The Treaty of Amritsar of 1809 was an agreement between the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh leader who founded the

Sikh empire The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...

. The EIC's intention of this treaty was to gain Singh’s support if the French invaded India and Singh’s intention was to further consolidate his territorial gains south of the Sutlej River after establishing the river as their respective border.

Background

Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) was a Sikh warrior who had been establishing a kingdom in then northern India. He had established a capital at

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

in 1799, proclaimed himself

maharajah Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

of the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

in 1801 and expanded his territories to such an extent that by 1808 he had control of an area bounded by the Jhelum and Sutlej Rivers. The Sikh chiefs of the Malwa region appealed to the British for protection but were declined because of the rumored invasion from

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and Singh as an ally because his kingdom was between Russia and India. Singh accepted the EIC’s invitation to meet EIC diplomat Charles Metcalfe to discuss the possible French Russian invasion. After months of negotiations, Singh invaded Malwa to prove to Metcalfe his hold over the region and establish the Yamuna River as his border. The EIC responded by sending their troops to the Sutlej River to declare this as their border and force Singh to agree to the treaty. Then, Napoleon's attacked Spain and seemed unlikely to attack India. Thus, the EIC changed their policy of aggression and submitted a new treaty allowing Singh to retain some his conquests south of the Sutlej in Malwa, but the Sutlej would remain their border. Singh agreed to sign the updated treaty. Although the terms of the treaty prevented Singh from any further territorial expansion south of the Sutlej, it permitted him complete freedom of action to the north of it. This enabled him to extract

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...

from less powerful chieftains, including

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...

s and other Sikhs, and ultimately to gain control of areas such as

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

and Kashmir. The unification of these territories, which was aided by him Westernising his armies, formed the Sikh empire that last until British subjugation in 1849.

References

{{reflist Treaties of the British East India Company Indian documents 1809 in India 1809 treaties Amritsar Amritsar

Background

See also

References