administration; while in the Carnatic, the coastal region where
all the European traders had their south-eastern headquarters, a
second French protege had almost succeeded in crushing his rival,
whom the English company supported. But the genius of Clive
reversed the situation with dramatic swiftness; the French
authorities at home, alarmed at these dangerous adventures,
repudiated and recalled Dupleix (1754), and the British power was
left to apply the methods which he had invented. When the Seven
Years' War broke out (1756), the French, repenting of their
earlier decision, sent a substantial force to restore their lost
influence in the Carnatic, but the result was complete failure. A
British protege henceforward ruled in the Carnatic; a British
force replaced the French at Hyderabad; and the revenues of the
Northern Sarkars, formerly assigned for the maintenance of the
French force, were handed over to its successor. Meanwhile in the
rich province of Bengal a still more dramatic revolution had taken
place. Attacked by the young Nawab, Siraj-uddaula, the British
traders at Calcutta had been forced to evacuate that prosperous
centre (1756). But Clive, coming up with a fleet and an army from
Madras, applied the lessons he had learnt in the Carnatic, set up
a rival claimant to the throne of Bengal, and at Plassey (1757)
won for his puppet a complete victory. From 1757 onwards the
British East India Company was the real master in Bengal, even
more completely than in the Carnatic. It had not, in either
region, conquered any territory; it had only supported
successfully a claimant to the native throne. The native
government, in theory, continued as before; the company, in
theory, was its subject and vassal. But in practice these great
and rich provinces lay at its mercy, and if it did not yet choose
to undertake their government, this was only because it preferred