Q150. Which European rival decisively weakened Dutch power in India during the eighteenth century?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 20 Jun 2026, Shift 1]
(a) French
(b) Portuguese
(c) British
(d) Danish
Answer: (c) British
Explanation: The British defeated Dutch forces near Chinsurah in the Battle of Bedara in 1759. Although Dutch trade did not disappear immediately, the encounter curtailed their political and military ambitions in Bengal and strengthened English commercial supremacy.
Q149. Which town functioned as the principal French East India Company settlement in India?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 19 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) Mahé
(b) Karaikal
(c) Chandernagore
(d) Pondicherry
Answer: (d) Pondicherry
Explanation: Pondicherry, now Puducherry, developed into the major administrative and trading centre of French India under François Martin. Chandernagore served the Bengal region, while Mahé and Karaikal were other important French possessions along the Indian coast.
Q148. Who commanded the expedition that reached Calicut by the Cape sea route in 1498?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 18 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) Bartolomeu Dias
(b) Vasco da Gama
(c) Afonso de Albuquerque
(d) Pedro Álvares Cabral
Answer: (b) Vasco da Gama
Explanation: Vasco da Gama reached the Malabar coast in 1498 by sailing around southern Africa and crossing the Indian Ocean. His voyage opened a direct maritime commercial link between Portugal and India and began a new stage of European rivalry.
Q147. What major fiscal privilege did the Company secure through the settlement at Allahabad in 1765?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 17 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) Free French military assistance
(b) Direct rule over Travancore
(c) Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
(d) Permanent possession of Goa
Answer: (c) Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
Explanation: The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II conferred Diwani, or revenue-collection rights, on the East India Company in 1765. This transformed its financial position in eastern India and provided resources for military and political expansion beyond commercial trade.
Q146. Which event immediately intensified the Company’s conflict with Siraj-ud-Daulah before Plassey?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 17 Jun 2026, Shift 1]
(a) French conquest of Madras
(b) Seizure of Calcutta and attacks on Company positions
(c) Dutch attack on Goa
(d) British purchase of Pondicherry
Answer: (b) Seizure of Calcutta and attacks on Company positions
Explanation: Siraj-ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756 amid disputes over fortification and Company privileges. The English reconquest and escalating hostilities contributed to the confrontation of 1757, in which Robert Clive’s forces defeated the Nawab at Plassey.
Q145. Which Indian state first accepted Wellesley’s subsidiary alliance in 1798?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 14 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) Travancore
(b) Jaipur
(c) Hyderabad
(d) Mysore
Answer: (c) Hyderabad
Explanation: The Nizam of Hyderabad accepted a subsidiary alliance in 1798 and agreed to maintain a British force. The arrangement also reduced French military influence at his court, demonstrating how the East India Company expanded political control through diplomacy.
Q144. What was the broad effect of the British victory at Wandiwash in 1760?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 13 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) End of Portuguese control of Goa
(b) Collapse of French prospects for military supremacy in India
(c) Dutch capture of Bengal
(d) French takeover of Madras permanently
Answer: (b) Collapse of French prospects for military supremacy in India
Explanation: The defeat of French troops by Eyre Coote at Wandiwash undermined French military power during the Third Carnatic War. Pondicherry fell the following year, and British superiority increasingly determined the outcome of Anglo-French rivalry in southern India.
Q143. On which date is Vasco da Gama traditionally recorded as reaching the Calicut coast?
[RRB NTPC (UG), 13 Jun 2026, Shift 2]
(a) 20 May 1498
(b) 20 May 1509
(c) 31 December 1600
(d) 22 January 1760
Answer: (a) 20 May 1498
Explanation: The commonly cited arrival date is 20 May 1498 at Kappad near Calicut, today Kozhikode. Da Gama’s route around the Cape of Good Hope connected Atlantic and Indian Ocean navigation and increased European participation in the spice trade.
Q142. Which commercial monopoly did the Charter Act of 1813 largely abolish?
[SSC GD Constable, 20 May 2026, Shift 1]
(a) Company’s China trade
(b) Company’s tea trade
(c) Company’s trade with India except tea and China trade
(d) Opium trade worldwide
Answer: (c) Company’s trade with India except tea and China trade
Explanation: The Charter Act of 1813 opened most trade with India to private British merchants, ending the Company’s general monopoly. Its exclusive privileges concerning tea and trade with China continued until subsequent reforms, especially the Charter Act of 1833.
Q141. How did the English East India Company most effectively change from a merchant body into a territorial authority?
[UP PGT History, 9 May 2026]
(a) It consistently avoided Indian politics
(b) It combined trade with warfare and alliances
(c) It immediately became sovereign through the 1600 charter
(d) It abandoned coastal trade in the seventeenth century
Answer: (b) It combined trade with warfare and alliances
Explanation: The Company used local alliances, armies, treaties and the rivalries of Indian rulers to obtain political advantages. Victories such as Plassey and Buxar converted commercial influence into revenue rights and territorial power, particularly in eighteenth-century Bengal.