India was considered the crown jewel of the British Empire's colonies, being very profitable to them due to their production of Opium. However, in 1857, the first rebellion against British control started in India with the Sepoy Mutiny. The Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed by the British India Trading Company. It was caused by a number of reasons, but the main one is that a rumor got around that the paper cartridges for their rifles were greased with beef and pork fat, and the sepoys were required to bite this paper off. The two dominant religions in India, Hinduism and Islam, have tenets that do not allow their followers to eat these animals. This being against their religious beliefs, the sepoys mutinied against the trading company. The rebels consisted of 3 groups: the feudal nobility, rural landlords, and the peasants.
Mangal Pandey was the first to openly declare that he would attack his British commanders. After failing to incite his fellow sepoys, he attempted to kill himself, and failed, then was court-martialed and hung. At Meerut, where there was a large force of British, there were also many sepoys. One of the officers sent 90 sepoys to do a shooting drill. 85 refused due to the fallow made from the meat. They were stripped of their rank and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. The next day, a number of sepoys rebelled and freed their captive brethren, killing 50 British. The sepoys in mutiny marched to Delhi, where the Mughal emperor Bahadar Shah gave his support to the sepoys. However, the rebels were fairly unorganized, and the rebellion failed. However, the East India company was shut down, but more British forces came to reinforce India. Bahadar Shah was exiled and then died later, bringing an end to the Mughal dynasty. Queen Victoria then took the title Empress of India.

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