"The great empire which England has established in the east will be the theme of wonder to succeeding ages. That a small island in the atlantic should have conquered and held the vast continent of India as a subject province, is in itself a fact which can never be stated without exciting astonishment. But that astonishment will be increased when it is added, that this great conquest was made, not by the collective force of the nation, originally vested with a charter of excessive commerce, and with the privilege and right to protect their property by arms were in a few years, through the enterprise and ambition of their agents; the hostile and rival spirit of the other nations of Europe; and the weakness and perfidy of the princes of Asia, to whom they became, from their encroachment of their riches, an object of jealousy or plunder, hurried into the possession of royal power; and actually found themselves called upon to act in the character of sovereigns over extended kingdoms before they had ceased to be the mercantile directors of petty factories.
1. The Political History of India: John Malcolm: Vol 1: p.1,2.
When Vasco de Gama sailed by the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 he exposed India to the west, and Portugese were the first to exploit it.
In 1588 Phillip II of Spain, invaded England with the main purpose of deposing Queen Elizabeth I, because she was a protestant, and he wanted to enthrone Mary as the Queen of England who was a devout Catholic.
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