French East India Company

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French and other European settlements in India.

The French East India Company (French: La Compagnie française des Indes orientales or Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies.

Planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. The first Director General for the Company was François Caron, who had spent 30 years working for the Dutch East India Company, including 20 years in Japan.

The Company failed to found a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (today's Réunion and Mauritius). By 1719, it had established itself in India but was near bankruptcy. In the same year it was combined under John Law with other French trading companies to form the Compagnie Perpétuelle des Indes. It resumed independence in 1723.

With the decline of the Mogul Empire, the French decided to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests, notably by forging alliances with local rulers in south India. From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the English until they ultimately were defeated by Robert Clive.

The Company was not able to maintain itself financially, and it was abolished in 1769, a few years before the French Revolution.

Several Indian trading ports, including Pondicherry and Chandernagore, remained under French control until 1949.

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	French Colonial Empire
*I- Former* French protectorates and colonial possessions:**
Africa & Indian Ocean: Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) \| Arguin Island (off Morocco) \| French West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey, French Sudan (Mali), Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Upper Volta) & French Togoland & James Island (The Gambia) \| French Equatorial Africa (Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo, Oubangui-Chari) \| French Somaliland (Djibouti) \| Comoros (Anjouan- Grande Comore- Mohéli) \| Madagascar \| Mascarene Islands : Ile de France (Mauritus) & Seychelles
The Americas (French colonization of the Americas): New France (Acadia, Louisiana, Québec, Terre Neuve) \| Inini \| Berbice \| Haiti & Saint-Domingue \| Tobago \| Virgin Islands (part) \| France Antarctique (part of Brazil) Asia: Alaouites \| Alexandretta-Hatay \| Ceylon \| French India (Chandernagore, Coromandel Coast \| Madras \| Malabar, Mahé, Pondichery, Karaikal, Yanaon) \| Kwangchowan (lease in China) \| French Indochina (Annam, Cochinchina, Cambodia-Kampuchea, Laos, Tonkin) Oceania: New Caledonia \| New Hebrides (now Vanuatu)
*II- Present* overseas territories and possessions:**
Americas: French Guiana \| Guadeloupe \| Martinique \| Saint-Pierre and Miquelon \| Oceania: French Polynesia \| New Caledonia \| Wallis and Futuna \| Indian Ocean: Mayotte \| La Réunion (Mascarene- formerly Île Bourbon)
*See also*: French colonisation of the Americas \| Chartered company \| French East India Company
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French East India Company

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