colony · South Asia
French India
Origins
The French East India Company was founded in 1664. It set up a factory at Surat in 1668, and in 1674 Francois Martin founded Pondicherry on land granted by the Bijapur Sultanate. Further settlements followed at Chandernagore in Bengal, Mahe on the Malabar coast, Karaikal and Yanam.
Rule and society
Pondicherry became a planned town with a European quarter and Tamil quarters, ruled by a governor. Joseph-Francois Dupleix, governor from 1742, intervened in the succession disputes of the Carnatic Sultanate and Hyderabad, raising Indian troops and briefly dominating the Deccan, until Robert Clive's victories reversed French fortunes. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 restricted France to unfortified trading posts.
Decline and legacy
The settlements were repeatedly occupied by Britain and restored after 1815. Chandernagore joined India after a 1949 plebiscite, and Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam were transferred de facto in 1954, legally in 1962. They form the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (1)
- French India was a colony of French Empire1664 CE – 1954 CE
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). French India. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-india
- MLA
- “French India.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-india. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “French India.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-india.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘French India’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-india (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻