At this time, the British, with their power firmly established in India, invaded neighboring countries. The previous rulers of India, with one exception, did not try to expand beyond the sea because they lacked maritime power. The British, by contrast, had no rivals in the eastern seas, and they were backed by the vast resources of a United India. As early as 1819, Sir Stamford Leffton had occupied Singapore on the Malay Peninsula. The significance of this occupation was fully recognized at that time. All you have to do is look at the map.. The place where we stayed completely flanked the Strait of Malacca and secured a passage for our ships bound for China at all times and under all circumstances. Singapore can become in the East what Malta is in the West. The British then turned to Burma on the eastern border of India. They fought three wars against the country, the first in 1824, the second in 1852, and the last in 1886, which ended in the annexation of the country. In addition to these outright conflations,white marble slabs, the British built a defensive network of alliances and spheres of influence around India. Although the British pursued different policies under successive Conservative and Liberal governments, they generally tried to establish a protective buffer zone around their Indian empire in order to guard against expansionist Russia in Central Asia. This shows why they invaded Afghanistan in 1839 and 1879. In the end, the British recognized the country's independence and gave it a financial aid in exchange for the right to control its foreign relations. Similarly, rumors of a Russian invasion of Tibet led the British to send an expedition to Tibet in 1904. As a result, an agreement was reached whereby Tibet agreed not to recognize any foreign agents. Further west, the British repeatedly clashed with the Russians over their primary influence in Persia. The struggle shifted back and forth until the two contenders reached the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1907,Stone Honeycomb Panel, which divided Persia into a British sphere of influence in the south, a Russian sphere of influence in the north, and a buffer zone in the center. Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, clearly and candidly stated the rationale behind these military operations and diplomatic arrangements: India is like a fortress, with the sea as its two great trenches and the mountains as its remaining walls. However, these fences often do not have a height that is difficult to exceed, allowing people to pass through easily, and on the other side of the fence, there are gentle slopes with different widths and lengths. We don't want to occupy it, white marble mosaic ,Grey Marble Slab, but we can't see it occupied by our enemies. We have every intention of keeping it in the hands of our allies and friends, but if rivals and adversaries sneak up on it and place it directly under our walls, we will have to intervene, because a danger will gradually develop that may some day threaten our security. The above is the secret of signing a position in Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and as far east as Siam. A commander who merely manned his fortress walls in India and did not look at them from a distance was a short-sighted man. It may be added that the French were conquering Indochina while the British were settling in and around India. They forced the Chinese government to give up its claim of suzerainty to Indochina in 1883. Siam avoided foreign rule because of the British desire to maintain a buffer state between British Burma and French Indochina. The East Indies were still under the rule of the Dutch, who had occupied them from the Portuguese in the 17th century. III. British Rule We have seen the brutal exploitation of the East India Company in its initial administration of the areas of India under its control. This outrage aroused public opinion in England; and this, together with certain political reasons, led Parliament, in 1773 and 1784, to pass Acts placing the Company under the supervision of the Government in London. The company continued in business, and its employees and soldiers continued to govern and fight in India, but the company performed its duties under the watchful eyes of Parliament and the British government. The next change came in 1833, when the company lost its commercial monopoly, and from then on it served mainly as an administrative agency for the king. At this time, the main privilege of the company and the reason for its existence lies in the appointment of civil personnel, which constitutes a great and influential right to appoint officials. An 1853 statute, however, eliminated this power of appointment by establishing a public competitive examination for the supplemental civil service. As a result, the company's continued existence can hardly be justified and, in fact, many have predicted its early downfall. There is no doubt that even if the Indian uprising of 1857 had not suddenly forced the British to make a decision, the company would have been formally abolished in the end. The uprising was not a national movement and a war of independence, as some Indian writers have called it. Rather, it was primarily a military insurrection used by certain disgruntled princes and landowners whose interests had been harmed by the British. Lord Dalhousie, the governor from 1848 to 1856, ousted many of the princes, causing unease and suspicion among those who remained. Other groups were also unhappy: the conservative sections of the Indian population were greatly disturbed by the introduction of railways and telegraph, the opening of Western-style schools, the aggressive activities of certain Christian missionaries, the legal recognition of widow remarriage and the abolition of practices such as infanticide and levirate, in which a widow burns herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Sepoys,Agate Stone Price, the Indian soldiers who served in the British Army, were also dissatisfied with the fact that they had been fighting in distant areas for a long time and had not received the perks of such service. The adoption of bullets coated with tallow and lard was the spark that brought about the outbreak of the uprising, as the coating of bullets with tallow and lard aroused resentment among Hindus and Muslims. All these factors combined to give the uprising the dimensions of a popular uprising in certain scattered areas. forustone.com