What was attempted
After the Ostend Company's suppression, Habsburg interest in the Asian trade revived under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, working from Trieste on the Adriatic rather than from the Netherlands. William Bolts, a former East India Company servant turned entrepreneur, was licensed to trade under the imperial flag and in 1778 established a station on the Nicobar Islands and made attempts on the Malabar coast.
The venture failed within a few years — undercapitalised, harassed by the established companies, and defeated by disease on the Nicobars. Austria maintained a nominal claim to the islands into the nineteenth century without occupying them; Denmark had a competing claim, and the British eventually annexed them.
These minor ventures are worth recording because they show how many European states attempted an Indian foothold, and how few succeeded. The eventual British dominance was not a foregone conclusion in 1700; it was the outcome of a competition in which most participants were eliminated by other Europeans rather than by Indian powers.
Further reading
- Keay, John. India: A History. HarperCollins, 2000
- Wolpert, Stanley. A New History of India. Oxford University Press, 2009
- Bayly, C. A. Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1988
- Brown, Judith M. Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy. Oxford University Press, 1994
- Champakalakshmi, R. Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India. Oxford University Press, 1996
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.