• It was alleged that 146 European prisoners were kept in a room measuring 18 by 15 feet and it is said that all except 23 prisoners died of suffocation.
• The veracity of this incident, known as the "Black Hole Tragedy of Calcutta" in British accounts, has been debated among historians

• In 1580 Philip II, King of Spain, defeated Portugal and annexed it.
• In India the Dutch defeated the Portuguese in Ceylon and later seized the Portuguese fort on Malabar Coast.
• Thereafter rather than protecting their settlements in India, Portuguese began to evince greater interest in Brazil.

• Albuquerque (1509-1515), the.successor of Almeida, was the real founder of the Portuguese empire in India.
• He defeated Yusuf Adil Khan, the ruler of Bijapur in 1510 and captured Goa.
• He developed Goa into a centre of commerce by making all the ships sail on that route.
• He encouraged people of all faiths to settle in Goa.

• Weaving was the second most important economic activity in the country, supported by subsidiary activities like spinning and dyeing.
• Manufacturing - that is, handicraft production - was carried on both in urban and rural areas. Luxury crafts, like metalwork, were urban based.
• Weaving was mostly done in rural areas. India had a great advantage in that cotton was grown in the country.

• The English acquired the islands of Bombay in 1668, and setup their headquarters In Bombay in 1687.
• Their primary objective was to develop Bombay as an alternate base for their operations.

• The Dutch, followed by the English, arrived in Surat in the early years of the 1600s to begin their trading activities.
• The Mughal governor permitted them to trade, and to set up their "factories".

• The Europeans were quite aware of the wealth and power of the Mughals, and English poets even wrote about the fabulous "wealth of India".
• Travellers from all parts of Europe visited India regularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
• The journals of their travels present a detailed contemporary account of the empire and society in India.

• The victory of the British led to the signing of the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) by Robert Clive with Shah Alam II.
• By this treaty the Company got the Diwani right to collect land revenue from the princely states of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa

• The wars fought between Britain and France in Europe also led to clashes between these two countries over their colonial possessions in North America and India.
• When the war broke out, the new Governor of Pondicherry, Dupleix appealed to Morse, the Governor of Madras, to remain neutral.
• But a British squadron under Commodore Barnett captured some of the French vessels with Indian goods and precipitated the situation

• Factory in the then context referred to a warehouse or a place where factors, or commercial agents, resided to transact business for their employers abroad.
• In 1510, Albuquerque captured Goa from the ruler of Bijapur and made it the capital of the Portuguese Empire in the East.
• The Dutch set up factories at Masulipatam (1605), Pulicat (1610), Surat (1616), Bimilipatam (1641), Karaikal (1645), Chinsura (1653), Kasimbazar, Baranagore, Patna, Balasore, Nagapattinam (all in 1658) and Cochin (1663).
• Denmark also established trade settlements in India and their settlements were at Tranquebar in Tamilnadu (1620) and Serampore, their headquarters in Bengal.
• Surat (1668), Masulipatnarn (1669), Pondicherry, a small village then (1673), Chandernagore in Bengal (1690).
• Later they acquired Mahe in the Malabar, Yanam in Coromandal (both in 1725) and Karaikal (1739).

• The first Viceroy was Francisco de Almeida who followed what is known as 'Blue Water Policy,' and accordingly, he added more ships to strengthen the navy rather than adding more settlements.
• He destroyed the fleet ofZamorin and a fleet sent by the Sultan of Egypt.
• He befriended the ruler of Cochin and built fortresses at Cochin, Kannur and other places on the Malabar coast

• A variety of coins were in circulation, there were money-changers or shroffs to test coins for their purity and decide their value in current terms.
• They also served as local bankers.
• Instead of transferring money as cash from one place to another, merchants issued bills of exchange, known as hundis which would be cashed by shroffs at different destinations at a specified rate of discount.

• Manufacturing - that is, handicraft production - was carried on both in urban and rural areas.
• Luxury crafts, like metalwork were urban based. Weaving was mostly done in rural areas. India had a great advantage in that cotton was grown in the country.
• Indian craft communities also possessed specialized knowledge about dyeing cotton using chemicals like alum to produce a permanent colour.

• Madras was ceded to East India Company in 1639 by the Raja of Chandragiri with permission to build a fortified factory which was named Fort St. George.
• This was the first landholding recorded by the Company on Indian soil.

• The Tamil region, presented a sharp contrast to the centralized stability of the Mughal empire in these decades.
• Politically the region was fragmented and unsettled. Under three Nayak kingdoms had been set up in the Tamil region: in Madurai, Thanjavur and Senji.