Pondicherry

Pondicherry lies on the Coromandel Coast, where a French trading settlement grew into a major port. Ships carried cotton cloth from the Tamil country to France and to markets elsewhere in Asia. Indian merchants and craftsmen were essential to this trade, and their quarters grew alongside the European part of the town.

The French East India Company established its post in the early 1670s. Under François Martin, who became governor in 1674, a small coastal settlement developed into a fortified town. In the eighteenth century Pondicherry became the centre of French ambitions in southern India, especially under Joseph François Dupleix. Rivalry with the British and their Indian allies brought repeated sieges. British forces captured and largely destroyed the town in 1761, but it was restored to France after peace. Further occupations during later European wars interrupted French rule, and the settlement returned to France again after the Napoleonic conflicts.