Gandhi spent the majority of his life fighting for Indian Independence. India had not been independent for almost a century. As early as 1813, Britian had begun to take over India starting with an East India Company charter. The East India Company was set up to trade with India. They built forts in India to protect their goods, and the power and wealth grew from there. Soon they had captured large parts of India. The Indians had to sell to only British traders, and if not then they would be punished. There were no charges on British goods to India, but there was a heavy duty on exports. The British treated the Indians very poorly, and made them slaves. In 1857 India officially became a British Colony. The benefits from this for India was that the British made railways across the country, introduced technology, created courts and civil services, and established schools, factories and universities. However, the British had a strict rule over the country which included unfair taxes. At the time when Gandhi was born, 500 kingdoms and states in India were allowed autonomy, and his town of Porbandor was one of them.