Le souvenir d’une 'épopée glorieuse'. La France en Inde entre la Révolution et l’Empire

The central decades of the 18th century saw the change from the pioneering phase of the English and French colonial experiences in India, marked by a prevailing interest in exotic goods, to a new more ‘political’ phase aimed at a territorial expansion for the control of strategic and economical areas. This phase of the Anglo-French rivalry is called ‘struggle for India’. According to the Treaty of Paris, the French were restricted to their coastal settlements by their British rivals, and compelled to dismantle all their defensive works. However, after 1763 the French élites and public opinion did not forget the economical relevance of the Indian settlements, nor did they ever completely neglect the role those colonies had in the struggle with their British enemies. The study of what is often called the French ‘renunciation’ to India is strictly connected to the failure of the French Compagnie des Indes, unable to understand the deep changes occurring in Indian society and politics.