Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

2021-05-19T16:33:09Z

2.49.99.218: Added Consequences

{{Short description|1798-99 conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}{{Use Indian English|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Fourth Anglo–Mysore War
| partof = the [[Anglo-Mysore wars]] and the [[French Revolutionary Wars]]
| image = Anglo-Mysore War 4.png
| image_size = 300
| caption = A map of the war thereafter
| date = 1798 – 4 May 1799
| place = [[Indian subcontinent]]
| result = Anglo-Hyderabadi victory
| combatant1 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Mysore Hyder Ali & TipuSultan.jpg}} [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore]] '''Supported by:''' {{flag|French First Republic|name=France}} (Until December 1798) [[Arcot State|The Carnatic]] {{small|(suspected)}}
| combatant2 = {{flagu|Travancore|name=[[Travancore]]}} {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[East India Company]] {{flagicon image|Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.png}} [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad Deccan]]
| commander1 = [[Tipu Sultan]]{{KIA}} Sipahsalar Sayyid Abdul Ghaffar Sahib Mir Golam Hussain Mohomed Hulleen Mir Miran [[Mir Sadiq]] [[Ghulam Muhammad Khan]]
| commander2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[George Harris, 1st Baron Harris|George Harris]] {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet|David Baird]] {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[James Stuart (British Army general)|James Stuart]] {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} James Dalrymple{{sfnp|Dalrymple|2003|p=180}} {{flagicon image|Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.png}} [[Nizam Ali Khan, Asaf Jah II|Asaf Jah II]] {{flagicon image|Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.png}} [[Mir Alam]] {{flagicon image|Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.png}} [[Sham Raj I]]{{sfnp|Dalrymple|2003|p=179}}
| strength1 = {{circa}} 37,000{{sfnp|Dalrymple|2003|p=191}}
| strength2 = East India Company: Tens of thousands Hyderabad: 4 infantry battalions{{sfnp|Dalrymple|2003|p=179}} 10,000 cavalry{{sfnp|Dalrymple|2003|p=180}}
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Fourth Anglo-Mysore War}}
{{Campaignbox Anglo-Mysore Wars}}
}}
The '''Fourth Anglo–Mysore War''' was a conflict in [[South India]] between the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] against the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] [[East India Company]] and the [[Hyderabad Deccan]] in 1798–99.<ref name="Kohn2013">{{cite book|author=George Childs Kohn|title=Dictionary of Wars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTDfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA322|date=31 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95494-9|pages=322–323}}</ref>

This was the final conflict of the four [[Anglo-Mysore Wars]]. The British captured the capital of Mysore. The ruler [[Tipu Sultan]] was killed in the battle. Britain took indirect control of Mysore, restoring the [[Wodeyar]] Dynasty to the Mysore throne (with a British commissioner to advise him on all issues). Tipu Sultan's young heir, Fateh Ali, was sent into exile. The Kingdom of Mysore became a [[princely state]] in a [[subsidiary alliance]] with [[British India]] covering parts of present [[Kerala]]-[[Karnataka]] and ceded [[Coimbatore District|Coimbatore]], [[Dakshina Kannada]] and [[Uttara Kannada]] to the British.

==Background==
[[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|landing]] in [[Egypt Eyalet|Ottoman Egypt]] in 1798 was intended to further the capture of the British possessions in India, and the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] was a key to that next step, as the ruler of Mysore, [[Tipu Sultan]], sought France as an ally and his letter to Napoleon resulted in the following reply, "You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible army, full of the desire of releasing and relieving you from the iron yoke of England." Additionally, General Malarctic, French Governor of [[Mauritius]], issued the Malarctic Proclamation seeking volunteers to assist Tipu. [[Horatio Nelson]] ended any possibility of help from Napoleon after the [[Battle of the Nile]]. However, [[Lord Wellesley]] had already set in motion a response to prevent any alliance between Tipu Sultan and France.<ref name=Naravane>{{Cite book |last=Naravane |first=M.S. |title=Battles of the Honorourable East India Company |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2018|isbn=9788131300343 |pages=178–181}}</ref>

==Course of Events==
Three armies – one from [[Bombay]] and two British (one of which contained a division that was commanded by Colonel [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]], the future 1st [[Duke of Wellington (title)|Duke of Wellington]]), marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital, [[Srirangapatnam]], after some engagements with Tipu. On 8 March, a forward force managed to hold off an advance by Tipu at the [[Battle of Seedaseer]]. On 4 May, in the [[Battle of Seringapatam]], broke through the defending walls. [[Tipu Sultan]], rushing to the breach, was shot and killed.

Today, the spot where Tipu's body was discovered under the eastern gate has been fenced off by the [[Archaeological Survey of India]], and a plaque erected. The gate was later demolished during the 19th century to lay a wide road.

One notable military advance championed by Tipu Sultan was the use of mass attacks with [[iron]]-cased [[rocket]] brigades in the army. The effect of the [[Mysorean rockets]] on the British during the Third and Fourth [[Anglo–Mysore Wars|Mysore Wars]] was sufficiently impressive to inspire [[William Congreve (inventor)|William Congreve]] to develop the [[Congreve rocket]]s.{{Citation needed|reason= please provide a contemporary evidence that congreve was inspired to invent rockets from tipu sultan|date=July 2020}}

Many members of the [[East India Company]] believed that [[Umdat Ul-Umra]], the [[Nawab of Carnatic]], secretly provided assistance to Tipu Sultan during the Fourth Anglo–Mysore War; and they immediately sought his deposition after the end of the conflict.

===Nawab of Savanur===
Territory of the [[Nawab of Savanur]] were split among the English and Maratha forces.

==Mysorean rockets==
{{Further||Mysorean rockets}}

During the war, rockets were again used on several occasions. One of these involved [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Colonel Arthur Wellesley]], later famous as the First [[Duke of Wellington (title)|Duke of Wellington]]. Wellesley was defeated by Tipu's Diwan, [[Purnaiah]], at the Battle of Sultanpet Tope. Quoting Forrest,
<blockquote>At this point (near the village of Sultanpet, Figure 5) there was a large tope, or grove, which gave shelter to Tipu's rocketmen and had obviously to be cleaned out before the siege could be pressed closer to Srirangapattana island. The commander chosen for this operation was Col. Wellesley, but advancing towards the tope after dark on the 5 April 1799, he was set upon with rockets and musket-fires, lost his way and, as Beatson politely puts it, had to "postpone the attack" until a more favourable opportunity should offer.<ref>Forrest D (1970) ''Tiger of Mysore'', Chatto & Windus, London</ref></blockquote>

The following day, Wellesley launched a fresh attack with a larger force, and took the whole position without losing a single man.<ref>{{cite book|last=Holmes|first=Richard|title=Wellington: The Iron Duke|year=2003|publisher=[[Harper Collins]]|isbn=0-00-713750-8|pages=58}}</ref> On 22 April 1799, twelve days before the main battle, rocketeers worked their way around to the rear of the British encampment, then 'threw a great number of rockets at the same instant' to signal the beginning of an assault by 6,000 Indian infantry and a corps of Frenchmen, all directed by Mir Golam Hussain and Mohomed Hulleen Mir Miran. The rockets had a range of about 1,000 yards. Some burst in the air like shells. Others, called ground rockets, would rise again on striking the ground and bound along in a serpentine motion until their force was spent. According to one British observer, a young English officer named Bayly: "So pestered were we with the rocket boys that there was no moving without danger from the destructive missiles ...". He continued:
<blockquote>The rockets and musketry from 20,000 of the enemy were incessant. No hail could be thicker. Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to the rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos of twenty or thirty feet, which are invariably attached to them.</blockquote>

During the conclusive British [[Battle of Seringapatam|attack on Srirangapattana]] on 2 May 1799, a British shot struck a magazine of rockets within Tipu Sultan's fort, causing it to explode and send a towering cloud of black smoke with cascades of exploding white light rising up from the battlements. On the afternoon of 4 May when the final attack on the fort was led by Baird, he was again met by "furious musket and rocket fire", but this did not help much; in about an hour's time the fort was taken; perhaps within another hour Tipu had been shot (the precise time of his death is not known), and the war was effectively over.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Narasimha, Roddam|author-link1=Roddam Narasimha|title=Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750-1850 A.D.|url=http://www.nal.res.in/pdf/pdfrocket.pdf|website=[[National Aerospace Laboratories]]|publisher=nal.res.in}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
The war, specifically the [[Battle of Mallavelly]] and the [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)|siege of Seringapatam]], with many of the key protagonists, is covered in the historical novel ''[[Sharpe's Tiger]]'' by [[Bernard Cornwell]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Website of Bernard Cornwell|url=http://bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm?page=2&BookId=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202120215/http://bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm?page=2&BookId=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 February 2007|date=26 May 2019}}</ref>

== Consequences ==
The [[Fourth Anglo-Mysore War|war]] was fought between the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Mysore]] in 1799, in which [[Battle of Seringapatam|Seringapatam was taken]], and [[Tipu Sultan]] was killed in its defense. The victors, rather than partitioning the [[country]], forced Tipu's family into exile and restored control of [[Mysore]] to the [[Wodeyar dynasty|Wodeyars]].

==Gallery==
<gallery caption="Fall of Tippu Sultan (1799)" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:The storming of Seringapatam - John Vendramini, 1802 - BL P779.jpg|Tipu Sultan's forces during the [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)|siege of Srirangapatna]].
File:The Last Effort of Tippu Sahib at Seringapatam p.334.jpg|The Last Effort of Tippu Sahib at Seringapatam (Corner, 1840, p. 334)<ref name=Corner>{{cite book|last1=Corner|first1=Julia|title=The History of China & India, Pictorial & Descriptive|date=1840|publisher=Dean & Co., Threadneedle St.|location=London|page=334|url=https://archive.org/download/historyofchinain00corn/historyofchinain00corn.pdf|access-date=23 March 2015}}</ref>
File:Tipu death.jpg|''The Last Effort and Fall of Tipu Sultan'' by [[Henry Singleton (painter)|Henry Singleton]], c. 1800
File:Finding the body of Tippoo Sultan - Samuel William Reynolds, 1800 - BL P428.jpg|British troops examine the body of [[Tipu Sultan]]
File:Sir David Baird Discovering Body of Tipu Sultan.jpg|[[Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet|David Baird]], a British officer, discovering the body of [[Tipu Sultan]].
File:P 229.jpg|British Marker showing the location where Tipu's body was found.
</gallery>

{{s-start}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Anglo-Mysore Wars|Anglo-Mysore Wars]]|years=|before=[[Third Anglo-Mysore War]]|after=None}}
{{succession box|title=Indo-British conflicts|years=|before=[[Third Anglo–Mysore War]]|after=[[Second Anglo-Maratha War]]}}
{{s-end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book| last = Dalrymple| first = William |author-link=William Dalrymple (historian)| title = White Mughals: love and betrayal in eighteenth-century India| publisher = Flamingo (HarperCollins)| date = 2003 |orig-year=1st pub. 2002| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=W1b5h0NlnL8C| isbn = 9780006550969}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
*{{citation|ref=none |last=Bonghi |first=Ruggero |year=1869 |chapter=Chapter-XIX: Lord Wellesley's administration—Fourth and last Mysore war, 1798, 1799 |editor-first=John Clark |editor-last=Marshman |title=The History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's |volume=2 |publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zNLtSQmwxVsC&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q&f=false 71]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=zNLtSQmwxVsC&pg=PA102#v=onepage&q&f=false 102]}}
*{{citation|ref=none |last=Carter |first=Thomas |year=1861 |chapter=The Mysore War and the Siege of Seringapatam |title=India, China, etc |series=Medals of the British Army: And how They Were Won |volume=3 |publisher=Groombridge and sons |pages=[https://archive.org/details/medalsbritishar02cartgoog 2]–6}}
*{{citation |ref=none |last1=Mill |first1=James |last2=Wilson |first2=Horace Hayman |year=1858 |chapter=Chapter-VIII |title=The History of British occupied India |volume=6 |edition=5 |publisher=J. Madden |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zVQIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false 50]–121}}

{{British colonial campaigns}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Indian Independence Movement}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglo-Mysore War 04}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1798]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1799]]
[[Category:History of Karnataka]]
[[Category:Wars involving British India]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Kingdom of Mysore]]
[[Category:Wars involving Great Britain]]
[[Category:1798 in India]]
[[Category:1799 in India]]

Bharatpedia - User contributions [en]

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War