Course

The rebellion broke out at Meerut in May 1857 and spread rapidly across northern India. Sepoys and civilian rebels seized Delhi and proclaimed the elderly Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader. For over a year, large portions of central and northern India were outside British control. The British eventually suppressed the rebellion with extreme brutality, executing rebels by tying them to cannons and firing them apart, and exiling the Mughal emperor.