How did a country as small and remote as Great Britain manage to conquer all of India?  Was the military difference so palpable?

英国这样一个又小又偏僻的国家是如何征服整个印度的？两国在军事上的差别如此明显吗？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Payal Sh

The British conquest of India was a complex process that involved a combination of military power, political maneuvering, economic exploitation, and social and cultural factors.

The British East India Company initially established trading posts in India in the early 17th century and gradually expanded its influence through alliances with local rulers, military conquest, and economic control. The British military did have significant advantages in terms of technology, organization, and strategy, which contributed to their ability to assert control over Indian territories.

英国征服印度是一个复杂的过程，涉及军事力量、政治操纵、经济剥削以及社会和文化因素的综合作用。

17世纪初，英国东印度公司在印度建立了贸易站，并通过与当地统治者结盟、军事征服和经济控制等手段逐步扩大其在当地的影响力。英国军队在技术、组织和战略方面确实拥有明显的优势，这有助于他们控制印度领土。

However, it's important to note that the British also exploited exsting political divisions among Indian rulers, used economic leverage to gain influence, and employed a divide-and-rule strategy to maintain control. Additionally, social and cultural factors, including the introduction of new ideas and technologies, as well as the impact of the Industrial Revolution, played a role in the British conquest of India.

Overall, the British conquest of India was a complex and multifaceted process that involved more than just military superiority.

但值得注意的是，英国人还利用了印度统治者之间存在的政治分歧，运用了经济杠杆来获得影响力，并采用分而治之的策略来维持控制。此外，社会和文化因素，包括新思想和新技术的引入，以及工业革命的影响，也在英国征服印度的过程中发挥了作用。

总的来说，英国对印度的征服是一个复杂而多方的过程，不仅仅因为军事优势。

Ian

No, we had active collaboration with those ruling India, which opened up much trade to both India and GB. We had the active support of the vast majority of Indians - regardless of what modern “historians” in India are saying - also supported the Raj. Without that support there is no way we could have held such a large continent with only 100,000 soldiers!

不是的，我们跟印度的统治者积极合作，他们向印度和英国开放了大量贸易。我们得到了绝大多数印度人的积极支持—不管印度现代“历史学家”怎么说—英国也支持印度统治。没有印度人的支持，我们绝不可能以区区10万士兵守住这么庞大的大陆！

Vijay Simha

In the 16th Century, Britain began to build its empire – spreading the country's rule and power beyond its borders through a process called 'imperialism'. This brought huge changes to societies, industries, cultures and the lives of people all around the world.

The first victims of the British who operated as pirates in the Caribbean were the Portuguese and Spanish galleons who were transporting wealth from the Americas to Europe.

16世纪，英国开始打造自己的帝国—通过一种被世人称为“帝国主义”的过程，将本国的统治和权力扩张到境外。这种扩张给世界各地的社会、工业、文化和人们的生活带来了巨大的变化。

在加勒比地区，英国“海盗”的第一批受害者就是将财富从美洲运往欧洲的葡萄牙和西班牙商船。

This was soon followed by the very lucrative slave-trade that lasted a full hundred and twenty seven years netting the British huge profits.

Simultaneously advances in navigation enabled the British to sail all around the world as well as peninsular India and establish factories.

紧随其后的是利润丰厚的奴隶贸易，持续了整整127年，为英国人带来了巨额利润。

同时，航海技术的进步使英国人能够航行到世界各地以及印度半岛，并建立工厂。

The British Navy was by then the most powerful navy in the world and the British Army had a lot of experience fighting wars in Europe and America against the French.

The defeat of Napoleon in Europe further bolstered British power and by a deft combination of applying commerce, technology, trade and military and administrative skills, the British spent the entire nineteenth century establishing their control over large parts of the world from Canada to New Zealand.

当时的英国海军是世界上最强大的海军，英国陆军在欧洲和美洲与法国人作战的经验也十分丰富。

拿破仑在欧洲战败，进一步巩固了英国的势力，英国将商业、技术、贸易、军事和管理手段巧妙地结合起来，得以在整个19世纪建立起对从加拿大到新西兰的世界大部分地区的控制。

The Opium Trade which was forced on China netted the empire huge profits.

The British empire in India was the cash-cow that provided all the money and manpower to help the British colonize large parts of Africa from Egypt to South Africa in the last half of the nineteenth century and win the First and Second World War.. This is something the British will never ever acknowledge!

中国被迫进行的鸦片贸易为大英帝国带来了巨额的利润。

印度是大英帝国的摇钱树，为英国提供了所有的资金和人力，帮助英国在19世纪下半叶殖民了从埃及到南非的大部分非洲地区，并打赢了第一次和第二次世界大战。这是英国人永远都不会承认的！

Allen Edwards

Great Britain had a much larger navy back in the age of exploration as well as a bigger army, also the competition and determination to grab as much land as possible before the French, Spanish, Portugese & Dutch spurred them on to do so. Also India was nothing like it is today, India would have been a land made up of many tribal lands each with different languages and cultures, as many as 447 are still spoken in India today!

在海上大探险时代，英国有一支更为强大的海军和一支更加庞大的陆军，在法国人、西班牙人、葡萄牙人和荷兰人的刺激下，英国有动力和决心尽可能多地夺取土地。印度也不是今天这样，当时印度是一块由许多部落组成的土地，每个部落都有不同的语言和文化，今天的印度仍然拥有多达447种语言！

Brad Miller

Several problems with your premise.

(1) Britain conquered only about half of India. The rest was still self-governing, under the overlordship of the King/Queen of Great Britain (and Ireland, later).

(2) Before the *raj*, NO power ever ruled more than 2/3 of India at any time.

(3) The technology was dead even. The generalship, morale, and discipline was almost (not completely) all on the side of Britain.

你的前提存在几个问题。

(1) 英国只征服了大约一半的印度领土，其余一半在大不列颠(后来还有爱尔兰)的国王/女王的统治下仍然是自治的。

(2) 在英国统治印度之前，印度土地上从未有过哪个国家能统治超过三分之二的印度。

(3)  印度的科技水平已经落后了 。英国的军事将领、士气和训练几乎都占据上风。

Civils Maestro

There were number of reason for the British success in India like

英国在印度的成功有很多原因，比如：

At the advent of Britishers Indian ruleres were fighting among themselves.

Mughal empire was on the brink of collape because later Mughal rulers were incapable rulers.

Indian rulers didn't have a regular and disciplined army in comparison to Britishers.

Indian's didn't have advanced arms and ammunitions.

Naval power of Indian rulers was only in name.

Britishers had competent Officers and bureucrats who were experienced unlike Indian officers.

Acts of treachery were commited by Indians which benefited Britishers alot.

英国人抵达印度的时候，印度的统治者们还在自相残杀。

莫卧儿帝国处于崩溃的边缘，因为莫卧儿晚期的统治者软弱无能。

与英国人相比，印度统治者没有纪律严明的正规军队。

印度人没有先进的武器和弹药。

印度统治者的海军名存实亡。

英国人有能干的军官和官僚，他们经验丰富，不像印度军官。

印度人的背信弃义行为让英国人坐收渔利。

James Knight

Firstly Britain as a country did not conqueror india, because there was no India to conquer. India at the time was kind of like Europe today, divided into a multitude of different states. The British east india company slowly bought its way to power in what we know as india, Indian rulers were so greedy and cared so little for their people that they happily accepted British money and became agents of the east india company. Soon all of india was under the de-facto control of the east india company, until the 1850s when the British government nationalised the east india company and Brought their territory under the control of the crown. So that’s how india came under the control of the British empire.

首先，作为一个国家英国并没有征服印度，因为当时印度还不存在。当时的印度有点像今天的欧洲，分为许多不同的国家。英国东印度公司在我们所知的印度土地上一步步获得权力，印度统治者太过贪婪，对他们的人民漠不关心，他们欣然接受英国的贿赂，成为东印度公司的代理。很快，整个印度都落入了东印度公司的实际控制之下，直到19世纪50年代，英国政府将东印度公司国有化，并将他们的领土置于王室的控制之下。印度就是这样被大英帝国控制的。

Pete Singh

An Indian historian once wrote that the British didn’t really conquer India because modern India didn’t really exst at the time. India was a geographical area with lots small countries like the Punjab, Baluchistan, Bengal, etc. India wasn’t originally conquered militarily for political reasons but commercially for economic reasons by the (British) East India Company.

一位印度历史学家曾经写道，英国人并没有真正征服印度，因为现代印度在当时并不存在。印度只是一个地理区域，有无数小国，如旁遮普、俾路支省、孟加拉等。印度一开始并不是因为政治原因被军事征服的，而是因为经济原因被(英国)东印度公司征服的。

The Modern India & Pakistan of today are creations of the British. The British effectively created a united India that we see today - with its many different languages, cultures & religions. In the same way the British created the modern day Canada, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Guyana, etc. It was the Muslims like the Babar’s Mughals that militarily invaded India.

今天的印度和巴基斯坦是英国人一手造成的。英国人建立了我们今天看到的统一的印度—拥有许多不同的语言、文化和宗教的印度。用同样的方式，英国还打造了现代的加拿大、马来西亚、津巴布韦、圭亚那等国。军事入侵印度的是像莫卧儿王朝那样的势力。

Kevin Coleman

“The British” in this sense means the Honourable East India Company, which went to the East for trade, just like similar concerns in Portugal, France and Holland. The City then called Calcutta was a good place to start; the Company recruited soldiers to defend its “factories” (nothing to do with manufacturing). It developed a disciplined regime of administration and took military actions to enforce its power.

在这里“英国人”指的是享有盛名的东印度公司，这家公司前往东方进行贸易，就像葡萄牙、法国和荷兰也曾有过类似公司一样。当时被称为加尔各答的城市是一个很好的切入点；公司招募士兵来保卫它的“工厂”(实际上与制造业毫无关系)。公司制定了一个纪律严明的行政制度，并采取军事行动来巩固自己的权力。

The wars that followed were won largely by the Company because, rightly or wrongly, the troops trusted their captains; their colonels trusted each other, and they also trusted their employers, while their Rulers of Hindustan often and often could not trust their armies or their own civil servants. So a series of small victorious wars such as the Mysore Wars, the Mahratha Wars, the Sikh Wars, displaced the Hindustani Rulers in favour of British control by the Company.

接下来的大多数战争都是东印度公司获胜，因为不论是非对错，部队信任他们的上尉；他们的上校彼此信任，他们也信任他们的雇主，而印度斯坦统治者并不信任他们的军队或自己的行政官员。因此通过一系列小型胜仗，如迈索尔战争、马哈拉塔战争、锡克教战争，印度斯坦统治者都换成了支持东印度公司控制的亲英派。

In many cases the defeated Rulers were removed and a close relation installed as Ruler in his place, with a Company Resident in his capital to ensure that he gave due weight to Company “rules”, such as the lawful collection of taxes, legal reforms at least partly in line with British civil practice, abolition of certain social practices such as “suttee”, the suppression of religious excesses. stable currency measures and a whole heap more. For most people in Hindustan, more trade-conscious, more accustomed to compliance with the laws, even if not fully understood like the “new” public-health measures.

在许多情况下，被打败的统治者就会被赶下台，换一个亲英派顶替他的位置，在当地首府也会有一个东印度公司的特派代表，确保新的统治者重视东印度公司的统治，比如合法征税，改革法律，至少能部分符合英国的民事惯例，废除某些社会习俗，消除宗教特权，稳定的货币措施等等。印度斯坦的大多数民众变得更有贸易意识，更习惯于遵守法律，即便并不完全理解“新的”公共卫生措施。

Jayper Productions

Well at the time they had a strong army. But if you want to be specific that big sexy navy got a lot of colonies which got more troops and a bigger and sexer navy.

当时英国拥有一支强大的军队。但如果你想知道更具体的信息，那就是强大的英国海军拿下了很多殖民地，这些殖民地供养了更多的军队和更强大的海军。

Charles Hiikie

The UK had a trading relationship in the subcontinent for over 100 years before circumstances compelled a change in relationship.

The vast majority of the British soldiers were Indian, the conquest of Indian States always funded by Indian bankers. The military technology was available to both sides.

The advantage of the British system was continuity, rationality, greater distribution of wealth, the rule of law and development.

英国与印度次大陆的贸易关系持续了100多年，直到环境迫使双方改变关系。

绝大多数英国士兵都是印度人，对印度各邦的征战都是印度银行家资助的。双方都能获得军事技术。

英国体系的优点在于延续性、合理性、更大的财富分配、法治和发展。

IE. A Mughal ruler like Aurangzeb had a wealthy empire, but the vast majority of money went to less than 2000 people, with a high tax base, no public developments and irrational war.

At the death of a monarch is a period of chaos as competitors aim for the throne. Failure to find an effective monarch led to sustained, devastating invasions and the rise of irrational warlords in the regions.

像奥朗则布这样的莫卧儿统治者拥有一个富裕的帝国，但多数财富只能流向不到2000人的小群体，税基高，没有公共发展，战火四起。

君主去世时，竞争对手为了争夺王位混战不休，这是一段混乱的时期，导致了持续的，毁灭性的入侵和军阀割据。