The Four Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767-1799): Haidar Ali, Tipu Sultan, the Treaties of Madras, Mangalore & Seringapatam, and the Fall of Srirangapatnam

The Rise of Mysore: Haidar Ali & Tipu Sultan

🎯 Exam priority: Foundational. Tier 3 — tested occasionally and/or sets up the storyline; master the key facts and move on.

Why this topic matters for UPSC. Four wars, four treaties — test yourself on the treaty names and dates, which appear in chronology questions.

• Wars 1–2 (1767–69, 1780–84): treaties of Madras and Mangalore. War 3 (1790–92): Treaty of Seringapatam. War 4 (1799): Fall of Srirangapatnam.

• The Subsidiary Alliance emerges from War 3; Tipu's death ends War 4.

• Keep the four treaties in memory; the substance details are Tier-1 Mysore territory.

While the English East India Company was consolidating Bengal after Buxar, the most formidable challenge to its march across the South came from Mysore. In four wars spread over a generation — from 1767 to 1799 — the Company, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas, in shifting combinations, struggled against Mysore under two of the ablest rulers of 18th-century India: Haidar Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. Mysore was the one Indian power that the British "looked upon as their most dangerous enemy in India".

The Rise of Mysore: Haidar Ali & Tipu Sultan

• The kingdom of Mysore had preserved a precarious independence since the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire. In the mid-18th century real power had passed from the puppet Wodeyar king to ministers; from this confusion rose Haidar Ali, born in 1721 in an obscure family, who began as a petty officer in the Mysore army. Uneducated but a man of "keen intellect", great energy and daring, a brilliant commander and shrewd diplomat, he recognised the value of Western military training, set up a modern arsenal at Dindigul (1755) with French help, and by 1761 had made himself the master of Mysore.

• Haidar conquered Bidnur, Sunda, Sera, Canara and Malabar, practised religious toleration (his first Dewan and many officials were Hindus), and turned a weak, divided state into a leading Indian power. He died in 1782, during the Second War, and was succeeded by his son Tipu Sultan, who ruled until his death in 1799. Tipu was an innovator — a new calendar, a new coinage, new weights and measures — keenly interested in the French Revolution (he planted a "Tree of Liberty" at Srirangapatnam and joined a Jacobin Club). Alone among Indian rulers he grasped the importance of economic and naval strength, and he stood forth as the foremost foe of the rising English power.

First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69): the Treaty of Madras

The first war grew out of the Company's habit of interfering in the affairs of Indian states for territory and money.

First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69): the Treaty of Madras

• Cause: In 1766 the Company entered an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad to attack Haidar Ali, in return for the cession of the Northern Sarkars (Circars). Haidar's growing power alarmed the British, the Nizam and the Marathas alike, and the three combined against him — but Haidar's diplomacy soon broke up the coalition, detaching the Marathas and then the Nizam, who switched to his side.

• Course & outcome: "Haidar Ali was more than a match for the Company's armies." After beating back the British attack, in 1769 he made a swift march and appeared before the walls of Madras, throwing the Madras Council into panic. He dictated peace by the Treaty of Madras (1769): both sides restored each other's conquests and promised mutual help if attacked by a third party. The first war thus ended in Haidar's favour and exposed British weakness in the South.

Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84): Haidar's Death & the Treaty of Mangalore

The British soon broke the very promise of mutual defence they had given — and paid for it.

Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84): Haidar's Death & the Treaty of Mangalore

• Cause: When the Marathas attacked Haidar in 1771, the English, bound by the Treaty of Madras to help him, went back on their promise — earning Haidar's lasting distrust. Then the Company seized the French port of Mahe, which lay in Haidar's territory, just as Britain and France were at war (the American War of Independence). A grand anti-British combination formed: in this "dark hour" the Marathas, Mysore and Hyderabad all turned on the Company at once.

• Course: War began in 1780. Repeating his earlier exploits, Haidar overran almost the whole of the Carnatic and forced British armies to surrender in large numbers. But Governor-General Warren Hastings saved the day by diplomacy — he bribed the Nizam with Guntur district and made peace with the Marathas (Treaty of Salbai, 1782), freeing his army for Mysore. In July 1781 Sir Eyre Coote defeated Haidar at Porto Novo and saved Madras.

• Outcome: Haidar Ali died in December 1782, and the war was carried on by his son Tipu Sultan. As neither side could overpower the other, peace was made by the Treaty of Mangalore (March 1784), by which both sides restored all conquests. The war showed the British "too weak to defeat either the Marathas or Mysore", yet able to hold their own — and they emerged as one of the three great powers of India.

Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92): Cornwallis & the Treaty of Seringapatam

The peace of 1784 had not removed the grounds of struggle — it had merely postponed it. The Company looked on Tipu as the chief obstacle to its domination of South India.

Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92): Cornwallis & the Treaty of Seringapatam

• Cause: Tipu disliked the English, saw them as the chief danger to his independence, and nursed the ambition to expel them from India. The immediate trigger was Tipu's attack on Travancore (1789), a British ally, which the Company treated as an attack on itself.

• Course: War began in 1789 and was led from 1790 by Governor-General Lord Cornwallis, who through "shrewd diplomacy" isolated Tipu — winning over the Marathas, the Nizam, and the rulers of Travancore and Coorg into a triple alliance against him. Once more the Indian powers were "shortsighted enough to aid the foreigner against another Indian power for temporary advantage." Cornwallis advanced on the capital and besieged Srirangapatnam; though Tipu fought "with exemplary bravery", he was defeated in 1792.

• Outcome — Treaty of Seringapatam (1792): Tipu was forced to cede half of his territories to the allies and to pay an indemnity of 330 lakh (3.3 crore) rupees; unable to pay at once, he surrendered two of his sons as hostages to the British. The Third War destroyed Tipu's dominant position in the South and firmly established British supremacy there — reducing Mysore "to a mere shadow of its recent greatness".

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799): Wellesley & the Fall of Srirangapatnam

The final reckoning came under an aggressive new Governor-General determined to crush any Indian state that might deal with France.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799): Wellesley & the Fall of Srirangapatnam

• Context: Lord Wellesley arrived in 1798, when Britain was locked in a global "life and death struggle with France". Tipu had never reconciled himself to the loss of half his lands in 1792 and worked to rebuild his strength: he opened negotiations with Revolutionary France and sent missions to Afghanistan, Arabia and Turkey for an anti-British alliance. Tipu's overtures to France gave Wellesley the pretext he wanted — and Tipu, of course, would never accept a Subsidiary Alliance.

• Course & outcome: Wellesley struck first, allying again with the Nizam, and "the British army attacked and defeated Tipu in a brief but fierce war in 1799, before French help could reach him." Refusing to "live a miserable dependent on the infidels", Tipu met a hero's end on 4 May 1799 while defending his capital Srirangapatnam (Seringapatam), his army loyal to the last. Nearly half of Tipu's dominions were divided between the British and the Nizam; the reduced kingdom of Mysore was restored to the old Wodeyar dynasty under a Subsidiary Alliance that made it a complete dependency of the Company. A key result was the complete elimination of the French threat in India.

The Subsidiary Alliance & the Significance of the Wars

The wars against Mysore are best understood alongside Wellesley's chosen instrument of conquest — the Subsidiary Alliance.

The Subsidiary Alliance & the Significance of the Wars

• The Subsidiary Alliance system (given definite shape by Wellesley) compelled an allied Indian ruler to station a British force in his territory and pay for its upkeep, to accept a British Resident, to employ no European without British approval, and to negotiate with no other Indian ruler without consulting the Company. In return the British "protected" him. In reality the ruler signed away his independence. Wellesley's first Subsidiary Treaty was with the Nizam of Hyderabad (1798); the Nawab of Awadh was forced into one in 1801; and after 1799 the new Raja of Mysore was placed under one too.

• Significance: The four wars eliminated the strongest military challenge to British power in the South. Haidar and Tipu had built a modernised, French-trained army and a flourishing economy, and their fall removed both a rival power and the French threat in India. The wars also exposed a fatal Indian weakness — the failure of the Indian powers (Mysore, the Nizam, the Marathas) to unite: the British repeatedly "succeeded in dividing the Indian powers", buying off the Nizam and the Marathas to isolate Mysore. With Mysore broken in 1799, only the Marathas remained as a major obstacle to British paramountcy.

Why This Matters for UPSC

• Prelims: match each war with its treaty — First (Treaty of Madras, 1769), Second (Treaty of Mangalore, 1784), Third (Treaty of Seringapatam, 1792 — Tipu cedes half his territory, pays 330 lakh, gives two sons as hostages), Fourth (1799 — fall of Srirangapatnam, death of Tipu on 4 May 1799); the personalities (Haidar Ali, Tipu, Cornwallis, Wellesley, Eyre Coote); the triple alliance; and the Subsidiary Alliance (the 2018 PYQ below).

• Mains: why the Indian powers failed to combine against the British; Tipu Sultan's character and achievements as an innovator and statesman; and how Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance subordinated the Indian states.

Further Reading

• Standard NCERT-level texts and reference books on modern Indian history (any UPSC reading list).

Test Yourself: Practice Questions & PYQs

Test how well you can explain the four Anglo-Mysore Wars — their causes, courses, treaties and significance, and the Subsidiary Alliance. Decide your answer, then open Show answer.

Practice Questions

Q1. Who founded the power of Mysore that challenged the British, making himself its master by 1761?

• (a) Krishnaraja Wodeyar

• (b) Haidar Ali

• (c) Tipu Sultan

• (d) Nanjaraj

Q2. The First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69) ended with the:

• (a) Treaty of Seringapatam

• (b) Treaty of Mangalore

• (c) Treaty of Madras

• (d) Treaty of Salbai

Q3. During the Second Anglo-Mysore War, Haidar Ali was defeated at Porto Novo (1781) by:

• (a) Major Hector Munro

• (b) Lord Cornwallis

• (c) Arthur Wellesley

• (d) Sir Eyre Coote

Q4. Haidar Ali died in 1782 during the Second Anglo-Mysore War; the war was then carried on by Tipu Sultan and ended with the:

• (a) Treaty of Seringapatam (1792)

• (b) Treaty of Madras (1769)

• (c) Treaty of Mangalore (1784)

• (d) Treaty of Bassein (1802)

Q5. In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, the Governor-General who isolated Tipu by winning over the Marathas and the Nizam was:

• (a) Lord Wellesley

• (b) Warren Hastings

• (c) Lord Dalhousie

• (d) Lord Cornwallis

Q6. By the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792), Tipu Sultan was forced to:

• (a) give up his throne

• (b) cede half his territory, pay an indemnity and surrender two sons as hostages

• (c) accept a Subsidiary Alliance immediately

• (d) convert to Christianity

Q7. Tipu Sultan met his death on 4 May 1799 defending his capital, during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War fought under:

• (a) Lord Hastings

• (b) Warren Hastings

• (c) Lord Wellesley

• (d) Lord Cornwallis

Q8. Which ruler planted a 'Tree of Liberty' at Srirangapatnam and became a member of a Jacobin Club, reflecting his admiration for the French Revolution?

• (a) Shuja-ud-Daula

• (b) Haidar Ali

• (c) Tipu Sultan

• (d) Nana Phadnis

Q9. After the fall of Srirangapatnam (1799), the reduced kingdom of Mysore was:

• (a) annexed outright by the Company

• (b) restored to the old Wodeyar dynasty under a Subsidiary Alliance

• (c) made a French protectorate

• (d) given to the Nizam

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

The Anglo-Mysore Wars are a high-yield Prelims topic — expect questions matching each war to its treaty, on Tipu Sultan, and on the Subsidiary Alliance (the question below is a real UPSC PYQ, CSE 2018).

Q1. Which one of the following was NOT an objective of the system of Subsidiary Alliance introduced by Lord Wellesley? (UPSC CSE 2018)

• (a) To establish British paramountcy over the Indian States

• (b) To keep India safe from the Napoleonic danger

• (c) To maintain a large standing army at the expense of the Indian states

• (d) To secure a fixed income for the Company

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• Trace the course of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars and match each with its treaty.

• “The Indian powers were shortsighted enough to aid the foreigner against another Indian power.” Examine this in the context of the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

• Give a critical appreciation of the character and achievements of Tipu Sultan.

• How did Lord Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance subordinate the Indian states? Illustrate with Mysore and Hyderabad.