Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

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The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–1799) was a war in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company under General Harris. He had taken over as Governor-General of the Company after Lord Charles Cornwallis.

Napoleon's landing in Egypt in 1798 was intended to threaten India, and Mysore was a key to that next step, as the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, was a staunch ally of France.

Although Horatio Nelson crushed Napoleon's ambitions at the Battle of the Nile, three armies - one from Bombay, and two British (one of which contained a division that was commanded by Colonel Arthur Wellesley the future 1st Duke of Wellington) - nevertheless marched into Mysore in 1799 and besieged the capital, Srirangapatnam after some engagements with the Tipu's armies. On May 4, the armies broke through the defending walls and Tipu Sultan, rushing to the breach, was shot and killed. Tipu was betrayed in this war by one of his commanders, Mir Sadiq, a traitor who was bought by the British. He sent the army to collect wages at the height of the battle thus giving the British a chance to enter through the hole made through bombardment of the wall. It is also known that he spread water in the basement where the ammunition was stored, making the ammunition unusable.

David Baird, an English officer, discovering the body of Tipu Sultan

One notable military advance championed by Tipu Sultan was the use of mass attacks with rocket brigades in the army. The effect of these weapons on the British during the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars was sufficiently impressive to inspire William Congreve to invent Congreve rockets.

This was the last of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British took indirect control of Mysore, restoring the Wodeyar dynasty to the Mysore throne (with a British commissioner to advise him on all issues). Tipu's young heir, Fateh Ali, was sent into exile. The Kingdom of Mysore became a princely state of British India, and ceded Coimbatore, North Kanara, and South Kanara to the British.