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Message:: [QUOTE="Brokencompass, post: 1330313, member: 17742"]India contrary to what many believe was not a country a few centuries ago, it was more like an area. What eventually became the country of India (Because of the British), was a group of independent kingdoms that spoke many different languages and had completely different cultures. It was ten times as diverse as Europe but packed into 1/2 the space. Over 4 centuries ago, a group of British Traders formed something called as a British East India Trading Company. They tried to bring back exotic spices and eastern novelties to European markets to make money. They reached India for the purposes of trading and got permission from the local rulers to establish a trading post and trade in India. These outposts were established in cities like Madras, Calcutta, Bombay since they were all coastal cities that were spread along the coast of India. Over the years, the British were able to exploit differences between rulers and had the ability to tilt the balance of power with their guns. So the traders became land owners and eventually local rulers and then had control over almost the whole of India. These trade posts eventually became called as presidencies because they were ended up becoming the administrative units of their Indian territories.These people were not even controlled by the British Crown, they were merely traders, they were able to have a military and rule the whole of India.[/QUOTE]