The French in India
- The French were, in fact, the last of the major European powers to arrive in India for the purpose of trade.
- During the reign of Louis XIV, the king’s celebrated minister Colbert laid the foundation of the Compagnie des Indes Orientales (French East India Company) in 1664 — an enterprise in which the king himself took a keen personal interest.
- The Company was granted a 50-year monopoly over French trade across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The French king further granted it a perpetual concession over the island of Madagascar, along with any additional territories the Company might succeed in conquering.
- The Company invested substantial money and resources in attempting to revive its colonial holdings in Madagascar, though ultimately without success.
- In 1667, François Caron led an expedition to India, establishing a factory at Surat.
- Mercara, a Persian who had accompanied Caron, went on to found a second French factory at Masulipatnam in 1669, after securing a patent from the Sultan of Golconda.
- In 1673, the French obtained permission from Shaista Khan, the Mughal Subahdar of Bengal, to establish a township at Chandernagore, near Calcutta.
Pondicherry: Nerve Centre of French Power in India
- In 1673, Sher Khan Lodi, governor of Valikondapuram (under the Bijapur Sultan), granted the French a site for settlement — Pondicherry was formally founded the following year, in 1674.
- The French Company went on to establish factories across several other parts of India as well, particularly along the coastal regions.
- Mahe, Karaikal, Balasore, and Qasim Bazar emerged as a few of the more important trading centres of the French East India Company.
- After assuming charge of Pondicherry in 1674, François Martin developed it into a settlement of genuine importance — it soon became, in effect, the true stronghold of French power in India.
Early Setbacks to the French East India Company
- The French position in India suffered a serious setback with the outbreak of war between the Dutch and the French.
- Strengthened by their alliance with the English following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Dutch succeeded in capturing Pondicherry in 1693. The subsequent Treaty of Ryswick, concluded in September 1697, restored Pondicherry to French control.
- Once again, under François Martin’s capable guidance, Pondicherry flourished and re-emerged as the most important French settlement in India.
- Strengthened by their alliance with the English following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Dutch succeeded in capturing Pondicherry in 1693. The subsequent Treaty of Ryswick, concluded in September 1697, restored Pondicherry to French control.
- The fortunes of the French Company in India took another sharp downturn with the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe.
- As a direct consequence, the French were forced to abandon their factories at Surat, Masulipatnam, and Bantam in the early 18th century.
- French fortunes in India suffered a further blow with the death of François Martin on 31 December 1706.
Reorganisation of the French Company
- In 1720, the French trading company was reorganised as the “Perpetual Company of the Indies”, a restructuring that helped meaningfully revive its overall strength.
- French interests in India were further bolstered by French possession of Mauritius and Réunion, in the southern Indian Ocean.
