THE ARRIVAL OF THE BRITISH

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Now let me give you an idea about what was happening in the world around the Cardamom Hills.The cardamom hills was surrounded by many small and big territories which was ruled by a king or Maharaja.Travancore was one of the states near these hills.The king of the state was the Maharaja Martanda Varma.But really the control of the lands were in the hands of the Europeans who came here for trading spices.They settled here, and as a result there was many British and Dutch colonies in India.These Maharajas were mere puppets in the hands of these foreigners.The administrative organization of the British in India was called The British East India Company.

During the 1750‘s Martanda Varma began to capture its neighboring smaller kingdoms,and emerged as a sizeable kingdom.The East India Company too helped in the process ,as they thought that it will cause a treat to the state of Cochin which was under the control of the Dutch.The British had a factory at Anjengo. The British bought pepper and other spices and presented arms in return to the Travancore Rajas.

The affinity between the company and the Travancore Rajas again strengthened during the campains of Tippu Sultan who was the king of a strong state to the north of Travencore. The Travancore rajas were not able to overcome the treats from the north and was helped by the British.This resulted in a treaty by which the British company promised their assistance in an event of attack by others.And in return the Travancore Rajas appointed a British resident in the court of Travancore

After the defeat of Tippu in 1799 the ruler of Travancore was had no major opponents and were free to turn his attention to the administration of his territories.One of the areas was this unexplored hilly areas called Cardamom hills which formed a part ot the
principality of the Poonjar rajas.The Poonjar rajas claimed to be an offshoot of the Pandyan dynasty of Madura. Their ancestors were supposed to have taken refuge in these hills after a drastic struggle and the family settled in Poonjar.Poonjar in a place on the foothills of cardamom hills.

The Travancore rajas laid claim of all the timber grown in the cardamom hills,it became an important source of revenue. Between 1817 and 1820 the whole state was surveyed by the company‘s Lieutenants Ward and Cannor.Later a conservator was appointed to monitor the falling of timber and the collection of cardomom which grew in the forest.The first conservator was Urban Verses Munro, son of Colonel. John Munro , the British resident from 1810 to 1819 and was the Divan to the Travancore Ranis, Lakshmi and Parvati Bhai in 1820.

Colonel Munro was a forceful personality.While maintaining the dignity and prestige of the raja, lawlessness and corruption were put down.The became interested in the welfare of Syrian Christians once a thriving and influential community who were in a depressed condition at that time both socially and economically. He requested the Church Missionaries Society (CMS) to send missionaries to Travancore.One of the First missionaries was Henry Baker Senior who came from Tanjore to Kottayam in 1819. He played a very important role in the development of the Travancore and also the Cardamom Hills. He was the one who explored the cardamom hills and started plantations estates here.Many workers were required to work in there estates and many from the planes moved to these areas.

Due to these reasons the population of these hills increased, but the number of the tribal people began to decrease.For easy transportation tracks for carring goods were built to Peermade from all directions. Soon many other british planters came here and started plantations, and during no time there were almost ten estates around Peermade.