After war breaks out between France and Great Britain, Colonel Robert Clive of the British East India Company and Admiral Charles Watson of the Royal Navy bombard and captured Chandannagar on March 23, 1757.

The town's fortifications and many houses were demolished thereafter, and Chandannagar's importance as a commercial center will be eclipsed by that of Calcutta just downriver.

Chandannagar will be restored to the French in 1763, but retaken by the British in 1794 in the Napoleonic Wars.