During World War II, this flag, with the Star of India emblazoned on the British Union Jack, flew over India.

As their economic power increased, Europeans managed to take over almost all of South Asia, although they did eventually have to resort to military force to cement their power.

In ancient times, ALEXANDER THE GREAT conquered vast portions of South Asia. In the centuries following his reign, Europeans never forgot the wealth and luxury that could be found in the region. By the late 15th century, the pope granted Portugal exclusive trading rights with India, and for a while Portugal turned a tidy profit.

When the Portugese trader VASCO DA GAMA discovered a way to sail around the huge continent of Africa (which had for a long time stood as a major obstacle to European trade with South Asia), he managed to bring back 300 times as much wealth from India as he had taken with him — even though he lost two ships during the voyage.

The British East India Company

The Jhelum River was the site of Alexander the Great's defeat of Porus of India.

At first, the Company made good money. Soon, however, the Company realized it had little of value to trade for Indian goods. The only wealth Britain had that South Asia wanted was precious metal, but Britain imposed restrictions on just how much gold and silver a company could export. For a brief while, the Company fell on hard times.

In the mid-17th century, though, the British government granted powers to the Company that are usually reserved only for independent countries. First, the Company gained the right to mint its own money. Second, it was granted political authority over all British citizens working in South Asian factories. Effectively, the Company was a government for those citizens. Finally, the Company actually had permission to wage war against any non-Christians in South Asia if it saw fit to do so.

The Company made use of all these privileges and soon began to bring massive amounts of wealth into the British Empire. In fact, at its peak, the Company conducted fully one half of all the trade in the world! No other company in history has matched the Company in this regard. The Company effectively governed 200 million dependents and held many times more lands than the British monarch, its sovereign.

The British and the Portuguese were not the only Europeans interested in India. The French had extensive holdings there as well, and the two most important thrones in southern India were held by French puppet governors. Although Britain and France were officially at peace, they competed bitterly for holdings in South Asia.

Under the command of General Hardringe, the British defeated the Indian warriors of the Khalsa in the Anglo-Sikh Wars, despite being outnumbered.

In 1751, Englishman ROBERT CLIVE led a force of 500 men against Arcot, the center of French power in South Asia. By quickly installing British puppets in place of the French ones, Clive ensured that French influence in the region would not last long.

Robert Clive saw to it that British influence expanded into new regions of South Asia too. In 1756, the native governor of the Bengal region captured the British FORT WILLIAM IN CALCUTTA. He imprisoned 64 British citizens in their own dungeon, called the BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA, and many of them died there. The angry British in South Asia put Clive in charge of a force of 2,400 men, and he quickly recaptured the fort. Once again, Clive installed British puppets in place of his former enemies.

Britain now held Bengal, the richest region of South Asia. Soon, the British were exporting almost all the wealth of South Asia back to the British Empire. Needless to say, native Indians were not happy to see the fruit of their labors stolen, and they frequently put up resistance. Most of the time, though, their efforts to repel British forces met with failure.

The Sikh Khalsa were a tough group. Baba Deep Singh brandishes a shaster, a deadly and effective weapon used in the traditional martial art of gatka. When wielded by a master, this weapon can hold of hordes of attackers.

For example, in the 19th century, the fertile Punjab region belonged to the Sikhs. Apart from the British, the Sikhs had the only modern army in India — the KHALSA. Although the British army dwarfed the Khalsa in numbers, the Khalsa's forces were spread throughout the region.

In 1844, BRITISH GOVERNOR-GENERAL HARDRINGE declared war with the Khalsa. Although the British were outnumbered, their superior industrial firepower left 20,000 of the Khalsa dead, while the British lost only 2,000 soldiers. Skirmishes with the Sikhs in the Punjab region continued until 1849. At that point, though, the British victory was complete, and they annexed Punjab as part of the Empire.

British governors generally taxed fairly and improved their holdings, often building roads in the region. Eventually, though, the British also began to impose their own ideas of culture on the people they governed in South Asia. For instance, they forbade the religious practice of suttee, in which, where women threw themselves on the burning funeral pyres of their husbands.

The Sepoy Rebellion

These coins depicting Queen Victoria were minted for India during British imperial rule.

Also, they were required to use a rifle whose cartridges were lubricated with animal fat. Normally, the cartridge paper would be torn with the teeth, and both Hindu and Muslim soldiers found the practice sacrilegious, because the fat could be from a cow (sacred to the Hindu) or a pig (forbidden to Muslims).

They managed a few key victories and also slaughtered many of the British who had surrendered. The British were equally cruel. Both sides practiced mass murder and religious desecration. The British retook Delhi in 1857, but the bloody rebellion lasted into 1858. And the conflict that it started was not settled until the next century.

Up until this point, the East India Company still controlled India in name. The British government decided, though, that to avert further war it would officially claim India as its own.

British Ethnocentrism

Once India was free of British rule, not all British influence was abandoned. Cricket in particular remained and became a nation-wide phenomenon.

But the British continued to impose their own morality on native Indians.

At the same time that they tried to outlaw suttee they also attempted to abolish the caste system. The British believed that people were inherently unequal — and that they themselves were superior to Indians — but they still considered the caste system a primitive practice.

Conflicts over these sorts of issues fueled the flames of unrest that led to the First War of Independence and to the enduring conflict between the Indians and their foreign, imperialist rulers.

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For a while, it seemed that India would be part of the British Empire forever. British confidence surged as they built railroads and telegraphs, explored their new colony, and of course made lots of money.

But already the seeds of resistance were taking root among non-British South Asians, who would not rest until South Asia was free of European rule. And a man named Gandhi loomed on the horizon.