French East India Company

French East India Company 1664-1769, commercial enterprise planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert and chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It failed to found a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (now Réunion and Mauritius). By 1719 the company had established itself in India but was near bankruptcy. In that year it was combined under John Law with other French trading companies to make the Compagnie des Indes (see Mississippi Scheme ). It resumed independence in 1723. With the decline of the Mughal empire, the French found it necessary to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests. From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the English until they ultimately suffered defeat by Robert Clive . Despite its apparent success, the French company had never been able to maintain itself financially, and in 1769 it was abolished.

French East India Company A commercial organization, founded in 1664 to complete with DUTCH and English EAST INDIA COMPANIES. Until the 1740s it was less successful than its rivals, but led by an ambitious governor, Dupleix, the Company then made a bid to challenge English influence in India, notably by alliances with local rulers in south India. Although a number of trading ports, including Pondicherry and Chandernagore, remained in French control until 1949, the Company itself collapsed during the French Revolutionary period.

East India Company Name of several organizations set up by European countries in the 17th century to trade e of Africa. Louis XIV founded the French company in 1664, and it set up colonies on several islands in the Indian Ocean. It was abolished in 1789. The Dutch company was founded (1602), with headquarters in Jakarta from 1619. It dissolved in 1799. The British company was set up in 1600 to compete for the East Indian spice trade, but competition with the Dutch led it to concentrate on India. In the 18th century, Robert Clive defeated the challenge of the French company and captured Bengal (1757). Corruption and financial mismanagement led William Pitt (the Younger) to make the company responsible to Parliament. Increasingly it became an administrative arm of colonial government in India and the company lost its commercial monopolies in 1813. The Indian Mutiny (1857) led to its powers being transferred to the British Crown and the company dissolved in 1873.