During the years 1756-63, while King Frederick was becoming great in Europe, Maria Theresa was giving enlightened rulership to Austria and Major-General Braddock was being massacred in Pennsylvania a bitter and fascinating struggle was taking place for the exotic subcontinent of lndia. The French and British conflict was but the final stage in the European attempt to conquer India. The Portuguese has arrived in 1510 at Goa on the West coast followed in the next century by the British, French, Dutch, and Danes (yes Danes!). By our period the French and British were the major European Players (although an interesting footnote is the battle of Badara fought between the British and the Dutch in 1759).

The European presence was made by private companies rather than Royal control. The British, Dutch and Danish East lndia Companies and the French Compagnie des Indes had private charters to establish trade with the various lndian princes. These companies raised troops of their own to fight whatever military actions were needed and were sometimes supplemented by regulars from the home country. This was perhaps most prevalent as the great acceleration of eighteenth century imperialism, known as the Seven Years War, was brought to the subcontinent.

The situation in India was ripe to be exploited by the companies. The Mughal empire had reached its zenith in the early 18th century when it controlled most of lndia and 20 percent of the world's population. With the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, however, lndia began to enter a period which we might call a "dark age" with central authority receding and the revival of the old enemies of the Mughals asserting themselves militarily with disasterous results to the civil population of lndia. Marathas, Sikhs, Afgans, and others ravaged the areas of the old system and created new states in various corners of the subcontinent. The atomization of power follows the fall of empires.

In 1742 the problems of India became intertwined in the web of the evolving global situation between France and Britain who went to war that same year. The French took the British settlement at Madras in 1746 and then exchanged it, by the treaty of Aix-laChapelle, for the fortress of Louisburg in Canada taken by a British/American force.

The two European contenders now began to back their own candidates for various lndian posts such as the Governor of the Carnatic or the Nawab (Prince) of Bengal. During the conflicts resulting from this rivalry a young Robert Clive began his great career as a captain of the private army of the East India Company. When Anglo-French tensions broke into war again in 1756 the Nawab seized Calcutta but was beaten back by a British riposte consisting of Clive's army from Madras (with some regulars). The following year saw Clive's momentous victory at Plassey destroy the power of the Nawab and a British ally (Mir Jafar) was installed in his place. Further squabbles and bloodshed would follow but the British were there to stay and the French were not.

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