NoeMacmillan574 at 20:52, 13 March 2026

2026-03-13T20:52:03Z

New page

{{Short description|1746–1748 war in India}}
{{also|Siege of Trichinopoly (1743)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = First Carnatic War
| partof = the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] and the [[Carnatic Wars]]
| image = Surrender of The City of Madras 1746.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = ''The British surrender of Madras, 1746''
| date = 1744<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Geoffrey |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Cambridge_Illustrated_History_of_War/b6bR5s3N_OwC?hl=pl&gbpv=1&dq=first+carnatic+war&pg=PA181&printsec=frontcover |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare |date=2000-09-11 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79431-2 |page=181 |language=en}}</ref> or 1746<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chaurasia |first=Radhey Shyam |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/History_of_Modern_India/MS_jrForJOoC?hl=pl&gbpv=1&dq=first+carnatic+war&pg=PA22&printsec=frontcover |title=History of Modern India: 1707 A.D. to Upto 2000 A.D. |date=2002 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-269-0085-5 |page=22 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Singh |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Longman_Panorama_History_8/VMZblvcyM8kC?hl=pl&gbpv=1&dq=first+carnatic+war&pg=PA11&printsec=frontcover |title=Longman Panorama History 8 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1176-7 |page=11 |language=en}}</ref>
–1748
| place = [[Carnatic region]], [[South India]]
| result = ''[[Status quo ante bellum]]''
| combatant1 = {{noflag}}[[Mughal Empire]] [[File:Asafia flag of Hyderabad State.svg|20px|border]] [[Nizam of Hyderabad]]
*[[File:Flag_of_Nawab.svg|20px]] [[Nawab of Carnatic]]
| combatant2 = {{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[Kingdom of France]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[French Indies Company|French East India Company]]
| combatant3 = {{flagicon|Kingdom of Great Britain}} [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
*{{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[British East India Company]]
| commander1 = [[Anwaruddin Khan]] [[Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah]]
| commander2 = [[Joseph François Dupleix]] [[Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais]]
| commander3 = [[Stringer Lawrence]] [[Edward Peyton]] [[Edward Boscawen]]
| strength1 =
| strength2 =
| strength3 =
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
| casualties3 =
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox First Carnatic War}}
{{Campaignbox War of the Austrian Succession}}
}}
The '''First Carnatic War''' (1744/1746–1748) was the Indian theatre of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] and the first of a series of [[Carnatic Wars]] that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this conflict the [[British East India Company|British]] and [[French Indies Company|French]] East India Companies vied with each other on land for control of their respective trading posts at [[Chennai|Madras]], [[Puducherry (city)|Pondicherry]], and [[Cuddalore]], while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in southern India under the command of French Governor-General [[Joseph François Dupleix]] in the [[Second Carnatic War]].

==Course of the war==
{{hatnote|For details on the European causes of the war, see [[War of the Austrian Succession]].}}
In 1720 [[France]] effectively nationalised the [[French Indies Company|French East India Company]], and began using it to expand its imperial interests. This became a source of conflict with the [[British people|British]] in [[India]] with the entry of Britain into the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] in 1744.{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|p=30}} Hostilities in India began with a [[British Empire|British]] naval attack on a French fleet in 1745, which led the [[French people|French]] Governor-General [[Joseph François Dupleix|Dupleix]] to request additional forces.{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|p=31}} A fleet under [[Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais|La Bourdonnais]] arrived in 1746 to help him. In July of that year La Bourdonnais and British Admiral [[Edward Peyton]] fought [[Action of 6 July 1746|an indecisive action]] off Negapatam, after which La Bourdonnais put in at [[Puducherry (city)|Pondicherry]] for repairs and strategising with Dupleix. The fleets met again on 19 August, but Peyton refused battle, recognising that La Bourdonnais had acquired additional guns at Pondicherry, and retreated to [[Bengal]]. On 4 September 1746, La Bourdonnais led [[Battle of Madras|an attack on Madras]]. After several days of bombardment the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] surrendered and the French entered the city.{{sfnp|Malleson|1893|p=35}} The British leadership was taken prisoner and sent to [[Puducherry (city)|Pondicherry]]. It was originally agreed that the town would be restored to the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] after negotiation but this was opposed by Dupleix, who sought to annex [[Chennai|Madras]] to French holdings.{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|pp=31–34}} The remaining British residents were asked to take an oath promising not to take up arms against the French; a handful refused, among them a young [[Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive|Robert Clive]], and were kept under weak guard as the French prepared to destroy the fort. Disguising themselves as natives, Clive and three others eluded their inattentive sentry, slipped out of the fort, and made their way to [[Fort St. David]] (the British post at Cuddalore), some {{convert|110|mi|km}} to the south.{{sfnp|Malleson|1893|p=38}}{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|pp=35–36}} Dupleix, in the meantime, had before the assault promised to turn over Fort St. George to the [[Nawab of the Carnatic]] [[Anwaruddin Khan]], but refused to do so.

Anwaruddin responded by sending a 10,000-man army to take the fort from Dupleix by force. Dupleix, who had lost the support of La Bourdonnais over the status of Madras, had only 930 French troops. However, in the [[Battle of Adyar]], this small force successfully repulsed the attacks of Anwaruddin's army.
[[File:Bombardement de Pondichery en 1748 par la flotte anglaise.jpg|thumb|250px|British Admiral [[Edward Boscawen]] besieged Pondicherry in late 1748]]

Dupleix then [[Siege of Cuddalore (First Carnatic War)|launched an assault]] on Fort St. David. Stung by his defeat at Adyar, Anwaruddin sent his son [[Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah|Muhammad Ali]] to assist the British in the defence of Cuddalore, and was instrumental in holding off a French attack in December 1746. Over the next few months Anwaruddin and Dupleix had made peace, and the Carnatic troops were withdrawn.

The French, under the command of De Brurie, launched another attempt to take Fort St. David, forcing the British defenders inside the fort's walls. The timely counterattack by the British and the Nawab, however, turned the tables and prompted the French to withdraw to Pondicherry.<ref name=Naravane>{{Cite book |last=Naravane |first=M.S. |title=Battles of the Honorourable East India Company |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2014 |isbn=9788131300343 |pages=152–154}}</ref>

In 1748 Major [[Stringer Lawrence]] arrived to take command of the British troops at Fort St. David.{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|p=41}} With the arrival of reinforcements from Europe, the British [[Siege of Pondicherry (1748)|besieged Pondicherry]] in late 1748. Clive distinguished himself in successfully defending a trench against a French sortie: one witness of the action wrote "[Clive's] platoon, animated by his exhortation, fired again with new courage and great vivacity upon the enemy."{{sfnp|Harvey|1998|p=42}} The siege was lifted in October 1748 with the arrival of the [[monsoon]], and the war came to a conclusion with the arrival in December of news of the [[Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle]]. Under its terms [[Madras]] was returned to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] control.

==Consequences==
The power of a small number of heavily-trained French and French trained Indian troops over larger Indian formations using older military tactics was not lost on [[Joseph Dupleix]], and over the next several years he capitalised on this advantage to greatly expand French influence in south India. In the [[Second Carnatic War]] (1748–1754) he took advantage of struggles for succession to the [[Nizam of Hyderabad]] and Nawab of the Carnatic to establish strong French influence over a number of states in south India. The British East India Company, in contrast, did little to expand its own influence and only weakly attempted to oppose Dupleix's expansive activities. Robert Clive recognised that this threatened the entire livelihood of the Company in the area, and in 1751 engaged in a series of celebrated military exploits that cemented British control over [[Chennai|Madras]] by the end of that conflict. There were no territorial gains for either the British or the French and the former territories were restored to these two parties.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Frank Modern Certificate History and Civics|last=Basu|first=Sucharita|publisher=Frank Bros. and Co|year=2019|isbn=978-9386811295|location=Noida|pages=49}}</ref> The war had also enhanced the prestige of the French in the Carnatic Region.<ref name=":0" />

== Naval Forces ==

=== French Royal Navy ===
The [[France|French]] naval squadron in the [[East Indies]] during the war included:<ref>[[George Nafziger]], ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20210830053709/https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/documents/carl/nafziger/746NXAE.pdf][[France|French]] Squadron in the East Indies 1746,'' [[United States]] Army Combined Arms Center.</ref>

* Commander, [[Bertrand François Mahé, comte de La Bourdonnais|Bertrand-François Mahé, Comte de La Bourdonnais]]
* '''Original Squadron'''
** ''Achille'' (74 guns, only 70 guns on-ship)
** ''Duc d'Orléans'' (56 guns, only 36 guns on-ship)
** ''Bourbon'' (56 guns, only 34 guns on-ship)
** ''Neptune'' (54 guns, only 34 guns on-ship)
** ''Phoenix'' (54 guns, only 34 guns on-ship)
** ''Sainte-Louis'' (44 guns, only 30 guns on-ship)
** ''Lys'' (40 guns, only 28 guns on-ship)
** ''Insulaire'' (30 guns, only 26 guns on-ship)
* '''Joining in September'''
** ''Centaure'' (74 guns)
** [[French ship Mars (1740)|''Mars'']] (56 guns)
** ''Brillant'' (50 guns)

=== British Royal Navy ===
The British naval squadron in the [[East Indies]] during the war included:<ref>[[George Nafziger]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20220202122514/https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/documents/carl/nafziger/747NXAC.pdf ''Royal Navy Squadron in the East Indies 1747''], United States Army Combined Arms Center.</ref>

* Commander, [[Rear-admiral of the red|Rear-admiral of the Red]] [[Thomas Griffin (Royal Navy officer)|Thomas Griffin]]
* [[HMS Princess Mary (1742)|''HMS Princess Mary'']] (60 guns)
* [[HMS Medway (1742)|''HMS Medway'']] (60 guns)
* [[HMS Exeter (1697)|''HMS Exeter'']] (60 guns)
* [[HMS York (1706)|''HMS York'']] (60 guns)
* [[HMS Winchester (1744)|''HMS Winchester'']] (50 guns)
* [[HMS Harwich (1743)|''HMS Harwich'']] (50 guns)
* [[HMS Preston (1742)|''HMS Preston'']] (50 guns)
* ''HMS Eltham'' (40 guns)
* ''HMS Pearl'' (40 guns)
* ''HMS Medway's Prize'' (40 guns)
* ''HMS Lively'' (20 guns)

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last=Harvey |first=Robert |title=Clive: The life and Death of a British Emperor |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1998 |isbn=9780340654408}}
* {{cite book|last=Malleson|first=George|title=Lord Clive|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdQ2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA10|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1893|location=Oxford|oclc=2143228}}
{{French colonial campaigns}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnatic War 01}}
[[Category:First Carnatic War| ]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1746]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1747]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1748]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Kingdom of France (987–1792)]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Kingdom of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Colonial India]]
[[Category:18th century in India]]
[[Category:Carnatic wars]]
[[Category:Military history of India]]
[[Category:1746 in India]]
[[Category:War of the Austrian Succession]]

First Carnatic War - Revision history

NoeMacmillan574 at 20:52, 13 March 2026