The East India Company: Motives and Rivalries 1075- 1225 AH /1664 – 1810 AD

Abstract

France was one of the colonial European powers that gave priority to bolstering its own military might to vie with other European powers for the bounties of the East. It sent its naval fleets to the archipelago of the Indies to monopolize the spice trade and plunder the enormous wealth there. The ambitious French presence, along with military forces, in the East was conducive to the establishment of the East India Company with the sole aim of monopolizing the trade of spices and products of Asian countries in general.   France also sought to expand to new areas in the far east of Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and later it tapped into the Persian market, as it viewed it as a potentially major hub of trade. France, whereupon deemed it necessary to cultivate good relations with Persia through the establishment of commercial and administrative centers to extend its control over trade in the Arabian Gulf region between Basra in the north and Muscat in the south. However, in the face of stiff competition from the British side, the East India Company headed toward extinction and eventually lost its presence in Asia and the Arabian Gulf region.