Residencies of British India not maintain military forces other than for internal policing or else form diplomatic alliances with other States. The Residents attempted to modernize these Native States through promotion of European notions of progressive government. The first Native States to enter such subsidiary alliances included Arcot, Oudh and Hyderabad. Before the Rebellion of 1857, the role of the British Resident in Delhi was more important than that of other Residents, because of the tension that existed between the declining Mughal Empire and the emerging power of the East India Company. After the establishment of Crown rule of British India in 1858, the
Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) However, until 1858, the region which now comprises the mainland of the Province of British Columbia was an unorganised area of British North America comprising two fur trading districts: New Caledonia, north of the Thompson River drainage; and the Columbia District, located south of the Thompson and throughout the basin of the Columbia River. With the signing of the Treaty of Washington in 1846, which established the US border along the 49th parallel, the HBC moved the headquarters of its western operations from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River (present day Vancouver, Washington) to the newly established Fort Victoria, on