Almost
the entire History read in School curriculum was British rulers and partly
Mughals prior to them .. .. other glorious kingdoms did not get their
meritorious due ! .. .. – the British
East India Company that came to India as traders, slowly took over parcels of
kingdom, becoming the rulers, and later transferring power to British
Empire. We read, and were forced to
believe that United Kingdom was the most powerful and ruled over the entire
globe unscathed and unchallenged. It was
portrayal that Britain as an island may be small and isolated, but one that is
supremely tough. It had the power and had invaded, conquered other large
countries !!
First let us realise, what
was wrongly described as Sepoy Mutiny was not the first or the only major uprising against
the British invaders – there had been many, not all of them well recognised by those tainted historians. Here are some of them listed below :
The First Carnatic War (1746–1748) was the Indian theatre of the
War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars in
which the British and French East India Companies vied with each other on land
for control of their respective trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and
Cuddalore, while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the
coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in
southern India under the command of French Governor-General Joseph François
Dupleix in the Second Carnatic War.
Of the many rebellions, was the ‘Paika Rebellion’, an armed rebellion against Company rule in
India in 1817. The Paikas rose in rebellion under their leader BakshiJagabandhu
and projecting Lord Jagannath as the symbol of Odia unity, the rebellion
quickly spread across most of Odisha before being put down by the Company's
forces.
The Barrackpore mutiny was a rising of native Indian sepoys
against their British officers in Barrackpore in Nov 1824. The conflict arose when
the British East India Company was fighting the First Anglo-Burmese War
(1824–1826) under the leadership of the Governor-General of Bengal, William
Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst. The mutiny had its roots in British insensitivity
towards Indian cultural sentiments, combined with negligence and poor supply
arrangements, which caused growing resentment amongst the sepoys of several
regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry after a long march from Mathura to
Barrackpore.
The Anglo-Manipur War was an armed conflict between the British
Empire and the Kingdom of Manipur that occurred in 1891.
In 1942, Andaman & Nicobar islands were occupied by the
Japanese. Until 1938 the British
government used them as a penal colony for Indian and African political
prisoners, who were mainly put in the notorious Cellular Jail in Port Blair.
Just to cite a few examples where Indian fought the British but
could not succeed due to various extraneous reasons.
Normandy, is a geographical and cultural region in
Northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of
Normandy.Normandy comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and the
Channel Islands. Normandy's name comes
from the settlement of the territory by Vikings (Northmen) starting in the 9th
century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III
of France and the Viking jarl Rollo. England was
conquered and for 150 years following
the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by
having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England.
The
Norman Conquest was the 11th-century invasion and occupation
of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish,
and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy,
later styled William the Conqueror.
William's
claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the
childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's
hopes for the throne. Edward died in 1066 and was succeeded by his
brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king HaraldHardrada invaded
northern England in Sept 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20
September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of
Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's
invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England.
Although
William's main rivals were gone, he still faced rebellions over the following
years and was not secure on the English throne until after 1072. The lands of
the resisting English elite were confiscated; some of the elite fled into
exile. To control his new kingdom, William granted lands to his followers and
built castles commanding military strongpoints throughout the land. Following
the conquest, many Anglo-Saxons, including groups of nobles, fled the country
for Scotland, Ireland, or Scandinavia.Members of King Harold Godwinson's family
sought refuge in Ireland and used their bases in that country for unsuccessful
invasions of England. The largest single exodus occurred in the 1070s, when a
group of Anglo-Saxons in a fleet of 235 ships sailed for the Byzantine
Empire.The empire became a popular destination for many English nobles and
soldiers, as the Byzantines were in need of mercenaries.The English became the
predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, until then a largely
Scandinavian unit, from which the emperor's bodyguard was drawn.
William
I (1028 - 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William
the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his
death in 1087. In 1066, following the
death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of
Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the
Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has
become known as the Norman Conquest. William was the son of the unmarried Duke
Robert I of Normandy and his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his
youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did
the anarchy which plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and
adolescence, members of the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for
control of the child duke, and for their own ends. In 1047, William was able to
quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy, a process
that was not complete until about 1060. His marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of
Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of
Flanders.
The
so called fortress of Great Britain was invaded and attacked at
least 70 times. This according to some historians, does not include the
hundreds of small invasions on the south west coast, or Wales, that plagued
many a small town. Enemies arriving from
Africa, America and - perhaps unsurprisingly - France have all landed on
Britain's shores and attempted to invade, with varying degrees of
success.Everyone knows about the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and
Germany's occupation of Guernsey during World War II.
History
is always interesting and teaches many a lessons.
28th Sept. 2022.
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