Carnatic Wars

The Carnatic Wars were three eighteenth-century conflicts in southern India involving the British and French East India Companies, Indian rulers, and competing claims to regional power.

War of the Austrian Succession: A European war fought from 1740 to 1748 over succession to the Habsburg monarchy. Its extension to India brought British and French companies into open conflict.
Robert Clive: A British East India Company officer and administrator who became a leading figure in the conquest of Bengal. His victories at Arcot and elsewhere strengthened British influence during the second war.
East India Company: An English joint-stock company that governed and traded in parts of India from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Its military and political intervention made the British a power in southern India.
Treaty of Paris (1763): The 1763 treaty that ended the Seven Years' War and returned some French trading posts in India. It ended the third war while restricting France's ability to maintain armed political power.
War of the Spanish Succession: A European conflict fought from 1701 to 1714 over the Spanish throne and the balance of power. Its settlement shaped the rival empires whose later competition reached southern India.
Joseph François Dupleix: The French governor-general in India from 1742 to 1754, known for intervening in Indian politics. He built French influence by supporting claimants to the Carnatic and Hyderabad.
French East India Company: A French chartered company founded in 1664 to conduct trade and build influence in Asia. It competed with the British company through alliances, garrisons, and battles.
Seven Years' War: A global conflict fought from 1756 to 1763 among European powers and their allies. The third Carnatic War was the Indian theater of this wider struggle.
Mughal Empire: An early modern empire that ruled much of the Indian subcontinent from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Its weakening authority left regional rulers and European companies competing for influence.
Chanda Sahib: An eighteenth-century claimant to the Carnatic nawabship who was supported by the French. His bid for power became the principal contest of the second war.

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