Vasco da Gama cast anchor off Calicut on May 20, 1498, and for a century the Portuguese retained the commerce of India. The Dutch, superseding the Portuguese at the beginning of the 17th century, were quickly followed by the English, who estab lished themselves at Calicut and Cranganore in 1616. The Portu guese eventually retired to Goa, and the Dutch to the Spice Islands. The first English settlement on the east coast was in 1611, at Masulipatam, even then celebrated for its fabrics. Farther south a fort, the nucleus of Madras city, was erected in 1640. Pondi cherry was purchased by the French in 1762. The war of the Austrian succession in Europe lit the first flame of hostility on the Coromandel coast. In 1746 Madras was forced to surrender to La Bourdonnais, and Fort St. David remained the only Eng lish possession in southern India. By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Madras was restored to the English, and English influence was generally able to secure the favour of the rulers of the Carnatic and Tanjore, while the French succeeded in placing their own nominee on the throne at Hyderabad. Clive, whose defence of Arcot in 1751 forms the turning point in Indian history, defeated Dupleix, and in 176o the crowning victory of Wandewash was won by Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote, over Lally. A year later, despite help from Mysore, Pondicherry was captured.
Since the beginning of the 19th century Madras has known no regular war, but occasional disturbances have called for measures of repression. In 1836 the zarninddri of Gumsur in this remote tract was attached by government for the rebellious con duct of its chief. In 1879 the country round Rampa on the northern frontier was the scene of riots necessitating calling out the troops, but more serious were the "Anti-Shanar riots" of 1899. The Maravans of Tinnevelly and parts of Madura, resenting the pretensions of the Shanans, a toddy-drawing caste, to a higher social and religious status, organized attacks on Shanan villages.
In 1763 the tract encircling Madras city, then known as the Jagir now Chingleput district, was ceded to the British by the nawab of Arcot. In 1765 the Northern Circars, out of which the French had recently been driven, were granted to the Company by the Mogul emperor, but at the price of an annual tribute of £90,000 to the nizam of Hyderabad. Full rights of dominion were not acquired till 1823, when the tribute was commuted for a lump payment. In 1792 Tippoo was compelled to cede the Baramahal (now part of Salem district), Malabar and Dindigul subdivision of Madura. In 1799, on the reconstruction of Mysore state after Tippoo's death, Coimbatore and Kanara were appropriated as the British share; and in the same year the Mahratta rajah of Tanjore resigned the administration of his territory, though his descendant retained titular rank till 1855. In i800 Bellary and Cuddapah were made over by the nizam of Hyderabad to defray the expense of an increased subsidiary force. In the following year the dominions of the nawab of the Carnatic, extending along the east coast almost continuously from Nellore to Tinnevilly, were resigned into the hands of the British by a puppet who had been put upon the throne for the purpose. The last titular nawab of the Carnatic died in 1855; but his representative still bears the title of prince of Arcot, and is recognized as the first native nobleman in Madras. In 1839 the nawab of Kurnool was deposed for misgovernment and suspicion of treason, and his ter ritories were annexed. After 1919 the Legislative Council con sisted of 127 members and the present maximum number of offi cials is 23. See INDIA, History and HYDER ALI.
See Madras Manual of Administration, 3 vols. (Madras, 1885 and 1893) S. Ayyangar, Forty Years' Progress in Madras (Madras, 1893) ; J. P. Rees, Madras (Society of Arts, i9o1) ; Madras Provincial Gazet teer (2 vols., Calcutta, 1908).