The British Conquest of India (1798-1806) IV. The 2nd Anglo-Maratha War: Shinde & Bhonsle

How did Britain conquer the Maratha Empire? In this video (Part 4 of a 5-part series), we go over the first half of the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War, where, in 2 separate campaigns in the Deccan and Hindustan, Britain defeated the great Maratha lords of Shinde (Scindia) and Bhonsle, and in the process gained control of both the Maratha Peshwa in Pune, and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. This war also saw the future Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley) fight what he considered to be his finest victory: Assaye.
SCRIPT: strategosstuff.blogspot.com/2...
All errors are my own.
▬ CHAPTERS ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Start
1:12 - 8. Prelude (1802-03)
9:41 - 9. The Deccan Campaign (Aug-Dec 1803)
20:01 - 10. The Hindustan Campaign (Sep-Nov 1803)
▬ SOURCES ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Corrigan G. Wellington. Hambledon Continuum 2001.
Chowdhury M. Empire and Gunpowder. Routledge 2023.
Cooper R. The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India. Cambridge University Press 2007.
Davies H. Wellington’s Wars. Yale University Press 2012.
Holmes R. Wellington. Harper Perennial 2007.
Howard M. Wellington and the British Army’s Indian Campaigns. Pen & Sword Military 2020.
Muir R. Wellington. Yale University Press 2013.
Pearse H. Lake’s Campaigns in India. Leonaur 2007.
Roy K. War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia. Routledge 2011.
Bayly C. Empire and Information. Cambridge University Press 1999.
Severn J. Architects of Empire. University of Oklahoma Press 2007.
Stewart G. The New Cambridge History of India: The Marathas 1600-1818. Cambridge University Press 2008.
▬ ATTRIBUTIONS ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Wikipedia (basic facts + dates)
Maps:
Google Maps
www.deviantart.com/cyowari/ar...
(India 1750)
www.deviantart.com/cyowari/ar...
(India 1802)
www.deviantart.com/cyowari/ar...
(India 1807)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
(Battle of Assaye)
Pronunciations:
KZbin
Made using Microsoft Office 2013, Teleprompter, Remote Mouse, ShureMV7, Audacity, WavePad and VideoPad.

[@stepbruv8780]

Good now I can have solid strategy to play Victoria 3

[@besacciaesteban]

Just build sawmills everywhere 😂

[@tentathesane8032]

>implying pdx will give any meaningful depth to india before at least DLC #6 or 7

[@karimmezghiche9921]

Is there any military strategy in Victoria 3? As far as I see you just watch a bar go left or right

[@besacciaesteban]

@@karimmezghiche9921 i usually go for professional army and homeguard laws. It allows for a relatively small but strong army that can be supplied and payed for during long wars. IA usually goes into default before being able to reach their wargoal.

[@thelakeman2538]

​@@tentathesane8032 >implying pdx will ever make good India content

[@Wakobear.]

Fascinating. Your the only channel to make such detailed but concise and easy to follow videos on fairly niche but important topics

[@somsahay2161]

A great and informative video about the Second Anglo Maratha War. For greater detail on the military aspects, one can check the works of Randolph Cooper, who has extensively covered the Anglo Maratha conflict. I'll just add some additional context about the factors, both institutional and political that led to the weakening of the central authority and contributed to the defeat of the Marathas against the East India Company. Firstly, the issue of the Chattrapati losing power to his Peshwa occurred due to a succession crisis. The last effective Chatrapati, Shahu, died without an heir, and upon his death was succeeded by his nephew. This nephew was the puppet of the former queen Regent, Tarabai. She claimed this boy to be her grandson, and the sole direct heir of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha empire. But when the puppet tried to break free of her influence, she declared him to be a low caste imposter. Eventually the parties came to an agreement, and the new Chatrapati was accepted as legitimate, but doubts remained, and he legally ceded powers to the Peshwas, becoming a pensioner. However, a legal fiction was upheld, and is best seen on the occasion of Mahadji Scindia becoming the Regent of the puppet Mughal emperor in Delhi. The Scindia chief refused to accept the post without the consent of the Peshwa, and the child Peshwa's Regency council applied to the pensioner Chattrapati for the permission to accept then post, which resulted in Scindia becoming the Deputy Regent and the Peshwa as the Regent, represented by his own Regency council. Secondly, while the Peshwas were powerful with strong leaders like Bajirao I, Balaji Bajirao and Madhavrao, the regional chiefs remained subservient, and indeed many chiefs such as Scindia and Gaekwad were sometimes even removed from their commands and posts when seen as insubordinate. Stewart Gordon in his work ha spartually attributed such control to the centralized revenue system whereby the revenue collectors, land assessors and auditors, all were central officers, these collectors were called Kamavisdars, who personally assessed the annual produce of the land, and the revenue of the provinces, and sent direct reports to the auditors in Poona, the capital, and then allocated the share of the regional chiefs. Thus the Peshwas could keep these chiefs in check. But in the absence of an effective Peshwa, these checks could not be maintained, and soom with an absentee Peshwa, the regional chiefs began to exert more and more power over the fiscal administration of their realms, with no central minister powerful enough to check them, and having a consensus within the regency council was far more difficult, and this indecisiveness of the centre allowed the regional chiefs to expand their power. The Peshwas became absentee rulers due to the political and familial intrigues in their close circles. The last able Peshwa, Madhavrao I, died at the age of 27 due to tuberculosis in 1772, he was succeeded by his 16 year old brother Narayanrao. But within a year this teenaged Peshwa was murdered by the faction of his uncle, Raghunathrao, who felt that he had been passed over. Events took another turn when the chief Justice of the Maratha empire, Ram Shastri Prabhune, went through with the enquiry and pressed charges against Raghunathrao and his partisans for the murder of the Peshwa. Before that many ministers who had at the time submitted to Raghunathrao also went against him, as the widow of murdered teenaged Peshwa was found to be pregnant. In 1773, an infant Peshwa was installed on the throne, and power passed to his Regency council, made of 12 Ministers, called the Barabhai (12 brothers), led by Nana Fadnavis. The divided power in Poona and an infant Peshwa meant that there no longer was a Peshwa or a relative of the Peshwa to lead the armies of the empire, rather the regional chiefs were left to maintain and expand the empire. Nana Fadnavis, the leader of the Regency council was no general, but as an able diplomat he held the empire together. However, his paranoia that the Scindias, under a rising Mahadji Scindia would eclipse him and take power, led to him using a policy of encouraging rivalry between the Holkars of Indore and the Scindias. Using them to keep a check on each other....Despite this the Marathas held off the East India Company in the 1st Anglo Maratha War, and later Mahadji went onto consolidate Maratha rule in North India. In the Holkar state, despite the rivalry with the Scindias, the enlightened rule of 'Queen' Ahilyabai led to a peaceful state of affairs. But in 1793, Mahadji died, leaving behind a 17 year old nephew to succeed him, this was followed by the death of Ahilyabai in 1795, and then the alleged suicide of the young Peshwa again in 1795. The new Peshwa was Bajirao II, son of the disgraced Raghunathrao. He is sometimes called the Mad Peshwa, and his bitterness against Nana Fadnavis and others who had been against his father led to him ousting them from power. For this he appealed to the young Scindia chief, who was lured by the prospect of becoming the new puppet master for the Peshwa. Nana Fadnavis would be removed from power, while from 1797 to 1803, the Maratha realm would face multiple civil wars. The Widow's war was conducted against the young Scindia chief by Mahadji's widows, the Holkar succesion war whereby the Peshwa and the Scindia attempted to install a mentally unsound candidate on their throne, which failed due to the military prowess of the 3rd Holkar prince, Yeshwantrao. All culminating in Yeshwantrao Holkar taking Poona, and installing another puppet Peshwa, which led to the deposed Bajirao II fleeing to the EIC for succor. Lastly, as far as the military institution went, the Maratha cavalry also degraded in these years. As more expenditure was allocated to the maintainence of a European style Infantry and artillery, and limited European style heavy cavalry, the traditional Maratha light cavalry was neglected. The likes of Cooper have observed the reliance of the Marathas on their volunteer Silhadar cavalry over the regular state paid royal Huzurat and the salaried Bargir cavalry. The Silhadar brought their own horses and arms, and thus often charged advance as a guarantee for the campaign and also compensation in case for the loss of thier horses. Increasingly the Maratha chiefs did not pay them such advance and compensation on time, preference being given to the European trained troops over these when clearing the arrears. Thus, the Maratha cavalry was less likely to risk their horses in an actual battle rather mostly stuck to skirmishing, raiding and pursuing broken enemy rather than fighting pitched battles. The Marathas, especially the Holkars, also turned increasingly to the Pindaris who did not charge anything except a share of the plunder, and while they were excellent at light cavalry duties, they never fought if they had any risk. To compound the lack of quality fighting cavalry, the infantry was also made of a medley of foreigners rather than the Marathas themselves. The Arabs, North Indian Purabiyas, Telangas and Afghan orgin Pathans, and all of these were officered by Europeans. A such the senior Maratha generals, when they lost their European infantry and artillery officers to the EIC, as has been covered in this video, had no native officer or soldiers to rely on in these units, and could not form unit cohesion. There are also factors involving the economic advantages that a transactional company had over the land based state, but that's a very long subject that can span a research paper.

[@libshastra]

I'd recommend Uday Kulkarni as well. He has started to incorporate Maratha sources and archives stored by Peshwa admin's families in his history writing. These are personal archives that Western Scholars haven't studied (People distrust western scholars, they have reputation problem). I am excited to see what he finds.

[@anon2034]

"Maratha cavalry was less likely to risk their horses" couldn't they be insured in some way?

[@somsahay2161]

@@anon2034 As I mentioned, they were traditionally given advance payments and compensation when their horses were lost in a campaign. But after the formation of the new European style brigades, most of these measures were neglected since the traditional light cavalry was deemed less important. Another factor was that the State paid Bargir cavalry and the Royal Huzurat cavalry had shrunk and deteriorated considerably. As such relying on the under paid, and uninsured, volunteer Silahdars and the irregular Pindari plunderers essentially meant that the Maratha cavalry had very little actual striking power beyond light cavalry forays at the time of the Anglo Maratha war.

[@somsahay2161]

@@libshastra There are inaccurate and biased works on all sides when it comes to the Marathas, not just by the western historians, in fact most of the inaccuracies come from the Indian side that uses either denigrative or jingoistic approach depending on the individual's political leanings. But I do agree that Uday Kulkarni's works are very important, especially his adherence and frequent references to the contemporary Marathi letters and correspondence which gives us a far better understanding of their strategic and political character than most have had till now. That being said, I don't think he has covered the Anglo-Maratha wars yet, I've read his 2 works on Bajirao and Balaji Bajirao, both are quite excellent, and very impressive, especially for someone without a history background. As far as the Anglo-Maratha wars are concerned, I would recommend you to check the works of Randolph Cooper, he debunks a lot of faulty preconceptions and uses contemporary British reports to try and understand these conflicts. He specifically points out how the idea of a backwards, marauding cavalry based Asiatic power being overcome by a scientific, artillery and infantry based European power is actually false, and unfounded in any primary sources. He's also the first Western historian who charts the evolution of the Maratha regular infantry and artillery traditions prior to the second half of the 18th century, dispelling the myth of the often cited Maratha backwardness in musketry and artillery prior to the training and arrival of the French trained troops from the late 1750's. While not as impressive as the Euroepans or the likes of the Nizam's French trained troops, early 18th century Maratha infantry and artillery were nonetheless quite effective and professional.

[@Genktarov]

Brilliant line: “No amount of intelligence will be helpful if the interpretation of said intelligence is fundamentally flawed.” So many examples of this even in our day.

[@KynickB76]

You'd better never stop making videos until you die of old age, because this stuff is amazing to listen to. It's one of the few channel's videos that I repeatedly watch to better grasp it

[@GregMcNeish]

This series has been absolutely outstanding. Your best work yet. Can't wait for the final video to come out so I can marathon the series as a second viewing.

[@MustardAndFries]

Please SS! I have been waiting with bated breath for you to release part 5!!!!!

[@bigsarge2085]

Informative AND entertaining. Incredible documemtary, keep up the great work!

[@BlameThande]

In later life, Wellington upset the French by saying the Marathas at Assaye had been a tougher opponent than Napoleon at Waterloo. (Before Waterloo, Napoleon had claimed Wellington was an overrated general because he had 'only' beaten Indian troops...he soon had cause to eat his words)

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

Well, Waterloo certainly wasn't the French Army at its prime, that's for sure. Not Napoleon at its prime, either.

[@jdamsel8212]

@@KaiHung-wv3ul Napoleon with diarrhea is still Napoleon.

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

@@jdamsel8212 That's true. I guess the larger factor is that the rest of Europe have largely caught up to his tactics. And the French army was a shell of what it was in 1811.

[@johnreese5230]

@@KaiHung-wv3ul marathas weren't at their prime either at the time of assaye

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

@@johnreese5230 Yeah, but they still did outnumber Wellington by a lot.

[@micahistory]

every time I watch your videos, I remember why I love your channel so much, you make such detailed but easy to follow videos with great pacing and visuals. Thanks a lot

[@khosrau7541]

This is brilliant. As your videos always are. I feel a series in this style on the haudenosaunee confederacy could be really interesting. Although it'd be an obscure subject and i really want you channel to get more attention

[@tomj.l7988]

Crazy how Mornington created an empire to rival Alexander's or Caesars and was met with a 'meh, why you spend so much money' by his bosses and is relatively unknown today.

[@LuisAldamiz]

That's because he allowed himself to be bossed around. He should have invaded Britain as well...

[@tentathesane8032]

@@LuisAldamiz bruhh an alternate history where the EIC refused to hand over the company raj to the british government, and instead turned against them and conquered britain, establishing a corpocracy would be so crazy. I want to read a book in that setting now xD

[@LuisAldamiz]

@@tentathesane8032 - The EIC was only "nationalized" (into the hands of the wrong "nation") many decades after these events, I'm saying that he and his bro could have used their military fame the Napoleon way: deposing the regime... because why not?, because they could... Once you do that, nobody laughs at you anymore... for the sake of their lives.

[@anon2034]

The goal of the corporation was making money, not conquest. Mornington sold the idea that by territorial expansion they will make bank. He lied. Twice. They had enough of his adventurism.

[@ihl0700677525]

Well, he was hired to make profit, not to paint the map red or to Anglicize native inhabitants. Besides, Britain was in precarious dangerous situation back in Europe, fighting a colossal war against seemingly invincible Napoleonic French Empire. So Mornington's megalomania was dangerous and unnecessary.

[@juulianstudios]

This is so well done, your videos are awesome, good job!

[@CedricAyres]

Thank you! Can't wait for the finale!

[@brileyrowand8278]

Only series I’ve really been waiting for recently

[@abdullahdaniyal114]

Underrated channel

[@Volition1001]

You really need to write a book. This stuff is fantastic

[@ranpar9786]

Great channel. I love it. its deep and full of details. Keep up the good work.

[@hyteel9262]

I loudly exclaimed "YES!" when I went into youtube and saw this video was up. Great fucking work as awlays

[@antonyrodriguez5621]

Keep these coming, please!

[@hitchikerspie]

Fantastic series, can’t wait to watch this, and the concluding episode

[@Khalrua]

always excited to see a new vid in any series really, but im enjoying this one

[@GBERTS]

as always, great content

[@thecolonelpridereview]

Another excellent episode.

[@Inaf1987]

Dammit, this is not going to be an easy video to watch, having spent a lot of my life in Maharastra

[@StrategyStuff]

I think people from Uttar Pradesh might feel worse

[@libshastra]

@@StrategyStuff I am from both Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. This series has been double whammy emotional roller coaster. It is a cathartic experience.

[@xijinpig8982]

Meanwhile people from Nepal, Punjab, Assam and Kashmir, having not even been mentioned in the videos yet: ☻️

[@Theamanhanda]

Great video as always , pls make more videos on Indian military history .

[@alperena1675]

Christ, someone has been prolific recently

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Mornington really convinced the EIC that India was free real estate.

[@conormelville9814]

I have enjoyed this series very much, when will you release part 5?

[@StrategyStuff]

Thanks for pushing me to finish this, I'm going to publish the last part of this video within 12 hours!

[@James-ip8xs]

First Love this channel btw

[@vorynrosethorn903]

The British seem to have considered basically all their foes in the subcontinent to have had excellent artillery, one wonders to what extent this opinion was formed by the infantry having trouble with it. It's utterly pervasive but I think probably underemphasizes the skill of British artillery and fails to account for the fact that artillery is by nature not a fun thing for infantry formations to deal with. Due to the nature of artillery they were probably the most reliably professional force but I doubt British accounts are fully reliable in assessing relative skill, as very different forces all get praised for good artillery.

[@tentathesane8032]

Well, the Mughal empire was one of the gunpowder empires, early adopters of artillery. It makes sense that kingdoms in the subcontinent would have much better artillery than the other colonial war opponents the british would be used to

[@StrategyStuff]

I will add that the British assessment of good MAR artillery was only short term and in battle - they noted that MAR pieces were unstandardized and they lacked the supply to sustain a long campaign.

[@vorynrosethorn903]

@@tentathesane8032 I'm pretty sure the only force I haven't read the British praising the artillery of was the Afghanis, and I might have just missed it. I'm sure some Indian forces had genuinely great artillery, what I question is the reliability of statements by the British in the context of comparative effectiveness given that is almost to the point of anyone with artillery being considered much the same as anyone else with it (e.g. 'they had really good artillery'), I'm pretty sure it just tells us that they didn't like being shot at with it. This unfortunately makes it a pain to work out who actually had the best, but it was probably established powers rather than every fool who got their hands on a cannon.

[@Skippinnfliplin]

Alexander the Great coping hard asf rn

[@Aeyo]

Here a little help from a fellow Indian. The Bhonsle is pronounced as "BON-SLAY" Hope this helps

[@StrategyStuff]

sorry for that… I got my pronunciation from the film trailer for “Bhonsle” and it sounded like how I pronounced it. Was never good at languages. Will fix in next vid

[@Progamermove_2003]

It's more like "BHO-SLAY"

[@TheSachinDeshmukh]

Funny part is, there is no 'n' in actual marathi name (Anglification did that), its 'Bhosle' and pronounced as 'Bho-Slay'. :)

[@FreedomFox1]

I hope you consider providing analysis for present-day geopolitics, particularly with respect to the major players: US, Russia and China. We’re at a particularly interesting (and perilous) crossroads, but it’s hard to find quality analysis that is not heavily colored by nationalism.

[@lucasnadamas9317]

It's nearly impossible to do any good and proper analysis of present day geopolitics of almost any time

[@khurmiful]

Excellent videos. Are you gonna cover Anglo Sikh wars in Punjab?

[@StrategyStuff]

Unfortunately I wont be for now...

[@oldrabbit8290]

given how fast the Maratha turn again each other (among the lords and among the army), do they have any real fighting chance during this period? Could any other British governor achieve what Mornington did, given he has enough ambition? Also, if the Maratha lords played nice with the British at the beginning and bought some time to replace the mercenary with native officer, could they repluse the English? Is such a goal (replace all foreign mercenary with native) even achievable with their situation?

[@StrategyStuff]

I think it was definitely possible to push back on Mornington a bit more even with the fractured state of MAR. After all,the EIC itself did not want this, so the threshold at which the UK would “give up” was actually quite low at this point in time. After all, the next video will be about Holkar and he did get UK to fall back, at least from Rajputana and Central India. Of course once the UK got more determined, esp when it started getting worried re:RUS, the bar for it to give up would be much higher. As for replacing mercs with native officers… MAR was really one of the earliest states to find out that military hardware is easy to buy, military software (ie training of soldiers and officers) is much more difficult and requires great and destabilizing societal change. Out of all the non Western countries in the 19C, you could say only Japan made that software transition… so it wouldn’t be easy for MAR to make such replacement

[@tentathesane8032]

Holkar did manage somewhat a bit later, before his untimely death. The thing is, because of a nasty series of coincidences, or perhaps some 5d chess by mornington, the marathas were caught with their pants down in the most inopportune moment. Too far along in their army modernisation efforts to succeed without their sepoys, but not far enough along to not be reliant on european mercenaries. If they'd pushed conflict off for about a decade more, each individual maratha lord could've held off any army the EIC could feasibly send at them.

[@SafavidAfsharid3197]

​@@StrategyStuffcan you please cover early Maratha strategy and followed by mughal strategy? Maybe even covering campaigns of Rana sanga and Rana kumbha?

[@richardrestall8592]

Great series.The British Empire's assumption of the EIC territories is an act that still ripples consequences in today's world. I hope you might someday treat the late British Empire (up to WW1) with a similarly acute analysis.

[@helloworld0609]

How did Britain colonize the Southeast Asia like Berma, Malasia? Did it follow the same play book?

[@tiscotisa9731]

What is the video you'll produce after this series?

[@StrategyStuff]

It’ll be Mao and the Chinese Revolution c.1923-37. Then I will start new series on “Conquering the American West”, starting with Spain. Maybe throw in some simpler videos before that to buy me some time to do research.

[@pierreemerickalprazolam]

​@@StrategyStuffSounds great. Love your work

[@aymankhan2670]

​@@StrategyStuffplease also cover the Anglo Sikh war & how borders of western British India were drawn in response to the aggression of the Russian Empire.

[@Gamenetreviews]

Make more British Empire content

[@besacciaesteban]

Does peshwa and pasha have a commom etymology?

[@StrategyStuff]

I just looked it up and funnily enough, while both probably stem from Persian/old Persian, Peshwa = leader while Pasha is short form of Padishah = Great King.

[@besacciaesteban]

@@StrategyStuff thank you!

[@tentathesane8032]

Yes, Peshwa is the marathi-isation of Pasha. The original title comes from the mughal empire, who used Persian to maintain legitimacy. They were Persianised turko-mongolic peoples who replaced the earlier, also persianised central asian Delhi sultanates, and as such, the use of Persian terms was considered highbrow. Early in the Marathas' rise to power, the Mughal emperor tried to use them to offset the power of the Bijapur Sultanate and his more rebellious vassals. To this end, various titles were bestowed upon Maratha leaders, including that of "Pasha". Because the Mughal empire was still the dominant and prestiguous power in the region, using their title was a source of legitimacy to the marathas who got them. However, it very soon just became a dynastic title / family name. For actual titles, the sanskrit-derived equivalents like Mantri and Dhalwai were more commonly used.

[@rob2540]

What products did India produce in this time?

[@cherryslat5702]

Textiles

[@stepbruv8780]

Opium

[@wperfect]

Slave labor

[@tentathesane8032]

Depends on the region. Bengal and Hindustan were the largest exporters of cotton textile in the world. Mysore exported sandalwood and silk textiles. The Deccan, especially hyderabad, exported refined jewelry. The Malabar and parts of Tamil Nadu exported spices. Gujarat was one of the largest producers of saltpetre, used to make gunpowder. The central indian regions exported a lot of quality timbers, as well as ivory and raw minerals. Awadh exported leather, dyes and perfumes.

[@KaiHung-wv3ul]

@@tentathesane8032 The Crown Jewel of the British Empire indeed.

[@Steyr32]

I always thought British conquest of India was slow and gradual process.

[@nool9046]

I’m loving this series, but are you still going to make a video about the Chinese communist revolution?

[@StrategyStuff]

Yeah it’s the video after this series. Working on it now.

[@kndrdfndindngoudng]

>Mercenaries Not even once.

[@dookyee]

Bump

[@poopoo571]

algorithm

[@kumibozu7014]

first

[@RoniiNN]

Great video