Battle of Plassey [1757]

 On June 23, 1757, the British East India Company won a decisive victory over a much greater army led by the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies at the Battle of Plassey. The war aided the Company's takeover of Bengal. They took control of the majority of the Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, and Afghanistan over the next hundred years.

The war was fought at Plassey, on the banks of the Hooghly River, about 150 kilometers north of Calcutta and south of Murshidabad, Bengal's capital at the time. The antagonists were the Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, Bengal's last independent Nawab, and the British East India Company. He was Alivardi Khan's successor. The previous year, Siraj-ud-Daulah had been Nawab of Bengal, and he had requested the English to avoid extending their fortifications. Robert Clive bribed Mir Jafar, the Nawab's army commander-in-chief, and offered to make him Nawab of Bengal. In 1757, Clive beat Siraj-ud-Daulah at Plassey and took Calcutta.

The war was followed by Nawab Siraj-ud-assault Daulah's on British-controlled Calcutta and the Black Hole massacre. Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson led reinforcements from Madras to Bengal and recaptured Calcutta. Clive then took the opportunity to take control of the French fort of Chandernagar. Tensions and fears between Siraj-ud-daulah and the British reached a climax with the Battle of Plassey. During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British, mirroring their European rivalry. Siraj-ud-Daulah made his stand at Plassey with a greatly superior army. Concerned about being outnumbered, the British formed a plot with Siraj-ud-demoted Daulah's army leader Mir Jafar, as well as others like Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths, Umichand, and Rai Durlabh. Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh, and Yar Lutuf Khan thus gathered their forces near the battlefield but made no effort to enter the fighting. Col. Robert Clive's 3,000 troops routed Siraj-ud-army Daulah's of 50,000 soldiers, 40 cannons, and ten battle elephants. The fight lasted 11 hours.

This is regarded as one of the pivotal wars in the imperial powers' domination of the Indian subcontinent. The British now exercised tremendous power over the Nawab, Mir Jafar, and as a result obtained considerable concessions for prior defeats and trade revenue. The British used this income to strengthen their military might and drive other European imperial forces, such as the Dutch and French, out of South Asia, thus extending the British Empire.