... imperial possession long before the British made it theirs in the 1700s. The ancient Hindu states under their rajas had first known alien rule at the end of the twelfth century, when Turkish-speaking Muslims invaded India from the north. In September of 1599, a group of London merchants pledged themselves to raise 30,000 pounds in support of a voyage to the ... the world. The charter came to them from the Queen's hand on the last day of 1600. With that, the East India Company was launched. By the end of the seventeenth century India, for Company purposes, had been divided into three Pre...

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