Important wars and battles in Indian History
First Anglo Mysore War - 1767 to 1769 A.D.
First Anglo Mysore War - 1767 to 1769 A.D.
The main causes of this war were Haider's ambition to drive the British
away from the Carnatic and finally from India and the British realization of
the threat posed to them by Haider. A tripartite alliance was formed against
Haider by the British, the Nizam and the Marathas. Haider's success in breaking
the alliance and declaration of war on the British. The war ended with the
defeat of British. The panic-stricken Madras government concluded the
humiliating Treaty of Madras in 1769 on the basis of mutual restitution of each
other's territories and a defensive alliance between the two parties committing
the English to help Hyder Ali in case he was attacked by another power.
The combined forces of the Nizam and of Haider marched into the Carnatic
and left the whole land "an ever lasting monument of vengeance". The
English move was slow due to the weak intelligence report about the progress of
the war till news about the conquest of Kaveripatnam reached Madras.
The army under Colonel Smith was able
to secure some victories in the initial stages at Changama and Tiruvannamalai.
Haider was driven off the field of battle with considerable loss but in the
later stages these victories gave practically no material advantage for the
English.
Lack of sufficient cavalry to keep the
enemy's array at a distance added to the personal jealousies between Colonel
Smith, the senior Commander and Colonel Wood, the favourite of the Council,
posed formidable difficulties in the way of the onward march of the English
army. Nizam now broke away from Haider as he had done earlier from the English.
Hostilities were renewed early in November
1767 when Haider seized Tirupattur, Vanyambadi and Ambur, which were soon
recovered by the English. The Nizam who had deserted Haider, having received
secret intimations that the English had deployed a considerable force under
Colonel Peach to attack his territory, soon joined sides with the English once
again confirming his previous treaty engagements he agreed to a limitation of
the forces which the English were obliged to send to him and ceded to the
Company Diwani of Mysore when that country should have been conquered from the
enemy in return for a tribute of seven lakhs of rupees.
Soon after signing the treaty with the
Nizam, the British Bombay (now Mumbai) forces entered Hider's territories on
the Malabar Coast. Mangalore soon came under their occupation but Hider's
seventeen-year old son, Tipu recovered it soon and the British forces were
compelled to retreat in panic on 11th May, 1768. The Carnatic was left at the
mercy of Haider who ravaged it completely. Edmund Burke described the situation
thus: "Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no
heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of
war before known or head of were mercy to that new havoc.
A storm of universal fire blasted
every field, consumed every house, and destroyed every temple. The miserable
inhabitants flying from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered;
others, without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank, or sacredness of
function, fathers torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped in a
whirlwind of cavalry and amidst the goading spears of drivers, and the
trampling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity in an unknown and
hostile land. Those who were able to evade this tempest fled to the walled cities.
But escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of
famine".
The difficulties of the English got
augmented due to the scarcity of finance and provisions for the army. The
detachment under Colonel Wood sent to the South was able to secure several
victories in the battles that followed; the English occupied several places
such as Atur, Namakkal, Satyamangalam, Dharmapuri, Tengricota and Coimbatore.
Haider who was in Bangalore at that time, finding the situation hard offered to
conclude peace in September 1768.
But the English brought forward some
severe conditions to which Haider could not agree; but he was the last man to
be dismayed by these; when the deputies rejected his offer of concessions and
prolonged the conflict, having no other alternative he decided to win his point
through force of arms. With courage born out of desperation Haider made a
savage sally and fell on Mulbugal and triumphantly came out.
It marked the starting point of
Haider's victorious march. "Rarely have rapacity and extortion met with a
prompter punishment" wrote Malleson, "Driven to bay, the wild and
untutored genius asserted itself. From the recovery of Mulbugal began the
series of successes ending in the tirumph of Haider Ali".
The English attempted to recover
Mulgal but in vain. Had the English been more reasonable in their demands, the
war would have terminated; instead, as Wilks observed, "the English made
cause to regret". By January 1769 Haider was able to regain almost every
fort that the English had seized, and moreover to occupy Karur.
When the invading army under Haider
reached the gates of Madras (now Chennai) and it became clear that it was not
easy to expel the enemy form the Carnatic, the Madras (Chennai) Government
resolved to make peace, and dispatched Captain Brooke to offer terms of peace.
The parties reached an agreement after some delay. Haider, a country power, was
able to dictate peace terms to the most powerful European power (perhaps the
world power) of the time, at the very centre of its power in South Madras
(Chennai).
Treaty:
The war was terminated by the peace
treaty concluded on 4th April 1769. It recommended for the mutual transfer of
the prisoners of war and conquered territories (excepting Karur and its
adjoining areas which were retained by Haider); it also provided for terms of
mutual assistance "that in case either of the contracting parties was
attacked they shall mutually assist each other to drive the enemy out".
This was a very advantageous clause for Haider, and he included this in the
treaty with particular zeal because he was constantly in danger of being
attacked by the Marathas; as Haider insisted firmly on this point, the British
were forced to agree.
Among the contemporary authorities,
Robson speaks of the peace of 1769 as having resounded to Haider's honour. While
Wilks holds that the peace was advantageous to the English, De La Tour observes
that "by this peace Haider Ali Khan gloriously finished a war which all
India supposed would terminate in his ruin". In the following year another
commercial treaty was concluded between Haider and the Bombay (now Mumbai)
Government which granted further commercial privileges.
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