Background
The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb died in 1707 CE. He was succeeded by Bahadur Shah I but there was a general decline in central control over the empire during the tenure of Jahandar Shah and later emperors. Several erstwhile Mughal territories were autonomous such as the Carnatic was ruled by Nawab Dost Ali Khan in the 1730s, despite being under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad (who was nominally the emperor's viceroy over that territory). Dost Ali's death sparked a power struggle between his son-in-law Chanda Sahib and the Nizam's nominee, Anwaruddin Muhammed Khan.
One major instigator of the Carnatic Wars was the Frenchman Joseph François Dupleix, who arrived in India in 1715, rising to become the French East India Company's governor in 1742. Dupleix sought to expand French influence in India, which was limited to a few trading outposts, the chief one being Pondicherry on the Coromandel Coast. Immediately upon his arrival in India, he organized Indian recruits under French officers for the first time, and engaged in intrigues with local rulers to expand French influence. The First Carnatic War, however, had its origins in Europe.
Read more about this topic: Carnatic Wars
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