War ! ~ Siege of Madras ! - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle - Maria Theresa ??

There has been lot of talk on air especially about ‘War’ – a war is never a great option; it will have many disastrous consequences !!  Here is an iconic photo of Lieutenant General A. A. K. Niazi, the Pakistani commander, signing the surrender document in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. This event marked the official end of the war and the creation of Bangladesh.

 

Unlike border States, city of Chennai has not experienced a war for the past many centuries.  Here is some history – ever heard of ‘1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, sometimes called the Treaty of Aachen, and how it resonated on Madras !!  Ever read about the woman in pic - Maria Theresa – and its relevance !!

 

By Martin van Meytens - Buchscan, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68471 

 

The last major war fought in Madras  was during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and the Carnatic Wars (1744-1763) between the British East India Company and the French East India Company, along with their local allies. 

The Indo-Pak War of 1971 was a significant conflict   that took place from December 3 to December 16, 1971. It was primarily fought over the independence movement in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which sought to break away from West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan).  Tensions escalated due to political and ethnic tensions in East Pakistan, where the Bengali population demanded autonomy and independence. The situation worsened after the Pakistani military's crackdown on Dhaka in March 1971, known as Operation Searchlight, which led to widespread atrocities.  India supported the Bengali independence movement and provided military assistance to the Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrilla resistance). On December 3, 1971, Pakistan launched preemptive air strikes on Indian airbases, prompting India to officially enter the war.  The conflict involved land, air, and naval battles. India and the Mukti Bahini achieved significant victories, culminating in the surrender of Pakistani forces in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. The war resulted in the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh. Pakistan suffered a decisive defeat. The 1971 war reshaped the geopolitical landscape of South Asia, leading to the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation and altering Pakistan's political landscape. 

The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, sometimes called the Treaty of Aachen, ended the War of the Austrian Succession, following a congress assembled on 24 April 1748 at the Free Imperial City of Aachen. The two main antagonists in the war, Britain and France, opened peace talks in the Dutch city of Breda in 1746. Agreement was delayed by British hopes of improving their position; when this failed to occur, a draft treaty was agreed on 30 April 1748. A final version was signed on 18 October 1748 by Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic.  The terms were then presented to the other belligerents, who could either accept them or continue the war on their own. Austria, Spain, and Sardinia had little choice but to comply, though the terms were favorable for Spain who took land from Austria, and signed separately. Modena and Genoa joined on 21 January 1749. 

The treaty largely failed to resolve the issues that caused the war, while most of the signatories were unhappy with the terms. Maria Theresa resented Austria's exclusion from the talks, and blamed Britain for forcing her to accept concessions, while British politicians felt they had received little benefit for the financial subsidies paid to her. These issues, combined with other factors, led to the strategic realignment known as the Diplomatic Revolution, and the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756.

Maria Theresa (1717 –   1780) was ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure (in her own right). She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Slavonia, Mantua, Milan, Moravia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Dalmatia, the Austrian Netherlands, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Austrian Silesia, Tyrol, Styria and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress. 

The Habsburg monarchy was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is also referred to as the Austrian monarchy, the Austrian Empire. 

Reading back the annals of History, the Battle of Madras (also the Siege of Madras) took place in 1746 -  when French forces captured the city from the British. The British later recaptured it in 1748, following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Since then, Madras/Chennai has not been a major battlefield in any significant wars.   

In 1746, Dupleix's deputy, La Bordannais laid siege to Madras and captured the city. For the next three years, Madras remained under French Governors, until 1749, when Madras was handed to the British as per the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappele.   The Battle of Madras or Fall of Madras took place in September 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a French force attacked and captured the city of Madras from its British garrison. French forces occupied Madras until the end of hostilities when it was exchanged for the British conquest of Louisbourg in North America as part of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. One of the British defenders, Robert Clive made his name by escaping from the French captors and carrying news of the city's fall to his superiors at Fort St David. 

Following the French decision to join the War of the Austrian Succession on the opposing side to Britain, the British despatched a Royal Navy squadron under Commodore Curtis Barnett to raid and harass French settlements in India.  During 1745 this force attacked a number of French ships, disrupting commerce, and ruining several leading French merchants. In response the French despatched a similarly-sized fleet under the Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais. After fighting an inconclusive battle the two fleets withdrew to repair, with the British retreating to Ceylon and the French using their base at Pondicherry. Wary of fighting another major naval battle – the British commander, Edward Peyton, chose to stay away from the Coramandel coast and withdrew to the safety of Bengal, leaving the British settlements on the Coramandel badly exposed to the French. The French Governor of Pondicherry Dupleix authorised an attack on Madras. To gain local Indian approval for this he promised the Nawab of the Carnatic that he would hand over Madras to him once he had captured it from the British. 

On 7 September 1746 the inhabitants of Madras woke to find a French fleet sitting offshore – and an expedition of soldiers being landed on the shore. The French ships opened fire on the town – but with little effect, struggling to find the correct range and by nightfall a large portion of the garrison had been lulled into a false sense of security.  The following morning the French resumed their bombardment from both land and shore, this time with much more accuracy. The fortifications of Madras had been poorly constructed and were largely unable to resist such an attack. As the number of British casualties grew, the morale of the discipline of the troops collapsed. After a direct strike on the liquor stores, a number of soldiers abandoned their posts and drank themselves into a stupor.   

On 9 September the Governor of Madras, Nicholas Morse sued for peace. The terms offered to him by La Bourdonnais were surprisingly generous – the French were to take over the fort and warehouses, but the rest of the town would remain under British control. The British troops who had surrendered would be petitioned. This caused a dispute with his superior Joseph François Dupleix who favoured total French annexation of Madras. La Bourdonnais insisted on honouring the peace terms – and for a month the peace agreement he had signed held.  

The French occupied the town for the duration of the war. Despite Dupleix's promise earlier to hand the territory over to the Nawab of the Carnatic, Dupleix refused to do so.  A force of 10,000 sent by the Nawab to enforce the agreement was routed by a small French force led by Captain Louis Paradis at the battle of Adyar on 24 October 1746  

Clive was one of the most controversial figures in all British military history. His achievements included establishing control over much of India, and laying the foundation of the entire British Raj, though he worked only as an agent of the East India Company, not the British government. For his methods and his self aggrandisement he was vilified by his contemporaries in Britain, and put on trial before Parliament. Of special concern was that he amassed a personal fortune in India.   

Before concluding – something more on Paki defeat in 1971.  Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a Pakistani military dictator,  served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971. He also served as the fifth commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971.  Khan had been commissioned into the British Indian Army in 1939 and fought in the Second World War in the Mediterranean theatre. Following the Partition of British India, he joined the Pakistan Army and organized the Staff College, Quetta.  

Khan's presidency oversaw martial law by suspending the constitution in 1969. Holding the country's first general election in 1970, he barred power transition to the victorious Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan, leading to mass protests in the provincial wing and a call for sovereignty. On 25 March 1971, Khan ordered Operation Searchlight in an effort to suppress Bengali nationalism, which led to the Bangladesh Liberation War. Khan is considered a chief architect of the Bangladesh genocide along with his deputies Hamid Khan and Tikka Khan.   After the defest, Yahya Khan resigned from the army command and transferred the presidency to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Khan remained under house surveillance prior to 1979 when he was released by Fazle Haq. Khan died the following year in Rawalpindi and was buried in Peshawar. Khan is viewed negatively in both Bangladesh, where he is seen as the architect of the genocide, and Pakistan, where his failure to prevent the country's disintegration is considered a national tragedy.

 

Regards – S Sampathkumar
6^th May 2025.