Third Mysore War

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Third Mysore War
Part of: Mysore Wars
date 1789 to 1792
place Indian subcontinent
output Defeat of Mysore
consequences Loss of large areas of Mysore
Parties to the conflict

Flag of Mysore.svg Mysore

British East India CompanyBritish East India Company British East India Company Marathon Empire Hyderabad Travancore
MarathaMaratha 
Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.png
Travancoreflag.png

Commander

Tipu Sultan

William Medows
Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Earl Cornwallis
Parshuram Bhau
Hurry Punt


The Third Mysore War from 1789 to 1792 was part of the Mysore Wars and took place on the Indian subcontinent between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company . The Marathon Empire , Hyderabad and Travancore fought on the side of the East India Company . The war ended with the Treaty of Seringapatam , in which Mysore had to cede large parts of its territory.

prehistory

Tipu Sultan , the ruler of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali had already fought two wars against the British East India Company and its allies. The First Mysore War ended with the British having to commit to arms aid. At the end of the Second Mysore War , the British were forced to sign the Treaty of Mangalore and return all the territories they had won back to Mysore, which they had previously conquered. Another condition of the contract was the repatriation of British prisoners, which Tipu Sultan refused, however.

In 1786 Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Earl Cornwallis, was Governor of British India. He agreed with the Marathas and Hyderabad that they should take part in another war against Mysore on the British side, or at least remain neutral.

Portrait of Tipu Sultan from 1792
Anglo-Mysore War 3.png
Map from 1793 showing the loss of territory to Mysore and the respective proportions of the various winners, including the British East India Company.
Handing over the hostages to General Cornwallis , from Robert Home , c. 1793

In 1788 the East India Company took control of the Guntur district , which it received from Hyderabad in exchange for two battalions of its infantry. This allowed the British to station troops on the border with Mysore and it was made clear that Hyderabad would be drawn into a possible conflict.

Tipu had been keeping an eye on the Kingdom of Travancore for a long time and had established forts in the border area, although the East India Company had made it clear that an attack on Travancore would also be a declaration of war on the company.

In 1789 Tipu was forced to quell an uprising on the Malabar Coast. Many of the insurgents fled to Travancore and Tipu was apparently preparing an invasion. Again the British threatened to intervene on the side of Travancore, which Tipu Sultan did not take seriously.

Course of war

On December 29, 1789, Tipu advanced with 14,000 men to Travancore and was surprisingly repulsed by a small group of defenders, as panic broke out in his troops. Tipu Sultan had to withdraw and regroup his troops, which gave the British time to mobilize troops themselves. Afterwards Tipu managed to break through the border defense of Travancore, but he also had to react to the British mobilization and turned again to the northeast. The onset of the monsoon initially hindered further military operations.

In July 1790, the British under General Medows was able to beat a 4,000-man cavalry unit from Mysore and then take some fortified positions. Medows was able to take control of a large area, but was forced to leave larger detachments as a garrison.

Tipu Sultan left Seringapatam with 40,000 men on September 2, 1790. He made slow progress due to the weather and the poor supply situation. On September 13th, a British unit under Captain Floyd was able to be placed, which could only repel the attacks with difficulty and with the loss of all supplies. With the arrival of a contingent of General Medows, Captain Floyd managed to withdraw.

In the summer of 1790, a 30,000-strong Marathic army set out from Bombay to support the British. Some Mysore outposts surrendered at the sight of this army. The Marathas were only stopped at Dawar and had to besiege the fort there for 29 weeks. They could only start moving again in May 1791.

A second, similarly large army under Hurry Punt was able to move from Pune in January 1791 and encountered no significant resistance. On news that British troops were on their way to besiege Seringapatam, the capital of Mysore, Punt also turned in that direction. On March 5th, the British began to besiege Bangalore , which they were able to capture after six weeks. This gave them an ideal starting position for a march on Seringapatam. A first attempt had to be given up because of the onset of the monsoons.

On January 25, 1792, the British and their allies started moving again and reached Seringapatam on February 5th. In a battle at the gates of the city, Tipu was defeated and the siege began. On February 12, Tipu Sultan offered negotiations and the return of prisoners of war.

Cornwallis, the British commander, took two of Tipu's sons hostage to ensure that the terms of the contract, still to be negotiated, would be respected. Mysore had to give up large parts of its territory, lost almost its entire coastline and was forced to pay the war costs of all parties involved. The Seringapatam Treaty was signed on March 18, 1792.

consequences

As a result of the conflict, Mysore lost almost half of its territory to the other warring parties, which led directly to the Fourth Mysore War, in which Mysore was finally defeated and Tipu was killed.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ George Alfred Henty : The Tiger of Mysore. A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib . BiblioBazaar, 2007, ISBN 978-0554151915 (novel, EA Lon don 1896)
  2. ^ Edward Thornton (Ed.): The History of the British Empire in India . Adamant Media Corporation, 2001, ISBN 0-543803295 (EA London 1843)