Question

How did Bombay evolve as a modern city?

Answer 1

• In the seventeenth century, Bombay was a group of seven islands under Portuguese control. In 1661 control of the islands passed into British hands after the marriage of Britain's King Charles II to the Portuguese princess.
• The East India Company quickly shifted its base from Surat, its principal western port to Bombay.
• At first, Bombay was the major outlet for cotton textile from Gujarat.
• Later, in the nineteenth century, the city functioned as a port through which large quantities of raw materials such as cotton and opium would pass.
• Gradually, it also became an important administrative centre in western India, and then, by the end of the nineteenth century, a major industrial centre.
• Bombay became the capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1819 after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo- Maratha War. The city quickly expanded. with the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders and bankers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers, came to settle in Bombay. The establishment of textile mills led to a fresh surge in migration.