Evidence1757
Battle of Plassey
Plassey battlefield, near Palashi, West Bengal
Clive's Company army defeats Siraj ud-Daulah when Mir Jafar's troops stand aside; the Company becomes the power behind Bengal's throne.
23 June 1757, by a mango grove on the Bhagirathi. Clive had about 3,000 men against an army many times larger, but Mir Jafar, promised the throne, kept his troops out of the fight, and the day was decided by defection as much as by fire.
A small battle with a large consequence. Buxar in 1764 and the grant of the Diwani in 1765 followed, and with them the right to collect the revenue of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which paid for the Company's armies from then on.
- war
- colonial
- political