Near the end of the 15th century, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama became the first European to regenerate straight trade links with India ever since Roman times by becoming the first to reach by circumnavigating Africa (1497–1499). After arriving in Calicut, which by then was one of the foremost trading ports of the eastern world, he gained approval to trade in the city from Saamoothiri Rajah.
Trading enmities amongst the maritime European influences brought other European powers to India. The Dutch Republic, England, France, and Denmark-Norway, all established trading positions in India in the early 17th century. As the Mughal Empire fragmented in the early 18th century, and then as the Maratha Empire came to be declining after the third battle of Panipat, several comparatively weak and unbalanced Indian states which developed were progressively more exposed to manipulation by the Europeans, through reliant Indian rulers.…show more content… The overthrow of the formidable Indian ruler Tipoo Sultan in 1799 downgraded the French impact. This was followed by a quick spread of British power through the larger fragment of South Asia in the early 19th century. By the mid of the century the British had already extended straight or subsidiary control over nearly all of India. British India, comprising of the directly-ruled British presidencies and provinces, contained the most populated and appreciated parts of the British Empire and thus came to be known as "the jewel in the British
