The Company’s base at Calcutta was taken by the Nawab of Bengal in 1756. A year later a force under ROBERT CLIVE - known to history as 'Clive of India' - recaptured the city and, at the Battle of Plassey, replaced the Nawab with his own candidate.
A chain of events started in India that would change the world. And they involved the Company.
By 1750 the Mughal Empire was in a state of collapse. Regional states emerged in India and the Company began to get involved in power politics. It raised its own armies and prepared for war.
Having seen off the rival French in the Carnatic, in 1765 the Company assumed the Diwani of Bengal. A trading company from England was now responsible for the civil, judicial and revenue administration of India’s richest province, with some 20 million inhabitants. It was now a regional state in India. "The bleeding of Bengal and the process which created the British Raj had begun."