Robert Clive - British Empire Builder

Robert Clive - British Empire Builder

Robert Clive went to India as a clerk of the British East India Company. Through daring and ability he was instrumental in defeating the French and their Indian allies. He consolidated British power in Bengal in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and twice served as governor of Bengal.

The English (later British) East India Company was established in 1600, the French East India Company in 1664. The goal of both was to establish trading stations in India, and neither harbored territorial goals until after Emperor Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, when the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate.

The French governor-general at Pondicherry (the leading French trading station in India) Joseph Dupleix (1697–1764) was first to make alliances with native rulers and train Indian soldiers (called sepoys) under French command and with European firearms. Through these means Dupleix gained land and influence for France. Significantly Dupleix’s forces captured the British Fort St. George (Madras) in 1746 and took Robert Clive, a clerk recently arrived from England, prisoner.

Clive escaped, took a commission in the British East India Company’s army, and in a brilliant maneuver, defeated the forces of the ruler of Hyderabad, France’s major ally in the Deccan, and captured an important port called Arcot against great odds. As a result Dupleix was recalled to France in disgrace. Clive then took a page from Dupleix’s book and began to train sepoys.


In 1756, the new Mughal governor of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula, sent an army against the British trading settlement at Calcutta. Most of the 146 English men and women who could not flee died in a dungeon in which they were imprisoned. This episode, called “The Black Hole of Calcutta,” gave Clive the pretext he needed for expanding British power in Bengal.

He recaptured Calcutta and with a small force of 1,000 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys and eight pieces of artillery decisively defeated Siraj-ud-Daula’s 35,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and 50 cannons manned by Frenchmen, with only 22 Europeans killed and 49 wounded. This was the famous Battle of Plassey, after which Clive made a pro-British Indian governor of Bengal under his tutelage until he returned to England in 1760.

In recognition the British government ennobled him as Baron Clive of Plassey. Britain and France were once again enemies between 1756 and 1763 during the Seven Years’ War when Britain’s superior navy blocked French reinforcements from reaching India. In 1761, Britain captured Pondicherry, finally ending French imperial aspiration in India.

Clive returned to India in 1765 as governor of Bengal to settle problems that had arisen since his departure. He made an agreement with the now very weak Mughal emperor whereby the British East India Company was made revenue eksekutif for the provinces of Bihar and Bengal, making it de facto territorial ruler of this huge Indian territory.

After organizing the administration of Bengal, Clive returned to Britain in 1767. He faced a parliamentary inquiry instigated by his enemies for corruption while in India but was exonerated. Depressed by the charges, he committed suicide in 1774.

Clive’s was a remarkable career of empire building. He played a crucial role in the elimination of France from India and set the stage for the British Empire on the subcontinent. For this reason he is called Clive of India.

Battle of Plassey

Robert Clive of the British East India Company was the winner of the Battle of Plassey, 70 miles north of Calcutta in 1757. At the head of 1,000 English and 2,000 Indian (sepoy) soldiers and with eight pieces of artillery, he routed the 50,000 soldiers and 50 French-manned cannons of his opponent Siraj-ud-Daula, the governor, or nawab, of Bengal. This victory established British primacy in Bengal.

With the Mughal (Mogul, Moghul) Empire in India in rapid decline in the 18th century, Great Britain and France became competitors for control of the subcontinent. Their rivalry was played out by employees of their respective East India Companies and when the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) and Seven Years’ War (1756–63) pitted Britain and France on opposing sides, India became a theater of war.

France won the first round when its agent in India Joseph Dupleix captured the British outpost Madras in 1746 and then extended French influence in the Indian state of Hyderabad.

However Dupleix was outmatched by a brilliant young Briton named Robert Clive, who decided to expand British power to the Bay of Bengal and the Ganges River delta during the Seven Years’ War. First he took revenge on the unpopular Mughal governor of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula, for the death of many Britons in the infamous “Black Hole of Calcutta.”

He recaptured Calcutta in 1756, then moved upriver and captured the French fort at Chandernagore in the following year. In the next phase of the conflict, the French supported Siraj-ud-Daula, whose oppressive rule had alienated his Muslim noblemen, including the powerful Mir Jaffa. On the other hand Britain had the support of Bengali businessmen and bankers.

These rivalries culminated in the Battle of Plassey, June 23, 1757, which pitted Clive’s 1,000 European soldiers and 2,000 Indian sepoys (no cavalry) and eight cannons against Siraj-ud-Daula’s 50,000 combined infantrymen and cavalry and 50 cannons manned by French soldiers. Mir Jaffa’s neutrality and Siraj-ud-Daula’s flight in the midst of battle caused demoralization and the rout of the latter’s army. Clive lost only 22 European soldiers; fewer than 50 were wounded.

Clive’s victory was a turning point in Indian history. French influence was eliminated from Bengal, and at the end of the Seven Years’ War, from all of India. Britain’s client Mir Jaffa was invested the new governor of Bengal by the Mughal emperor in Delhi, who in turn granted landholder’s rights of 882 square miles around Calcutta to the British East India Company.

Clive remained in Bengal for two years to organize the new administration. In 1759, the Mughal emperor granted land tax rights of all Bengal and Bihar provinces to the British East India Company and made Clive the highest-ranking noble of the Mughal Empire.

The British government made Clive baron of Plassey. Events that developed after Clive’s victory at the Battle of Plassey would change the British East India Company from a trading company to a governing power and draw Britain to conquer the whole of India. Thus the Battle of Plassey was a historic turning point, and its principal participant Robert Clive an empire builder.