Second Anglo-Maratha War

Second Anglo-Maratha War
Part of the Napoleonic Wars
The Battle of Assaye, a painting by J.C. Stadler
Date 1803–1805 Location Central India Result British victory Treaty of Deogaon (1803) Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon (1803) Treaty of Rajghat (1805)
Belligerents
East India Company	Maratha Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gerard Lake Arthur Wellesley James Stevenson	Daulatrao Sindhia Raghoji II Bhonsle Yashwantrao Holkar Pierre Cuillier-Perron
Units involved
Lake & Wellesley: 4 regiments European cavalry 8 regiments Native cavalry 2 regiments British infantry 17 sepoy battalions Artillery
Strength
Lake, Wellesley, & Stevenson: 27,313 (not including artillery lascars & Madras Pioneers)	100,000

The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.

Background

The overarching ambition of Raghunathrao, Peshwa Baji Rao II's father, and the latter's own incompetence since coming into his inheritance, had long caused much internecine intrigue within the Maratha confederacy; Peshwa Baji Rao II no longer commanded the deference his predecessors had.

In October 1802, Peshwa Baji Rao II was defeated by Yashwantrao Holkar, ruler of Indore, at the Battle of Poona. He fled to British protection, and in December the same year concluded the Treaty of Bassein with the British East India Company, ceding territory for the maintenance of a subsidiary force and agreeing to treaty with no other power. The British also had to check the French influence in India. The Marathas were the only major power left outside British control.So with the fall of Mysore as a serious threat to British expansion in the south Wellesley turned attention towards the Marathas. The Maratha empire at that time consisted of a confederacy of five big chiefs, viz the Peshwa at Poona,Gaekwad of Baroda,Sindhia of Gwalior, Holkar of Indore and Bhonsle of Nagpur. The Maratha chiefs were engaged in internal quarrels among them.

Wellesley had repeatedly offered a subsidiary treaty to the Peshwa and Sindhia but Nana Phadnavis refused strongly. However, in 1802 when Holkar defeated the combined armies of Peshwa and Sindhia, Peshwa Baji Rao II signed the Subsidiary treaty at Bassein in 1802.

War

This act on the part of the Peshwa, their nominal overlord, horrified and disgusted the Maratha chieftains; in particular, the Scindia rulers of Gwalior and the Bhonsle rulers of Nagpur and Berar contested the agreement.

In September 1803, Scindia forces lost to Lord Gerard Lake at Delhi and to Lord Arthur Wellesley at Assaye. A few months later in November, Lake defeated another Scindia force at Laswari, followed by Wellesley's victory over Bhonsle forces at Argaon (now Adgaon) on 29 November. The Holkar rulers of Indore belatedly joined the fray and compelled the British to make peace. Wellesley, who went on to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, would later remark that Assaye was tougher than Waterloo.

Conclusion

On December 17, 1803, Raghoji II Bhonsle of Nagpur signed the Treaty of Deogaon in Odisha with the British after the Battle of Laswari and gave up the province of Cuttack (which included Mughalbandi/the coastal part of Odisha, Garjat/the princely states of Odisha, Balasore Port, parts of Midnapore district of West Bengal).

On 30 December 1803, the Daulat Scindia signed the Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon with the British after the Battle of Assaye and Battle of Argaon and ceded to the British Rohtak, Gurgaon, Ganges-Jumna Doab, the Delhi-Agra region, parts of Bundelkhand, Broach, some districts of Gujarat, fort of Ahmmadnagar.

Yashwantrao Holkar, however began hostilities with the British by securing the alliance of the Raja of Bharatpur. By the Treaty of Rajghat on 24 December 1805, Holkar got back most of his territories. The Holkar Maharajas retained control and overlordship over much of Rajasthan.

See also

• Maratha Confederacy
• First Anglo-Maratha War
• Third Anglo-Maratha War
• Fort of Ahmednuggur and Pettah of Ahmednuggur
• Alexander Adams

References

• Chaurasian, R. S (2004). History of the Marathas. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. ISBN 978-81-269-0394-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=D_v3Y7hns8QC. 
• MacFarlane, Charles (1853). A History of British India: From the Earliest English Intercourse to the Present Time (2nd ed.). London: George Routledge & Co.. OCLC 4025827. http://books.google.com/books?id=lF5HAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA265. 
• Cooper, Randolf G. S. (2003). The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82444-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=qweZWra_tbwC. Retrieved 22 September 2011.