The British Empire: The Raj in India and the Scramble for Africa

Following the rebellion of 1857 — known in traditional British historiography as the "Indian Mutiny" and in India as the "First War of Independence" — the Crown assumed direct government of India through the Government of India Act of 1858, ending the rule of the British East India Company and establishing a Secretary of State for India and a Viceroy as the Crown's direct representative. Queen Victoria issued the Royal Proclamation of 1858, promising religious tolerance and no further territorial annexations without just cause, while the system of indirect administration through the princely states, which covered roughly a third of Indian territory, was consolidated as a complement to direct British rule over the rest of the subcontinent.