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==== Expansion in India ====
{{see also|List of Anglo-Indian wars}}
The company, which benefited from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading operations. It eclipsed the Portuguese [[Estado da Índia]], which had established bases in [[Goa]], [[Chittagong]], and [[Bombay]] – Portugal later ceded Bombay to England as part of the [[dowry]] of [[Catherine of Braganza]] on her marriage to King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. The East India Company also launched a joint attack with the Dutch [[United East India Company]] (VOC) on Portuguese and Spanish ships off the coast of China that helped secure EIC ports in China,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Gabriel Tatton's Maritime Atlas of the East Indies, 1620–1621: Portsmouth Royal Naval Museum, Admiralty Library Manuscript, MSS 352 |first=Sarah |last=Tyacke |author-link=Sarah Tyacke |journal=Imago Mundi |volume=60 |issue=1 |year=2008 |pages=39–62 |doi=10.1080/03085690701669293|s2cid=162239597 }}</ref> independently attacking the Portuguese in the [[Persian Gulf Residency|Persian Gulf Residencies]] primarily for political reasons.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=K. N. |year=1999 |title=The English East India Company: The Study of an Early Joint-stock Company 1600-1640 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dyn3oh06ue8C&pg=PA64 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780415190763}}</ref> The company established [[trading post]]s in [[Surat]] (1619) and [[Chennai|Madras]] (1639).<ref name="Cadell1956">{{cite journal |last1=Cadell |first1=Patrick |title=The Raising of the Indian Army |journal=Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research |date=1956 |volume=34 |issue=139 |pages=96, 98 |jstor=44226533}}</ref> By 1647, the company had 23 factories and settlements in India, and 90 employees.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Mason |year=1954 |title=The Men Who Ruled India: The Founders |url=https://archive.org/details/menwhoruledindia0001unse/page/55/mode/1up |volume=1 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=55}}</ref> Many of the major factories became some of the most populated and commercially influential cities in India, including the walled forts of [[Fort William, India|Fort William]] in Bengal, [[Fort St George]] in Madras, and [[Bombay Castle]].{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}
The first century of the Company, despite its original profits coming primarily from piracy in the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] between competing European powers and their companies,<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Dalrymple |first=William |title=The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-63557-433-3 |location=London (GB)}}</ref> saw the East India Company change focus after suffering a major setback in 1623 when their factory in [[Amboyna massacre|Amboyna]] in the Moluccas was attacked by the Dutch. This compelled the company to formally abandon their efforts in the Spice Islands and turn their attention to India where by this time they were making steady, if less exciting, profits.<ref name=":02" /> After gaining the indifferent patronage of the [[Mughal Empire]], whose cities were 'the megacities of their time' and whose wealth was unrivaled outside of Asia in the 17th Century,<ref name=":02" /> the Company spent its first century of life in India cultivating their relationship with the Mughal Dynasty and conducting peaceful trade at great profit. At first it should be said the EIC was drawn into the Mughal system, acting as a kind of vassal to Mughal authority in India: where it was from this position that the EIC would ultimately outplay and outmaneuver everyone else on the continent to eventually use that same system to hold power.<ref name=":02" /> What started as trading posts on undesirable land, often islands or swamps 'near' existing population centers were developed into sprawling factory complexes with hundreds of workers providing exotic goods back to England and offered protected points to export English finished goods to local merchants. The Company's initial rise and successes generally came at the expense of competing European powers through the art of currying favors and well placed bribes as the company was matched at every step with French expansion in the region (whose equivalent company carried substantial royal support). See [[French East India Company]]. Throughout the entire century the company only resorted to force against the Mughals once, with terrible consequences.<ref name=":02" /> The [[Anglo-Mughal war (1686–1690)]] was a complete loss, ending when the EIC effectively declared fealty to the Mughals to get their factories back.
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