Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
The Anglo-French Struggle
Since the 15th century when Europeans first arrived in India the fight for
supremacy between rival factions became a part of the Indian history. But the
Anglo-French struggles should get special mentions, as their role in shaping the
course of modern India is far more important than that of any other contemporary
struggles.
The actual onset of the struggles arose from Anglo-French commercial and
political rivalry in India and political rivalry in Europe. In the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth century the French stake in India was not great
enough to be worth the despatch of an English armament. The two companies
therefore declared neutrality and went on trading. But between 1720 and 1740 the
French Company's trade increased ten times in value until it was nearly half
that of the old-established English company at about Pound 880,000.
The stake of both countries in India was now considerable. The British were
deeply involved with indigo, saltpetre, cottons, silk, and spices; they had a
growing, trade with China and a strong vested interest in England itself in the
form of shipping and stores brokers. The value of the trade was more than ten
per cent of the public revenue of Great Britain at that time.
The occasion for intervention arose with Frederick the Great of Prussia's
seizure of Silesia in 1740. In the war of the Austrian Succession, which
followed (1740-48) Britain and France were on the opposite sides in the rival
coalitions. It is these wars, of wholly European origin, which provided the
political turning point in the history of modern India. In 1746 a French fleet
made possible the capture of Madras. In 1748 a British fleet made an
unsuccessful attempt to capture Pondicherry. Madras was again exchanged between
the French and the British by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
