By the 18th century, the once vast
Mughal Empire was collapsing, undone by internal dissension and by expansion of the
Marathas from the Deccan, the
British from
Bengal, and the
Afghans from
Afghanistan. By the middle of the century, present-day Uttar Pradesh was divided between several states:
Oudh in the centre and east, ruled by a
Nawab who owed allegiance to the Mughal Emperor but was
de facto independent;
Rohilkhand in the north, ruled by Afghans; the Marathas, who controlled the
Bundelkhand region in the south, and the Mughal Empire, which controlled the entire
Doab (the tongue of land between the
Ganges and
Yamuna rivers) as well as the
Delhi region. In 1765, the combined forces of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor met the British at the
Battle of Buxar. The British won, but they did not take any territory; the whole of Awadh was restored to the Nawab, and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam was restored the
subahs of
Allahabad and Kora in the lower Doab, with a British garrison in the fort of Allahabad. Governor-General
Warren Hastings later augmented the territory of Awadh by lending the nawab a British army to conquer
Rohilkhand in the
Rohilla War, and by giving Allahabad and Kora to Awadh on the ground that Shah Alam had placed himself in the power of the Marathas. At the same time the British received the province of
Benares from Awadh. Subsequently, no great change took place until the arrival of
Lord Wellesley (
Governor-General 1797–1805) who acquired a very large accession of territory in two instalments. In 1801 he obtained from the
Nawab of Oudh the cession of Rohilkhand, the lower Doab, and the
Gorakhpur division, thus enclosing Awadh on all sides except the north. In 1804, as the result of
Lord Lake's victories in the
Second Anglo-Maratha War, part of Bundelkhand and the rest of the Doab, including
Agra and the guardianship of the old and blind emperor, Shah Alam, at Delhi, were obtained from
Scindia. In 1815 the
Kumaon division was acquired after the
Gurkha War, and a further portion of Bundelkhand from the Maratha
Peshwa in 1817. These new acquisitions, known as the ceded and conquered provinces, continued to be administered by the governor-general as part of
Bengal. In 1833 an act of
Parliament was passed to constitute a new presidency (province), with its capital at Agra. But this scheme was never fully carried out, and in 1835 another statute authorised the appointment of a lieutenant-governor for the North-Western Provinces, as they were then known. The North-Western Provinces included the Delhi and
Gurgaon territories, transferred later, after the
Revolt of 1857 to the
Punjab; and also (after 1853) the
Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, which in 1861 became part of the
Central Provinces. Awadh remained under its nawab, who was permitted to assume the title of king in 1819. Awadh was annexed in 1856 and constituted a separate chief commissionership. Then followed the
Revolt of 1857, when all signs of British rule were for a time swept away throughout the greater part of the two provinces. The lieutenant-governor died when shut up in the fort at Agra, and Oudh was reconquered only after several campaigns lasting for eighteen months. In 1877 the offices of Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces and Chief Commissioner of Oudh were combined in the same person; the formula was common in British imperial administration, and was known as 'double-hatting'. In 1902, when the new name of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was introduced, the title of chief commissioner was dropped, though Oudh still retained some marks of its former independence. On 1 April 1937, the official name of the province was shortened to the United Provinces (UP). The United Provinces became a province of the newly independent
India in 1947. After the
political integration of India, and upon the coming into force of the new
Constitution of India on 26 January 1950, three former
princely states,
Rampur,
Benares, and
Tehri Garhwal, were added to it, and it was renamed
Uttar Pradesh. ==Geography==