Second Anglo-Mysore War
Second Anglo-Mysore War | |||||||
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Part of the Anglo-Mysore Wars and the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||
Depiction of action in the 1783 Siege of Cuddalore. | |||||||
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France Dutch Republic |
Travancore | ||||||
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The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in the American Revolutionary War influenced Anglo-Mysorean hostilities in India. The great majority of soldiers on the company side were raised, trained, paid and commanded by the company, not the British government. However, the company's operations were also bolstered by Crown troops sent from Great Britain, and by troops from Hanover,[1] which was also ruled by Great Britain's King George III.
Following the British seizure of the French port of Mahé in 1779, Mysorean ruler Hyder Ali opened hostilities against the British in 1780, with significant success in early campaigns. As the war progressed, the British recovered some territorial losses. Both France and Britain sent troops and naval squadrons from Europe to assist in the war effort, which widened later in 1780 when Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic. In 1783 news of a preliminary peace between France and Great Britain reached India, resulting in the withdrawal of French support from the Mysorean war effort. The British consequently also sought to end the conflict, and the British government ordered the Company to secure peace with Mysore. This resulted in the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore, restoring the status quo ante bellum under terms that company officials, such as Warren Hastings, found extremely unfavourable.
Background
War
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In July 1780, Hyder Ali invaded the
Instead of following up the victory and pressing on for a decisive victory at Madras, Hyder Ali renewed the siege at Arcot, which he captured on 3 November. This decision gave the British time to shore up their defences in the south, and to despatch reinforcements under the command of Sir Eyre Coote to Madras.[3]
Coote, though repulsed at Chidambaram, defeated Hyder Ali in succession in the battles of Porto Novo[5] and Sholinghur, while Tipu was forced to raise the siege of Wandiwash, and besieged Vellore instead. The arrival of Lord Macartney as governor of Madras in the summer of 1781 included news of war with the Dutch Republic. Macartney ordered the seizure of Dutch outposts in India, and the British captured the main Dutch outpost at Negapatam after three weeks of siege in November 1781 against defenses that included 2,000 of Hyder Ali's men. This forced Hyder Ali to realize that he could never completely defeat a power that had command of the sea, since British naval support contributed to the victory.
Tipu also defeated Colonel
During the summer of 1782, company officials in Bombay sent additional troops to Tellicherry, from whence they began operations against Mysorean holdings in the Malabar. Hyder Ali sent Tipu and a strong force to counter this threat, and the latter had pinned this force at Panianee when he learned of Hyder Ali's sudden death from cancer. Tipu's precipitate departure from the scene provided some relief to the British force, but Bombay officials had sent further reinforcements under General Richard Matthews to the Malabar in late December to relieve it before they learned of Hyder Ali's death. When they received this news, they immediately ordered Matthews to cross the Western Ghats and take Bednore. He felt compelled to do so despite a lack of sound military footing for the effort. He entered Bednore, which surrendered after Matthews drove Mysorean forces from the Ghats. However, Matthews had so overextended his supply lines that he was soon thereafter besieged in Bednore by Tipu, and forced to capitulate. Matthews and seventeen other officers were taken to Seringapatam, and from there to the remote hilltop prison of Gopal Drooge (Kabbaldurga) where they were seemingly forced to imbibe a lethal poison.[6]
On the east coast, an army led by General James Stuart marched from Madras to resupply besieged fortifications and to dispute Cuddalore, where French forces had arrived and joined with those of Mysore. Stuart besieged Cuddalore even though the forces were nearly equal in size. The French fleet of the Baillie de Suffren drove away the British fleet, and landed marines to assist in Cuddalore's defence. However, when word arrived of a preliminary peace between France and Britain, the siege was ended. General Stuart, who was engaged in disputes with Lord Macartney, was eventually recalled and sent back to England.
The British captured Mangalore in March 1783, but Tipu brought his main army, and after recapturing Bednore, besieged and eventually captured Mangalore. At the same time, troops from Stuart's army were joined with those of Colonel William Fullarton in the Tanjore region, where he captured the fortress at Palghautcherry in November, and then entered Coimbatore against little resistance.
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William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam
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Plaque of the William Baillie Memorial, Seringapatam
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Memorial for the Battle of Porto Novo, 1781 at Porto Novo
Treaty of Mangalore
During this time, company officials received orders from company headquarters in London to bring an end to the war, and entered negotiations with Tipu. Pursuant to a preliminary cease fire, Colonel Fullarton was ordered to abandon all of his recent conquests. However, due to allegations that Tipu violated terms of the cease fire at Mangalore, Fullarton remained at Palghautcherry. On 30 January the garrison of Mangalore surrendered to Tipu Sultan.
The war was ended on 11 March 1784 with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore,[4] in which both sides agreed to restore the others' lands to the status quo ante bellum. The treaty is an important document in the history of India, because it was the last occasion when an Indian power dictated terms to the company.[citation needed]
Consequences
It was the second of four
Battle honour
A
See also
- Franco-Indian alliances
- Mysorean invasion of Malabar
Notes
- S2CID 145511813.
- ^ a b Barua (2005), p. 79.
- ^ a b Barua (2005), p. 80.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-313-0034-3.
- ^ Malleson, G. B. (George Bruce) (1914). The decisive battles of India : from 1746 to 1849 inclusive. London : Reeves & Turner. p. 254. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ Willasey-Wilsey, Tim (Spring 2014). "Searching for Gopal Drooge and the Murder of Captain William Richardson". The Journal of the Families in British India Society (31): 16–15. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
- S2CID 167958985.
- ISBN 81-7094-115-6.
Further reading
- Barua, Pradeep P. (2005). The State at War in South Asia. Lincoln: LCCN 2004021050.
- Dalrymple, William (2019). The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (Hardcover). New York: Bloomsbury publishing. ISBN 978-1-63557-395-4.
- Kaliamurthy, G. (1987). Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780–84). Delhi: Mittal Publications. OCLC 20970833.
- Roy, Kaushik (2011). War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740–1849. London: Routledge. LCCN 2010040940.
- Tzoref Ashkenazi, Chen (2019). "German soldiers in eighteenth century India". MIDA Archival Reflexicon. pp. 1–8.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "India". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 414. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the