History of the British Raj

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Colonial India
Map of colonial India, distributed by the British Information Services (1942)
Austrian India 1778–1785 Swedish India 1731–1813 Dutch India 1605–1825 Danish India 1620–1869 French India 1668–1954
Portuguese India (1505–1961)
Casa da Índia 1434–1833 Portuguese East India Company 1628–1633
British India (1600–1947)
EIC in India 1600–1757 Company rule in India 1757–1858 British rule in Portuguese India 1797–1813 British Raj in India 1858–1947 British rule in Burma 1824–1948 Princely states 1721–1949 Partition of India 1947
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After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Government took over the administration to establish the British Raj. The British Raj was the period of British Parliament rule on the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947, for around 89 years of British occupation. The system of governance was instituted in 1858 when the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria.

The British Raj lasted until 1947, when the British provinces of India were partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, leaving the princely states to choose between them. Most of the princely states decided to join either the Dominion of India or the Dominion of Pakistan, except the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was only at the last moment that Jammu and Kashmir agreed to sign the "Instrument of Accession" with India. The two new dominions later became the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (the eastern half of which became the People's Republic of Bangladesh in 1972). The province of Burma in the eastern region of the Indian Empire had been made a separate colony in 1937 and became independent in 1948.

The East India Company was an English and later British joint-stock company.^[1] It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with Mughal India and the East Indies, and later with Qing China. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia, and colonised Hong Kong after a war with Qing China.