan was killed in this battle

1782: The first Anglo-Maratha was ended

1801: The nawab of Awadh was forced to give over half of his territory to the company

1803-05: The second Anglo-Maratha war took place

1817-19: The third Anglo-Maratha war took place

1813-23: Lord Hastings was the Governor-General of India

1849: Punjab was annexed

1848-56: Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General of India

1848: Satara was annexed

1850: Sambalpur was annexed.

1852: Udaipur was annexed.

1853: Nagpur was annexed.

1854: Jhansi was annexed.

1857: Great revolt broke out in India.