Establishment of French Colony and List of Famous French Governor Generals in India

"La Compagnie française des Indes orientales" (French East India Company) was formed under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu (1642) and reconstructed under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1664), sending an expedition to Madagascar. In 1667 the French India Company sent out another expedition, under the command of François Caron (who was accompanied by a Persian name Marcara), which reached Surat in 1668 and established the first French factory in India.

Famous Governors before the fall of French Control over India against British -

1. Joseph Francois Dupleix: Dupleix, Joseph François (1697–1763), French colonial administrator in India. He went to India in 1721 as an officer of the French East India Company. In 1731 he was appointed governor of Chandannagar, where he made a considerable fortune, and in 1742 he became governor of Pondichéry (now Puducherry) and was thus the chief official in French India. When the War of the Austrian Succession brought the French and British East India companies into conflict, Dupleix supervised the capture of Madras (now Chennai; 1746) and successfully defended Pondichéry, but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) restored the prewar situation. Dupleix then formed a vast project for establishing French supremacy in India. Intervening in native politics, intrigues, and warfare, he controlled the Carnatic and nearly the entire Deccan by 1751. Soon, however, the British began to regain ground under the leadership of Robert Clive, and the French government, anxious to avoid war and uninformed of Dupleix's grandiose schemes, recalled the governor in 1754. With Dupleix, the last hope of a French empire in India vanished. He ended his days in poverty and neglect. See G. B. Malleson, Dupleix (1890); H. Dodwell, Dupleix and Clive (1920, repr. 1962); V. Thompson, Dupleix and His Letters (1933).

2. Charles Godeheu: Charles Robert Godeheu de Zaimont was Acting Governor General of Pondicherry who is the Commissioner of French army during Dupleix's reign. In 1754, Charles Robert Godeheu gave up with the English the Indian territories, especially Madras which was conquered in 1746 by Dupleix and left French to maintain on Deccan region.

3. La Bourdonnais: Bertrand-François Mahé, comte de La Bourdonnais (11 February 1699 – 10 November 1753) was a French naval officer and administrator, in the service of the French East India Company. He went to sea when he was at the age of 10, and in 1718 entered the service of the French East India Company as a lieutenant. In 1724 he was promoted captain, and displayed such bravery in the capture of Mahé off the Malabar Coast that the name of the town was added to his own. Although, an alternative account suggests that the town adopted his name, rather than the other way around. For two years he was in the service of the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa.

4. Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally: Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, baron de Tollendal (January 1702 – 6 May 1766) was a French General of Irish Jacobite ancestry. Lally commanded French forces, including two battalions of his own red-coated Regiment of Lally of the Irish Brigade, in India during the Seven Years' War. After a failed attempt to capture Madras he lost the Battle of Wandiwash to British forces under Eyre Coote and then was forced to surrender the remaining French post at Pondicherry.