A number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts in India by the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred.

The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology lead it to increasingly flex its military muscle and cause it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors are crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies.

Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enables it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s.

India is now no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but is instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials.

Many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period.

By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the company begins more consciously to enter non-economic arenas like education, social reform, and culture.