The French and the British East India company initiate a protracted struggle for military control of South India in the middle of the eighteenth century.

The period is marked by shifting alliances between the two East India companies and the local powers, mercenary armies employed by all sides, and general anarchy in South India.

Cities and forts change hands many times, and soldiers are primarily remunerated through loot.

The four Anglo-Mysore Wars and the three Anglo-Maratha Wars see Mysore, the Marathas and Hyderabad aligning themselves in turns with either the British or the French.

Eventually, British power in alliance with Hyderabad prevails and Mysore is absorbed as a princely state within British India.

The Nizam of Hyderabad seeks to retain his autonomy through diplomacy rather than open war with the British.

The Maratha Empire that stretches across large swathes of central and northern India is broken up, with most of it annexed by the British.

Tensions are already inflamed due to British support for Malabar rebels against Hyder Ali, and the fall of Mahé precipitates war.

Ali invades the Carnatic in July 1780, A, and lays siege to Tellicherry and Arcot.

A seven thousand-strong Company relief force under William Baille is intercepted and destroyed by the Tipu Sultan on September 10; thus far the worst defeat suffered by a European army in India.

Instead of pressing on for a decisive victory against a second Company army at Madras, Ali renews the siege at Arcot, capturing it on November 3.

The delay allows British forces to regroup for campaigning the following year.