| Carnatic wars | ||||||||
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| Part of the Decline of the Mughal Empire, Anglo-French wars and the Anglo-Indian wars | ||||||||
 Lord Robert Clive meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, oil on canvas (Francis Hayman, c. 1762) | ||||||||
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The Carnatic wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. The first Carnatic wars were fought between 1740 and 1748.
The conflicts involved numerous nominally independent rulers and their vassals, struggles for succession and territory, and furthermore included a diplomatic and military struggle between the French East India Company and the British East India Company. They were mainly fought within the territories of Mughal India with the assistance of various fragmented polities loyal to the "Great Moghul".
As a result of these military contests, the British East India Company established its dominance among the European trading companies within India. The French company was pushed to a corner and was confined primarily to Pondicherry. The East India Company's dominance eventually led to control by the British Company over most of India and eventually to the establishment of the British Raj.
- ^ Benians, Ernest Alfred; Newton, Arthur Percival; Rose, John Holland (1929). The Cambridge History of the British Empire. p. 126. Retrieved 16 December 2014.