Bangladesh's Forgotten Tsunami and the Delta's Edge

In this episode of The History of Bangladesh, we travel back to the monsoon-soaked streets of Calcutta and the shifting banks of the Ganges in October 1737. While earlier episodes covered the Great Famine of 1770 and the later British Raj, we focus on a moment when the natural world violently asserted its dominance over colonial ambition. We explore how a massive cyclone and tsunami devastated Hughli and Calcutta, killing thousands and halting the East India Company's expansion. Lucas walks us through the chaos under Governor Job Charnock and the subsequent panic that rippled through Bengal. Luna helps us understand the geography of the delta—why the rivers moved, why the land sank, and how the Sundarbans acted as both barrier and threat. We also touch on the Maratha raids that followed the storm, adding military pressure to environmental collapse. This is a story of climate, power, and the fragile foothold of empire in the face of nature’s fury.

#History #FexingoHistory #BangladeshHistory #BengalDelta #1737Tsunami #EastIndiaCompany #JobCharnock #CalcuttaHistory #HughliRiver #Sundarbans #Cyclone #MarathaRaids #SouthAsiaHistory #ColonialIndia #NaturalDisaster #GangesDelta #MughalBengal #ClimateHistory

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