First Carnatic War

The First Carnatic War was fought from 1746 to 1748 as the Indian extension of the War of the Austrian Succession, pitting the British and French East India Companies against one another in southern India. The war's decisive episode came when a French force under Governor Joseph Francois Dupleix captured the British trading settlement of Madras in 1746, demonstrating the effectiveness of European-trained and disciplined Indian sepoy troops for the first time in the subcontinent. Fighting also drew in the local Nawab of the Carnatic, whose forces were defeated by the French at the Battle of Adyar. The war ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which restored Madras to the British in exchange for the French fortress of Louisbourg in North America, though the underlying Anglo-French rivalry in India was left unresolved.