Comment on the French ambition of building a territorial empire in India.

Answer:

The French, through Dupleix, were the first Europeans to conceive of building a territorial empire in India by intervening in Indian politics. The ambition was brilliantly conceived but failed for reasons of resources, support and command of the sea.

The ambition and its method

• Dupleix realised that small bodies of European-trained troops could decide Indian conflicts.
• He intervened in the succession disputes of Hyderabad and the Carnatic from the 1740s.
• His nominees Muzaffar Jang and Chanda Sahib were installed as rulers.
• In return the French gained territory, revenue and a dominant political voice.
• At its height French influence extended over much of the Deccan.

Why the ambition failed

• The French company was a state enterprise dependent on an inconstant government.
• It lacked the capital and commercial base of its English rival.
• British naval supremacy cut communications with France.
• Dupleix was recalled in disgrace in 1754 and his policy abandoned.
• Defeat at Wandiwash in 1760 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the ambition.

Its historical significance

• The technique of intervention was inherited and perfected by the English.
• Bengal's revenues gave the English what the French never possessed, a financial base.
• Dupleix's insight thus shaped the manner of British conquest.

The Carnatic Wars

• The First War (1746-48) saw the French capture Madras, later restored by treaty.
• The Second (1749-54) was fought wholly through rival Indian claimants.
• Clive's defence of Arcot in 1751 broke French prestige decisively.
• The Third (1758-63) ended French political ambition in India for good.

The French ambition was therefore genuine, original and for a time formidable, but it lacked the resources and sea power to succeed. As historians observe, Dupleix bequeathed to his rivals the very technique by which they built the empire he had imagined for France.