Treasure Seekers: Empires of India Page #5

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after Babur died,

India was swallowed

by the British empire.

By the end of the 19th century,

Britain dominated most of the world

but India was its most

valued possession.

Queen Victoria called it

the jewel in her crown.

The man who gave all this to Britain

was an unlikely conqueror

a tormented soul

who came from nowhere,

driven only by an unwavering

ambition.

His name was Robert Clive.

in London.

Robert Clive is fighting

for his survival.

He has laid the foundations of

the British empire in India

and in the process made himself

a vast fortune.

Now he stands accused of

criminal greed and exploitation.

In the House of Commons

he rises to his defense.

Gentlemen, a great prince was

dependent on my pleasure,

an opulent city lay at my mercy;

its richest bankers bid against

each other for my smiles;

I walked through vaults which were

thrown open to me alone,

piled on either hand

with gold and jewels!

Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand

astonished at my own moderation!

Robert Clive will not be bowed.

His life is ending as it began

in a furious and lonely struggle.

Born in 1725 in Shropshire

in the West of England,

he was given up by his mother as

a child and raised by relatives.

It happened at the insistence

of his father

an ineffectual lawyer from

the minor country gentry,

who barely earned enough to keep

the family afloat.

Rejected by his family

and naturally unruly,

young Robert was soon running wild

in the little town of Market Drayton.

He pioneered the business methods,

which would make him his later fortune

as the head of a juvenile gang.

It was a protection racket

if merchants agreed to pay a small fee,

the boys would agree

NOT to break their windows.

Robert was adventurous,

brave and bad.

He was an average student

and much more interested in

mischief than in school.

He climbed the church tower

of Market Drayton

and hung over the side

for the sheer thrill of it.

Robert grew up craving excitement,

but wanted acceptance

by his family even more.

When he was 17,

a job as a clerk in the East India

Company promised adventure,

money and a chance

to redeem his family.

Clive set his sights on India.

On the first of June 1744,

a cutter deposited Robert in a

rowboat just off the coast of Madras.

Splashing ashore,

he got his first sight of India.

The Madras, Robert discovered,

was an exotic melting pot

of Indian, Southeast Asian

and European influences.

Here British, French and Dutch

traders had established themselves

to take advantage of the

astonishingly lucrative trade

in cloth, spices and opium.

In those days the young men who

became clerks in the East India Company

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