भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

boom of cannons and the swaggering wagers with empires as the tempting stakes, we would rather discuss it a little later so far as it will be possible to do so. 929. The French: Of the European nations that followed suit after the Portuguese and tried their hand at the eastern trade and the overseas empires, the French, were the last to appear on the scene. For the French East India Company was floated as late as A.D. 1664. But they prospered quickly in their commercial activities. Why, if credit is to be given to any European, who thought for the first time of acquiring not only small scattered footholds but large empires in India and who tried to realize these ambitious schemes of his by large-scale military intervention in Indian politics, it was French Governor Dupleix. The next claimant to that honour is that vagabond and tempestuous English youth, Robert Clive, who entered India as a common soldier, but who soon came to command large armies and to lay the foundations of the vast British Empire in India. The basic idea underlying the schemes of these two far-sighted young men was that with proper training, great drilled and well-disciplined armies could be formed here in India out of the very Indian soldiers within a very short time, and that, with competent, efficient and uncorruptible European military officers and commanders at the head of this very Indian army, they could easily build up their strong Empires in India. It will be discussed in its proper place, how great was the harvest that these daring schemes reaped in the years to come. 930. It is, however, proper to discuss the French affairs in India to a certain extent. For, although for a time, the French and the English fought amongst themselves on the Indian soil and although they took opposite sides in the internecine civil wars of the Indian Kings and Princes, in the end the French were on losing grounds. Again their defeat at the hands of the English in the European theatres of war rendered the French authorities in India thoroughly incapable of defending their positions against the ever increasing severity of the English attacks. The leaders like Dupleix, Busie, Suffren and others, who worked hard and spent the best of their energies for the expansion of the French empire in India, were very shabbily treated at home by the French people and the French Govenment. Nobody appreciated their best efforts at the proper times nor gave them any support. Again, this Indian army of the French fought against the Marathas, on a few occasions, only to receive stunning blows and as such when it was clear that