In 1674 the French East India Company set up a trading centre at Pondicherry. This outpost eventually became the chief French settlement in India.
Dutch and British trading companies also wanted trade with India. Wars raged among these European countries and spilled over into the Indian subcontinent. The Dutch captured Puducherry in 1693 but returned it to France by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1699.
The French acquired Mahe in the 1720s, Yanam in 1731, and Karaikal in 1738. During the Anglo-French wars (1742–1763), Puducherry changed hands frequently. On 16 January 1761, the British captured Puducherry from the French, but the Treaty of Paris (1763) at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War returned it.
In 1792, Venant of Durfort, son of the Count of Civrac, was made governor of Pondicherry, thanks to his uncle Emmanuel-Félicité, Duke of Duras, who had been made president of the compagnie des Indes in 1788. After an outstanding military career in Europe, Venant fought hard to destroy all revolutionary hopes in Pondicherry, as republican ideals coming from France were threatening the economic stability of the region. He took great care to maintain commercial relations with other European powers in the region. His links with England were strengthened through his marriage with Catherine Browne of Kilmor. Venant died in July 1792 and was buried at Our Lady of Angels in Pondicherry.
The British took control of the area again in 1793 at the Siege of Pondicherry amid the Wars of the French Revolution, and returned it to France in 1814. When the British gained control of the whole of India in the late 1850s, they allowed the French to retain their settlements in the country. Pondicherry, Mahe, Yanam, Karaikal and Chandernagar remained a part of French India until 1954.

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