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.

The ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, had in December 1789 again declared war on the British East India Company and their allies in Southern India, after five years of diplomatic wrangling about the terms of the Treaty of Mangalore that had ended the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

For the past two years the war has continued as British forces and their allies drive the Mysore armies back towards the capital of Seringapatam.

Both sides are reliant on supply by sea to maintain their campaigns inland: the British forces are supported from their major ports at Bombay and Madras, later stationing additional forces at the small port of Tellicherry inside Mysore territory.

The Mysorean forces are supplied through Mangalore by French ships.

France had been an ally of the Tipu Sultan's father Hyder Ali during the Second Anglo-Mysore War and although the political instability caused by the French Revolution in Europe has prevented active involvement, they have ensured that their ships have kept up a supply of equipment to Mysore throughout the war.

In an effort to eliminate French support, Commodore William Cornwallis, the British naval commander in the region, stations a squadron of frigates at Tellicherry, where they were ideally situated to blockade Mangalore and prevent the passage of shipping into Mysorean territory. The squadron consisted of Cornwallis in HMS Minerva, Captain Sir Richard Strachan in HMS Phoenix and HMS Perseverance under Captain Isaac Smith.

The French operate a squadron of their own on the coast, led by Commodore Saint-Félix and consisting of two frigates based at Mahé, a small French port seven miles (eleven kilometers) south of Tellicherry.

The French have communicated to the British at Tellicherry that they will not submit to any attempts to search their vessels, but Strachan and Cornwallis had replied that they will enforce the blockade of Mangalore whatever the consequences.

A French convoy sails from Mahé in November 1791 on the short journey to Mangalore.

The convoy includes two merchant vessels and the frigate Résolue, a thirty-six-gun warship under Captain Callamand.

Passing northwards, the convoy soon passes Tellicherry and Cornwallis sends Strachan with Phoenix and Perseverance to stop and inspect the French ships to ensure they are not carrying military supplies.

As Smith halts the merchant ships and sends boats to inspect them, Strachan does the same to Résolue, hailing the French captain and placing an officer in a small boat to board the frigate.

The French captain, outraged at this violation of his neutrality, responds by opening fire: British sources suggest that his initial target was the small boat, although Phoenix is the ship most immediately damaged.

Strachan is unsurprised at the French reaction, and returns fire immediately, the proximity of the ships preventing any maneuvers.

Within twenty minutes the combat is decided, the French captain hauling down his colors with his ship battered and more than sixty men wounded or dead.

The French ship carries significantly weaker cannon than Phoenix, with six- and twelve-pounder guns to the nine- and eighteen-pounders aboard the British squadron.

In addition, Résolue is heavily outnumbered: no other French warships are in the area while the British have three large frigates within sight.

French losses eventually total twenty-five men killed and sixty wounded, Strachan suffering just six killed and eleven wounded in return.

With the enemy subdued, Strachan orders a thorough search of the captured vessels, but can find no contraband and returns control to the French commander.

The French officer, however, refuses, insisting that he and his ship be treated as prisoners of war.

Cornwallis orders the merchant ships released to continue their journey and for the frigate to be towed back to Mahé, where it is anchored in the roads with its sails and topmasts struck.

Provision is subsequently made at Mahé by Strachan for the wounded French sailors.

Soon afterwards Saint-Félix arrives at Mahé in his frigate Cybèle and reacts furiously at the discovery that one of his neutral ships had been attacked and captured by the British.

When Cornwallis insists that his ships had been acting within their orders, Saint-Félix promises reprisals if any of his vessels are attacked again and withdraws with both Cybèle and Résolue later in the day, followed by Minerva and Phoenix.

One account reported that Saint-Félix actually ordered his crew to fire on Cornwallis but that they refused.

The British will shadow the French for several days, openly stopping and searching French merchant ships but without provoking a response from Saint-Félix.

Résolue and Phoenix will subsequently be detached by their commanders, Cornwallis and Saint-Félix remaining in contact for several more days before finally separating.

News of the encounter is conveyed back to France, but the country is at this time in one of the most turbulent eras of the ongoing Revolution and little notice will be taken of events in India.

Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the rulers of the Kingdom of Mysore, have offered much resistance to the British forces.

Having sided with the French during the Revolutionary War, the rulers of Mysore have continued their struggle against the company with the four Anglo-Mysore Wars.

Mysore finally falls to the company forces in 1799, in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, during which Tipu Sultan is killed.

The first iron-cased rockets are successfully developed and used in 1792 by Hyder Ali’s son Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, against the larger British East India Company forces during the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

The Mysore rockets of this period are much more advanced than the British had previously seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to two kilometer range).

Tipu Sultan had disputed the acquisition by Dharma Raja of Travancore of two Dutch-held fortresses in Cochin in 1789.

In December 1789, he has massed troops at Coimbatore, and on December 28 made an attack on the lines of Travancore, knowing that Travancore is (according to the Treaty of Mangalore) an ally of the British East India Company.

On account of the staunch resistance by the Travancore army, Tipu had been unable to break through the Tranvancore lines and the Maharajah of Travancore had appealed to the East India Company for help.

In response, Lord Cornwallis had mobilized Company and British military forces, and formed alliances with the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad to oppose Tipu.

In 1790 the Company forces had advanced, taking control of much of the Coimbatore district.

Tipu had counterattacked, regaining much of the territory, although the British continue to hold Coimbatore itself.

He had then descended into the Carnatic, eventually reaching Pondicherry, where he attempted without success to draw the French into the conflict.

In 1791 his opponents had advanced on all fronts, with the main British force under Cornwallis taking Bangalore and threatening Srirangapatna.

Tipu harassed the British supply and communication and embarkd on a "scorched earth" policy of denying local resources to the invaders.

In this last effort he was successful, as the lack of provisions had forced Cornwallis to withdraw to Bangalore rather than attempt a siege of Srirangapatna.

Following the withdrawal, Tipu had sent forces to Coimbatore, which they had retaken after a lengthy siege.

The 1792 campaign is a failure for Tipu.

The allied army is well-supplied, and Tipu is unable to prevent the junction of forces from Bangalore and Bombay before Srirangapatna.

After about two weeks of siege, Tipu opens negotiations for terms of surrender.

In the ensuing treaty of Seringapatam, signed March 18, 1792, he is forced to cede half his territories to the allies, and deliver two of his sons as hostages until he pays in full three crores and thirty lakhs rupees ,fixed as a war indemnity to the British for the campaign against him.

He will pay the amount in two installments and get back his sons from Madras.