Second Anglo-Maratha War

• 1. Introduction

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  The Second Anglo-Maratha War set the East India Company against the Maratha Empire from 1803 to 1805. One account described the Peshwa at its center, Baji Rao II, as "a past master in deceit and intrigue." The same account added that he had a "cruel streak." His father, Raghunathrao, had leaned on British backing during the First Anglo-Maratha War. The British extended that same support to the son.

  That temperament proved combustible. Baji Rao II had one of Yashwant Rao Holkar's relatives killed. The killing turned Holkar, ruler of Indore, into a lasting enemy. A single killing would help pull four other Maratha rulers and a Company army of tens of thousands into war. How did one Peshwa's quarrel end up costing an empire built on five competing thrones its own territory? And which treaty, signed within months of that killing, would help seal the empire's fate?

• 2. A Fractured Confederacy

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  Five chiefs held the real power in the Maratha Empire. There was the Peshwa at Poona, the Gaekwad of Baroda, the Scindia of Gwalior, the Holkar of Indore, and the Bhonsle of Nagpur. These five spent much of their energy quarreling among themselves rather than uniting against the British.

  Lord Mornington, the Governor-General of British India, repeatedly offered a subsidiary treaty to both the Peshwa and the Scindia chief. Nana Fadnavis refused it strongly. In October 1802, the combined armies of Peshwa Baji Rao II and Scindia were defeated by Yashwantrao Holkar at the Battle of Poona. Baji Rao II fled to British protection.

  In December 1802, Baji Rao II signed the Treaty of Bassein with the East India Company. He ceded territory to fund a permanent Company force stationed with him, and agreed he would treaty with no other power. One historical account later called that treaty the empire's "death knell."

• 3. The British Offensive

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  News of the Treaty of Bassein horrified the Maratha chieftains who had not signed it. The Scindia rulers of Gwalior and the Bhonsale rulers of Nagpur and Berar refused to accept it.

  Major General Arthur Wellesley took charge of securing the Deccan Plateau. Lieutenant General Gerard Lake was assigned the Doab, and then Delhi itself. Officers named Powell, Murray, and Harcourt handled Bundelkhand, Badoch, and Bihar. In total, the British had more than 53,000 men available for the campaign.

  Wellesley's own force numbered 24,000 men once its logistics were complete. On the 8th of August 1803, he ordered his army to break camp and strike the nearest Maratha fort. That same day, his troops took the walled Pettah of Ahmednagar, the town beside the fort, by escalade. The fort itself surrendered on the 12th, after infantry exploited a breach that artillery had opened in its wall. Wellesley then pushed his control south to the river Godavari.

  In September 1803, Scindia's forces lost twice within weeks, to Lake at Delhi and to Wellesley at Assaye. On the 18th of October, British troops took the pettah of Asirgarh Fort, losing two killed and five wounded. The fort's garrison surrendered on the 21st, once the attackers had erected a battery. British artillery also pounded ancient ruins that Scindia's forces had been using as forward bases, wearing down their grip on the region. In November, Lake defeated another Scindia force at Laswari. Wellesley followed with a victory over Bhonsle forces at Argaon, now called Adgaon, on the 29th of November 1803. Those defeats at Laswari and Argaon left both the Scindia and the Bhonsle chiefs facing the same choice: keep fighting, or come to terms.

• 4. Dividing The Spoils

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  On the 17th of December 1803, Raghoji II Bhonsale of Nagpur signed the Treaty of Deogaon in Odisha. He gave up the province of Cuttack. That province included the coastal part of Odisha, the Garjat princely states, Balasore Port, and parts of the Midnapore district in West Bengal.

  On the 30th of December 1803, Daulat Scindia signed the Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon. He ceded Hisar, Panipat, Rohtak, Rewari, and Gurgaon, along with the Ganges-Jamuna Doab and the Delhi-Agra region. The treaty also cost him parts of Bundelkhand, Broach, several districts of Gujarat, and the fort of Ahmadnagar.

  The British opened hostilities against Yashwantrao Holkar on the 6th of April 1804. Holkar had some success at first, harassing Company forces through guerrilla warfare. He never received the help he expected from Scindia, who had already made peace with the British. He traveled to Punjab and asked Ranjit Singh for support, without success. Short on resources, Holkar had no choice but to come to terms.

  Signed on the 24th of December 1805, the Treaty of Rajghat forced Holkar to give up Tonk, Rampura, and Bundi. He was the last of the five confederate chiefs to make peace with the Company.