Winds of Change

S1.E2 - Hostile Takeover

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After the death of Aurangzeb, the United East India Company benefitted from the political chaos of 18th century India. Allying with, fighting against, and eventually dominating the Nawabs of Bengal and Arcot, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy, and the Sultans of Mysore. At the Battles of Plassey and Buxar, Company generals like Sir Robert Clive asserted British authority over massive territories, and the Carnatic Wars hobbled their European rivals. The upheaval and priorities of Company rule had disastrous consequences in the Great Bengal Famine, which killed millions. In Britain, the Company increasingly came under government scrutiny with the Regulating Acts, and the impeachment of Warren Hastings by Edmund Burke. The Cornwallis Code, or Permanent Settlement, transformed the powers of landowners.


The British Empire in India was on the rise, but what goes up must come down.


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Thank you to my guest historians:

  • Philip J. Stern, Professor of History at Duke, and author of The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) and Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that built British Colonialism (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2023).
  • Jon Wilson, Professor of Modern History at King’s College, London, and author of India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire (London: Simon & Schuster, 2016)
  • Rupali Mishra, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, and author of A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India Company (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2018)
  • Benjamin R. Siegel, Associate Professor of History at Boston University, and author of Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)
  • Christina Welsch, Assistant Professor of History at the College of Wooster, and author of The Company's Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022)

    • Thank you to my guest voice actors:

    • Robin Pierson, host of the History of Byzantium Podcast.
    • David Crowther, host of the History of England Podcast


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      Winds of ChangeBy Samuel Hume