East India Companies

East India Companies were European companies that conducted trade with Asia and within Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their presence in Asia could take the form of trading posts, territorial conquests, or empires. Historians have long seen them as innovations that emerged from a unique process of European capitalism. Over time, many historians have embraced a different and alternative story with a more central role for European interactions with Asia. In this new reading, East India companies were conduits that connected developments across the globe through the movement of goods, people, and ideas. These complex interactions are accordingly to be understood in the light of Asian agency and developments within Asian societies.