Carnatic Wars

Carnatic Wars, Anglo-French conflicts in India during the 18th century, so called because they were centred in the Carnatic, a region on the east coast of south India. The wars reflected the rivalry between the British and French trading companies in India and were associated with the wider Anglo-French wars of the 18th century. In the First Carnatic War, concurrent with Europe's War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the French, reinforced by sea and led by Joseph François Dupleix, captured the British territory of Madras, defended by local forces, but this was returned to the British by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the wider conflict. The war demonstrated the superiority of European technology and discipline over larger native armies.

The Second Carnatic War (1751-1754) was an unofficial war fought between the British East India Company and the French Compagnie des Indes at a time when there was peace between the two powers in Europe. Its roots lay in Dupleix's skilful exploitation of the confused politics of the region to enhance French power through a series of native alliances. The daring of the East India Company's Robert Clive, who defeated the French-backed claimant to the throne of the Carnatic, ended the second phase of Anglo-French struggle in India as Dupleix was recalled to France in 1754.

The Third Carnatic War followed just two years later, in 1756, when the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe. This time the war passed beyond the limits of south India into the rich province of Bengal, where the English captured the French possession of Chandernagore in 1757. The most decisive battles of the war, however, were fought in the south. Here, the military balance tilted decisively in favour of Britain when the French capital of Pondicherry (now known as Puducherry) fell in 1761. The war ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, and so too ended the French pursuit of empire in India.