In the middle of the eighteenth century, European powers began to flex their muscle and take advantage of their military prowess to gain control over the less privileged world—thus began their experiment with colonialism in the Americas, Africa and Asia. The riches of the orient lured the merchants of Europe to those far away shores—and with their merchant ships went their military to protect their commercial interests.
Fortuitously, this coincided with the decline of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, and soon the lure of greed quickly turned to dreams of glory when British commanders, like Robert Clive, realized that they need not stop at just protecting their commercial interests—they could fill the void and take the country. What followed was an incredible two-hundred-year stretch where one small island planted its flag on every continent and created an empire on which the sun never set.
This story is about some of those dreamers and adventurers who helped alter the course of human events and laid the foundation for the crowning glory of the British Empire—the Raj.
Fortuitously, this coincided with the decline of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, and soon the lure of greed quickly turned to dreams of glory when British commanders, like Robert Clive, realized that they need not stop at just protecting their commercial interests—they could fill the void and take the country. What followed was an incredible two-hundred-year stretch where one small island planted its flag on every continent and created an empire on which the sun never set.
This story is about some of those dreamers and adventurers who helped alter the course of human events and laid the foundation for the crowning glory of the British Empire—the Raj.
