Anglo-Mysore Wars

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The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of wars fought in India over the last three decades of the eighteenth-century between the Kingdom of Mysore (then a French ally) and the British East-India Company, represented chiefly by the Madras Presidency. They resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan (who was killed in the final war, in 1799), and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of its pro-British allies. The first war saw Haider Ali inflicting crushing defeats on the combined armies of the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the British. The kingdom of Mysore gained large tracts of land to the North after this war. The second war saw the rise of Tippu Sultan as a brave and powerful military leader. Soldiers from Mysore decimated British armies in the East, repelled a joint Maratha-Hyderabad invasion from the North and captured territories in the South. In the third war, Mysore was invaded from all four sides. Petty Indian kings in the South united to attack Mysore from the South, the Marathas attacked from the North and the West, the Nizam and the British from the East. Despite facing early defeats, the kingdom of Mysore repelled these attacks, though Tippu had to settle for a treaty with the British. The fourth war saw the defeat of the kingdom of Mysore. Again, Mysore was under attack from all four sides. Tippu's troops were outnumber 4:1 in this war. Mysore had only 35,000 soldiers, whereas the British commanded 60,000 troops. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas launched an invasion from the North. Tippu decided to fight to the finish despite seeing defeat in the face. The allied invasion with a strong force of 150,000 soldiers had failed to overcome Tipu's force of 35,000 soldiers after several weeks of fighting. This was when the British tried to lure two of Tipu's most trusted ministers, Mir Sadiq and Dewan Purnaiah. These two men committed acts of treason against Mysore which resulted in the invasion of the fort of Seringapettanam by British troops. Tippu died bravely fighting these troops, killing at least four of them, succumbing to British bullets. Much of the territory was annexed by the British, the rest given to Hyderabad and the Marathas. A small part was left to an Indian prince belonging to the Wodeyar dynasty. The dynasty ruled the kingdom of Mysore until 1947 when it joined the Union of India.

After the Battles of Palashi (1757) and Buxar (1764) which established British dominion over East India, the Anglo-Mysore wars (1766-1799) and the Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-1818) consolidated the British claim over South Asia, resulting in the British Empire in India, though pockets of resistance among the Sikhs, Afghans and in Burma would last well into the 1880's.