One Damn Accident After Another
A few intriguing tales of chance from history
Hello,
The more you read about the significant moments that shaped our history, the more they blow your mind.
There’s an endless supply of turning points where things were seemingly going in a particular direction, only to be suddenly wrenched in a completely different direction by a totally unpredictable accident.
But the sheer absurdity and shocking nature of this idea are best conveyed through real incidents and stories- events that have defined the form that the world has taken today.
Delayed Barges
Consider the Battle of Buxar in 1764. This was one of the most decisive battles that marked a turning point for the operations of the East India Company and paved the way for their domination of vast swathes of the country.
The battle was fought between the company and a coalition of 3 parties on the other side: Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh, Emperor Shah Alam II, and Mir Qasim (Governor of Bengal).
The battle was mostly led by Shuja and despite the better training and orderliness of the Company troops, he gave them a tough fight. At one point in the battle, the Company was out of supplies and would have been forced to surrender if Shuja had pressed on.
Unaware of this advantage, he suddenly ordered a withdrawal, thereby squandering an opportunity to beat the Company and allow the coalition to take over Bengal. Things could have gone very differently. But they didn’t, and the battle continued.
Both sides waged a bitter war and the Company troops held on despite grim losses. Shuja continued to push and gained the upper hand towards the end, and it seemed that all was lost for the Company.
Shuja, in fact, began dancing and celebrating his victory as the Company troops attempted to flee the site in their barges. This is where the twist in the tale occurred.
The barges didn’t arrive on time. This created a do-or-die situation and Munro, an EIC commander, made a mad dash, which suddenly turned the tables and led to the Company army winning key positions and moving forward swiftly.
Munro’s act of bravura swung the battle in their favor and Shuja fled the battlefield, bringing the Mughals to their feet and ceding control of Bengal to the Company. What followed was the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765, which marked the beginning of the British Empire in India.
All thanks to rescue boats not arriving on time.
A fateful love story?
A similar twist of fate occurred in 1192 AD.
This was at the western frontier of Bharat, where a decisive showdown was underway between the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan and the Afghan invader Muhammad Ghori.
Ghori wanted to take over the rich lands of India. He had already lost a battle against Chauhan approximately a year ago, and this time he was prepared with a much bigger and better-trained army.
Chauhan realized the deadly nature of this threat and required the support of neighboring kingdoms so they could unite to face this invader.
However, help wasn’t coming. Some sources suggest that since Chauhan fled with the sister of the King of Kannauj (a neighboring kingdom), he was incensed and offered no help when it was needed the most. To make matters worse, Chauhan anyway attracted the jealousy of such rulers, who vied for command over Delhi themselves.
Unfortunately, Chauhan had to fight this battle alone and ended up losing. This paved the way for Islamic invasion, which eventually led to the formation of the Delhi Sultanate.
So, perhaps a story of love and elopement was instrumental in tipping the scales against Chauhan, resulting in centuries of torment for the Indian kingdoms that’d soon be subjugated.
We all know love can change people’s lives. But in this case, it might just have changed the lives of millions.
Accidental rights
Everyone’s aware of the extreme individualism prevalent in European societies. But it’s a mistake to assume that this was caused by the rise of capitalism a few centuries ago.
Rather, capitalism was a consequence of the rise of individualism and women’s rights- shifts that had already started occurring as early as the 13th century.
But the idea of allowing women to have personal property wasn’t because the Brits were fair-minded feminists. It is a story of selfish interests and unintended consequences.
The church, at the time, was akin to the state and had become a gigantic corporate organization in itself. As with all such entities, the goal was to maximize the revenues that they brought in. And they found a clever way to further fatten their coffers.
They banned things like cross-cousin marriage, remarriage, adoption, and divorce for their own economic interests. The idea was devilishly simple. Outlawing such practices would mean that the land belonging to these women wouldn’t be passed on to any male heirs after death- and directly fall into the Church’s hands.
As a result of this policy, the church grew insanely rich over time. But an unintended consequence was that women became used to owning property- a trend that continued over time. Moreover, such laws cemented the idea of individual ownership of property and exchange between individuals.
So a neat little trick to capture more riches, not benevolence, accidentally resulted in concepts like women's rights and property ownership- which ultimately led to the system of capitalism!
History is the study of chance encounters that got us to where we are.
These events can be found everywhere- in spy stories of the World Wars, in the battle stories of imperial takeovers, and in the very origins of emerging inventions that changed the course of the world.
That’s why studying our past is so fascinating. It allows us to see how human actors probably don’t matter as much as we think they do, as they start to look more like mere characters in a flow of events that recur over and over again.
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Thanks for the article!