Category:Presidency armies

English: The Presidency armies were the armed forces of the three presidencies of the East India Company's in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. The Presidency armies were named after the presidencies: the Bengal Army, the Madras Army, and the Bombay Army. Initially, only Europeans served as commissioned or non-commissioned officers. Armies units were garrisoned from Peshawar in the north, to Sind in the west, and to Rangoon in the east; they waere engaged in the wars to extend East India Company and British control in India (the Mysore, Maratha and Sikh wars) and beyond (the Burma, Afghan, First and Second Opium Wars, and the Expedition to Abyssinia). The Presidency armies, like the Presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when the British Crown took over the Company and its three armies. In 1895 the three Presidency armies were merged into a united Indian Army.