The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and 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 ...

(represented chiefly by the neighbouring Madras Presidency),

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Sh ...

Kingdom of Travancore The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, and the

Kingdom of Hyderabad Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

on the other.

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the at ...

and his succeeding son Tipu fought the wars on four fronts: with the British attacking from the west, south and east and the

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

's forces attacking from the north. The fourth war resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu (the latter was killed in the fourth war, in 1799), and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of the East India Company, which took control of much of the Indian subcontinent.

The four wars

Haidar Ali commandant en chef des Mahrattes gravure 1762

First Anglo-Mysore War

The

First Anglo-Mysore War The First Anglo-Mysore War (1766–1769) was a conflict in India between the Sultanate of Mysore and the East India Company. The war was instigated in part by the machinations of Asaf Jah II, the Nizam of Hyderabad, who sought to divert the ...

(1767 – 1769) saw Hyder Ali enjoy some measure of success against the British, almost capturing Madras. The British convinced Nizam Mir Nizam Ali Khan to attack Ali. That was temporary, however, and the Nizam signed a new treaty with the British in February 1768. Ali had to contend with a

British Bombay The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

army attacking on the west and a Madras army attacking from the northeast. However, Hyder's attack towards Madras resulted in the Madras government suing for peace, and the resultant Treaty of Madras.

Second Anglo-Mysore War

The

Second Anglo-Mysore War The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, and the conflict between Britain against the French and Dutch in ...

(1780 – 1784) witnessed bloodier battles with fortunes fluctuating between the contesting powers. Tipu defeated William Baillie at the

Battle of Pollilur The Battle of Pollilur (a.k.a. Pullalur), also known as the Battle of Polilore or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India, as part of the ...

in September 1780, and John Braithwaite at Kumbakonam in February 1782, both of whom were taken prisoners to

Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...

. This war saw the comeback of

Sir Eyre Coote Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, KB (1726 – 28 April 1783) was a British soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1780. He is best known for his many years of service with the British Army in India. His victory ...

, the British commander who defeated Ali at the

Battle of Porto Novo The Battle of Porto Novo was fought on 1 July 1781 between forces of the Kingdom of Mysore and British East India Company in the place called Porto Novo (now known as Parangipettai) on the Indian subcontinent, during the Second Anglo-Mysore Wa ...

and Arni. Tipu continued the war following his father's death. Finally, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore on 11 March 1784, which restored the '' status quo ante bellum''. The Treaty of

Gajendragad Gajendragad (also called Gajendragada) is a town and a sub-district place in Gadag District, Karnataka, India. This place is known for its hill station and hill strip. Highest populated city after Gadag in the district. It is about 55 kilomet ...

in April 1787 ended the conflict with the Marathas.

Third Anglo-Mysore War

In the

Third Anglo-Mysore War The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Empire, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Angl ...

(1790 – 1792), Tipu, now an ally of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, invaded in 1789 the nearby

, a British ally. British forces were commanded by

Charles Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

. The resultant war lasted three years and was a resounding defeat for Mysore. The war ended after the 1792 Siege of Seringapatam and the signing of the

Treaty of Seringapatam The Treaty of Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), signed 18 March 1792, ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Its signatories included Lord Cornwallis on behalf of the British East India Company, representatives of the Niz ...

, according to which Tipu had to surrender half of his kingdom to 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 its allies.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore war

The

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99. This was the final conflict of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured ...

(1798 – 1799) saw the death of Tipu and further reductions in Mysorean territory. Mysore's alliance with the French was seen as a threat to the East India Company and Mysore was attacked from all four sides. Mysore had 35,000 soldiers, whereas the British commanded 60,000 troops. Nizam Akbar Ali Khan and the

Marathas The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

launched an invasion from the north. The British won a decisive victory at the Siege of Seringapatam (1799). Tipu was executed during the defence of the city. Much of the remaining Mysorean territory was annexed by the British, the nizam, and the Marathas. The remaining core, around Mysore and Seringapatam, was restored to the Indian prince Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, Yuvaraja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III (later Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III) under Lakshmi Ammani Devi, his grandmother's regency; members of the Wadiyar dynasty, Wodeyar dynasty had been in power before Ali became the de facto ruler. The Wodeyars ruled the remnant Kingdom of Mysore until 1947, when it joined the Dominion of India.

Aftermath

After the Battles of Battle of Plassey, Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar, Buxar (1764), which established British dominion over East India, the Anglo-Mysore Wars, the Anglo-Maratha Wars (disambiguation), Anglo–Maratha Wars (1767 – 1799), and finally the Anglo-Sikh War (disambiguation), Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–1849), consolidated the British claim over South Asia, resulting in the British Raj, British Empire in India, though resistance among various groups such as the Demographics of Afghanistan, Afghans and the Burma, Burmese would last well into the 1880s. File:Anglo-Mysore War 1 and 2.png, The First Anglo-Mysore War, First and the

. File:Anglo-Mysore War 3.png, The

File:Anglo-Mysore War 4.png, The

File:1793 Faden Wall Map of India - Geographicus - India-faden-1793.jpg, 1793 map File:1800 Map of Peninsular India-1795.jpg , 1800 map

Rockets

The Mysorean rockets used by Tipu during the

were much more advanced than any that the

had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant. This enabled higher thrust and a longer range for the missile (up to ). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of a number of Mysorean iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.