India - History

India has had a contiuous civilization for thousands of years, but Indian history is generally considered to have begun with the migration of Aryan tribes to India from central Asia, which is estimated to have begun about 1500 B.C. After that, India developed under various kingdoms and empires until the arrival of the British.

From about the beginning of the 16th century, the nations of Western Europe began to establish trading stations India. The first settlers were Portuguese; whom the Dutch followed, English and French, the British East India Company was the most successful in its rivalry with the other European powers. The British gradually expanded their influence until, by the middle of the 19th century, they controlled the entire area that would later become the independent countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 1858 the British government assumed the administration and removed the last vestige of political power from the East India Company. From then until 1947, the United Kingdom administered most of India directly and controlled the rest through treaties with local rulers. Independence was attained on August 15, 1947, when Indian and Pakistan, which then included the present territory of Bangladesh, emerged as independent nations. On January 26, 1950, the Indian Constitution was promulgated, and the country became a sovereign democratic republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, of which the British monarch is the symbolic head.