William Hall in India and In Scotland

Queen Elizabeth I granted the British East India Company a royal charter, giving them a monopoly on trade to East India for  21 year. The Company established trading posts at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. In 1670, King Charles II granted the Company the right to acquire land, mint money, command its own army (made up mostly of native troops), make war, and rule any land it gained.

About 1700 the Company had taken over much of the country, extending control from its three major bases, Madras (now Chennai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Bombay (now Mumbai). British East India Company forces, under the leadership of Robert Clive, expelled the French from Bengal in 1757 and put down Indian rebellions during 1756–64. The expansion of company authority was continued under Warren Hastings and Richard Wellesley.

By the early 1800s, the British East India Company had direct control over most of the northern part of the subcontinent and most of the coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal. In 1857 a native rebellion (variously called the Indian Mutiny, the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Revolt, and the First War of Independence) broke out among Bengal troops, who seized Delhi. When it was put down in 1858, the Mogul emperor was deposed and administration of the country was transferred from the East India Company to the British government. With the exception of a few remaining French and Portuguese coastal communities, India was, for the first time in its history, politically united. In 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.