User:Prerna. 0106/sandbox

This cartoon appeared in Punch in 1858, at the end of the Indian Mutiny (also called the Sepoy Rebellion). Sir Colin Campbell, the 1st Baron Clyde, had been appointed Commander in Chief of British forces in India. He lifted a siege on foreigners in Lucknow and evacuated the survivors, and brought in British troops to quell the uprising among Indian sepoys in the British East India Company's army. Here, Sir Campbell presents a cowed but not necessarily tamed Indian tiger to Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister, who hesitates to accept the gift. This is a reference to some official skepticism in London about the wisdom of the British government stepping in to take direct control over India after the ​British East India Company failed to resolve the uprising. In the end, of course, the government did step in and take power, holding on to India until 1947. The US Civil War Forces Britain to Buy Indian Cotton : The US Civil War (1861-65) disrupted flows of raw cotton from the southern US to Britain's busy textile mills. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Britain got more than three-quarters of its cotton from the US - and Britain was the largest consumer of cotton in the world, buying 800 million pounds of the stuff in 1860. As a result of the Civil War, and a northern naval blockade that made it impossible for the South to export its goods, the British began to buy their cotton from ​British India instead (as well as Egypt, not shown here). In this cartoon, somewhat unrecognizable representations of President Abraham Lincoln of the United States and President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States are so involved in a brawl that they don't notice John Bull, who wants to buy cotton. Bull decides to take his business elsewhere, to the Indian Cotton Depot "over the way "Persia Won!" Political Cartoon of Britain Negotiating Protection for India: This 1873 cartoon shows Britannia negotiating with the Shah of Persia (Iran) for protection of her "child" India. It is an interesting concept, given the relative ages of the British and Indian cultures! The occasion for this cartoon was a visit by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848 - 1896) to London. The British sought and won assurances from the Persian​ shah that he would not allow any Russian advances toward British India across Persian lands. This is an early move in what became known as the "Great Game" - a contest for land and influence in Central Asia between Russia and the U.K.