INTRODUCTION xiii

English have reached South Asia swiftly and securely by the open waterways. And thus it has come to pass that, whereas all previous conquests of India have been made from the mountains southward to the sea, the English have acquired their dominion by an expansion from the sea northward to the mountains. It need hardly be observed that this very remarkable exploit could only have been performed by virtue of great naval strength and superiority. In the following pages dealing with the rise and expansion of British dominion in India some attempt is made to sketch the preliminary events and predis- posing conditions that attracted the maritime nations of Europe into the field of competition for predomi- nance in India, and to explain the combination of direct effort and favourable circumstances to which England in the eighteenth century owed her success.