Madras > Chennai Tamil Nadu India
1291 CE
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The Indian Ocean Lands
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The region of Madras (Tamil Nadu), in southeast India located on the Coromandel coast of the Bay of Bengal, becomes, from 850, the seat of the independent Chola state inaugurated by Vijayalaya.
John of Montecorvino and his companions had moved from Persia down by sea to India, in 1291, to the Madras region or "Country of St. Thomas" where he has preached for thirteen months and baptized about one hundred persons; his companion Nicholas dies.
From here Montecorvino writes home, in December 1291 (or 1292), the earliest noteworthy account of the Coromandel coast furnished by any Western European.
There are Portuguese settlements in and around Mylapore, the oldest residential district of Madras.
The Luz Church, built in 1516, was the first church built in Madras by the Portuguese.
Later, in 1522, the São Tomé basilica church is built in Mylapore by the Portuguese, after they destroyed the original Kapaleeswarar Temple, a temple of Shiva located on the site.
The Basilica is built over the supposed tomb of St Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, who is said to have arrived from Judea to Southern India—Tamilakam—in the present day Indian state of Kerala in CE 52 and preached between 52 and 72, when he was martyred on St. Thomas Mount.
Coromandel screens, ebony folding screens with panels of incised black lacquer, often painted gold or other colors and frequently decorated by the application of jade and other semiprecious stones, shell, or porcelain, have as many as twelve leaves and are of considerable size.
Scenes of Chinese life or landscape are typical, but European hunting or nautical scenes are also popular.
Although these screens have probably been made in northern or central China during the Kangxi period (1661–1722) of the Qing dynasty, they have receive their name from India's Coromandel coast, whence they are transshipped to Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries by merchants of the English and French East India companies.
Dutch traders also carried these screens from Bantam in Java, and in early accounts they are frequently called Bantam screens as well as Coromandel screens.
Many of the imported screens are cut up in the eighteenth century to make panels for the decoration of various kinds of cabinet furniture.
The British have become alarmed by Dupleix’s ambition, but the danger to their settlements and power is partly averted by the bitter mutual jealousy which exists between Dupleix and Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, French governor of the Isle of Bourbon (today's La Réunion).
An unofficial war later called the First Carnatic War takes place in 1746 between the British East India Company and the French Compagnie des Indes when, after the British initially capture a few French ships, the French call for backup from as far afield as Mauritius, and on September 21 1746, capture the British city of Madras.
Among the prisoners of war is Robert Clive.
Dupleix opposes the restoration of the town to the British, thus violating the treaty signed by La Bourdonnais.
Madras, captured by French Admiral La Bourdonnais in 1746, is returned to Britain under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in exchange for the French fortress of Louisbourg in North America, which the British had captured.
In 1746 the city of Madras had been captured by the French, but it had been returned to the British in 1748.
Following the fresh outbreak of war both sides were soon in conflict again.
By 1757 Britain held the upper hands after several victories by Robert Clive.
In 1758 French reinforcements under Lally had arrived in Pondicherry and set about advancing France's position on the Coromandel Coast, notably capturing Fort St. David.
This had caused alarm to the British, most of whose troops were with Clive in Bengal.
Lally had been poised to strike against Madras in June 1758, but short of money, he had launched an unsuccessful attack on Tanjore hoping to raise revenue there.
By the time he was ready to launch his assault on Madras it was December before the first French troops reached Madras, delayed partly by the onset of the monsoon season.
This had given the British extra time to prepare their defenses, and withdraw their outposts—boosting the garrison to nearly four thousand troops.
Madras in at this time was divided broadly into two distinct parts: the "Black town" where the majority native population lives, which is unfortified—and the "White town" where the smaller European population lives, which is dominated by Fort St George.
On December 14, French troops had entered the Black town unopposed, and finding it undefended, had begun to loot the houses.
The British had then launched a sortie with six hundred men under Colonel William Draper attacking the scattered French.
Bloody street-fighting had broken out which had left three hundred dead on each side before Draper's men withdrew into the fort.
While the result had been indecisive, and casualties even, the fight had had a devastating effect on French morale.
The two French commanders Lally and Bussy had begun arguing over the failure to cut off and trap Draper's raiding force.
Lally had fiercely criticized Bussy in public, but had not dismissed him from his post as second-in-command.
As the French took up their positions around the city, ready to besiege Fort St George, they were unable to open fire as they were still waiting for artillery ammunition to be brought up for the major siege guns.
For three weeks the guns had stood silent, until on January 2, 1759 they begin firing on the citadel.
In spite of an intense five-day bombardment and several infantry assaults, the French have failed to make the breakthrough they are hoping for—as the British defenses remain largely intact.
A large mine is detonated under the fortress, but this makes little impact on the defenses.
French morale falls further as they realize how little effect their attacks have had on the defenders.
Many of the soldiers grow disgruntled and desert, including one hundred and fifty who switch sides to join the garrison.
Lally is also facing an attack on his lines of supply by Muhammed Yusuf Khan, the British Sepoy commander at Chingleput, the only force that had not withdrawn into Madras upon the approach of the French.
Lally manages to beat off the British attack, but they still remain in the vicinity menacing his rear, stealing much needed supplies and blocking the passage of many to his forces.
After several weeks of heavy bombardment, the French are at last starting to make headway against the town's defenses.
The main bastion has been destroyed, and a breach opened in the walls.
The heavy exchange of fire has flattened much of Madras, with most of the town's houses gutted by shells.
A Royal Navy frigate runs the French blockade on January 30 and carries a large sum of money and a company of reinforcements into Madras.
Significantly they bring the news that the British fleet under Admiral George Pocock is on its way from Calcutta.
When Lally discovers this news he becomes aware that he will have to launch an all-or-nothing assault to storm the fortress before Pocock arrives.
He convenes a council of war, where it is agreed to launch an intense bombardment on the British guns, to knock them out of action.
On February 16, six British vessels, carrying six hundred troops, arrive off Madras.
Faced with this added threat, Lally takes the immediate decision to break off the siege and withdraw south.
The British victory at Madras is considered part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 as part of a string of British successes around the globe, and helps lay the foundations for eventual British strategic supremacy in India.
British forces will go on the offensive in India, decisively defeating a French force at Wandiwash, then capturing Pondicherry in 1761.
The string of battles are a major turning point in the battle for dominance on the subcontinent between Britain and France.
Aiming to measure the entire Indian subcontinent with scientific precision, the project is begun by the infantry officer William Lambton, under the auspices of the East India Company.
Under the leadership of his successor, George Everest, the project will be made a responsibility of the Survey of India.
The king, of South Indian ancestry, had faced powerful opposition from the Sinhalese chieftains who sought to limit his power.
A successful coup had been organized by the chieftains, marking the end of two thousand three hundred and fifty-eight years of self-rule on the island and resulting in the imprisonment of the King in Vellore.
The treaty is quite unique in that it was not signed by the monarch on the throne but by members of his court and other dignitaries of the kingdom.
The convention gains a degree of infamy when, according to apocryphal sources, Wariyapola Sri Sumangala, a Buddhist monk of the kingdom, had seized and trampled a Union Jack hoisted by the British, demanding the flag of Kandy be left flying until the Convention was signed.
The authenticity of the native signatures has recently been called into question.
The three Madras battalions involved in the mutiny are all disbanded.
The senior British officers responsible for the offensive dress regulations are recalled to England including the Commander-in-Chief of Madras Army, John Craddock, the company refusing to pay even his passage.
The orders regarding the 'new turbans' (round hats) are also cancelled.
After the incident, the incarcerated royals in Vellore fort are transferred to Calcutta.
The Governor of Madras, William Bentinck, too is recalled, the Company's Court of Directors regretting that "greater care and caution had not been exercised in examining into the real sentiments and dispositions of the sepoys before measures of severity were adopted to enforce the order respecting the use of the new turban."
The controversial interference with the social and religious customs of the sepoys is also abolished, as is flogging within the Indian regiments.
The only surviving eyewitness account of the actual outbreak of the mutiny is that of Amelia Farrer, Lady Fancourt (the wife of St. John Fancourt, the commander of the fort).
Her manuscript account, written two weeks after the massacre, describes how she and her children survived as her husband perished.