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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: By the eighteenth century, the East India Company shifted from a trade outfit to a militarized enterprise devoted to ruthless exploitation.
Chapter 3: As the Mughal Empire crumbled, factions maneuvered to seize power.
Chapter 4: Clive’s victory at the Battle of Plassey granted the Company political authority for the very first time ever.
Chapter 5: Following Plassey, Company officers ruthlessly plundered the countryside.
Chapter 6: At the Battle of Buxar, the Company defeated three Indian powers and paved the way for the territorial conquest of the entire country.
Chapter 7: Distracted by economic turmoil and executive infighting, the Company was unready for its worst military test in decades.
Chapter 8: Shah Alam’s desperate bid to regain his ancestral throne, and reliance on the Marathas, ultimately ended in disaster.
Chapter 9: By consolidating its finances and bureaucracy, the Company defeated all its remaining challengers.
Chapter 10: For the Company to finally secure Mughal emperor Shah Alam’s support, it had to go through both the Marathas and also the French.
Chapter 11: Philip Francis mounted a smear campaign against his longtime enemy, Warren Hastings; it failed and instead ultimately helped trigger the Company’s eventual downfall.
Description
The Anarchy (2019) details how the East India Company, an English joint-stock corporation, came to rule the British economy – and the fates of 200 million South Asians. From its founding in 1599 by privateers and pirates to its time as master of the largest standing army in South Asia, the Company fanned the flames of anarchy, then used the resulting chaos as an opportunity to loot an empire.
Who Should Listen
- History hounds so appalled by colonialism that they can’t look away
- Those interested in how corporations came to rule our lives
- Travel junkies looking to contextualize their time in India