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This map was produced at the height of British Imperial power and shows direct British rule extending all the way from Iran (Persia) to Thailand (Siam). Most of the contiguous Indian Ocean littoral, from South Africa to Singapore and Australia, was also under British administration or de facto control.<br/><br/>

It is relevant to note that the map shows Sikkim extending north into the present-day territory of China's Tibetan Autonomous Region. Similarly Darjeeling is shown in eastern Nepal, while Bhutan is elongated to the east and most of India's Arunachal Pradesh province is shown as part of the Qing Empire. In Kashmir, by contrast, the disputed Aksai Chin region, now under Chinese control, is shown as part of India.
'Inde Ancienne A l'Orient Du Gange - Dass Alte Indien gegen Orient des Flusses Ganges' (Ancient India to the East of the Ganges), Allain Manesson Mallet, Frankfurt, 1719. Copper-engraving, handcolored in wash and outline. Decorative engraved map showing Burma and Thailand with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Malay peninsula. The mythical 'Lake Chiamay or 'Lake Chiang Mai' is prominent in the upper centre of the map, but is unnamed.
'Partie Orientale De La Terre Ferme De L' Inde Moderne'. Gulf of Bengal, Burma & Thailand by Allain Manesson, Paris, 1683. Copper engraving, hand colored in wash and outline. Decorative engraved map showing the gulf of Bengal with Burma and Thailand and neighbouring countries. With several engraved names of rivers and regions, including the mythical 'Lake Chiamay' or 'Lake Chiang Mai', supposed source for many of the great rivers of Southeast Asia.
In classical usage, 'India Intra Gangem' refers to South Asia west of the Ganges, while 'India Extra Gangem' refers to peninsular Southeast Asia.
'Inde Ancienne A l'Orient Du Gange - Dass Alte Indien gegen Orient des Flusses Ganges' (Ancient India to the East of the Ganges), Allain Manesson Mallet, Frankfurt, 1719. Copper-engraving, handcolored in wash and outline. Decorative engraved map showing Burma and Thailand with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Malay peninsula.<br/><br/> 

The mythical 'Lake Chiamay or 'Lake Chiang Mai' is prominent in the upper centre of the map, but is unnamed.
The southeastern coastline of India, known as the Coromandel Coast, was home to three Portuguese settlements by late 1530 at Nagapattinam, São Tomé de Meliapore, and Pulicat. Later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Coromandel Coast was the scene of rivalries among European powers for control of the India trade and the 'Spice Trade'. The British established themselves at Fort St George (Madras) and Masulipatnam, the Dutch at Pulicat, Sadras and Covelong, the French at Pondicherry, Karaikal and Nizampatnam, and the Danish in Dansborg at Tharangambadi.

Eventually the British won out, although France retained the tiny enclaves of Pondicherry and Karaikal until 1954. Chinese lacquer goods, including boxes, screens, and chests, became known as "Coromandel" goods in the 18th century, because many Chinese exports were consolidated at the Coromandel ports.
Fort St George (or historically, White Town) is the name of the first English (later British) fortress in India, founded in 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai.<br/><br/>

The East India Company, which had entered India around 1600 for trading activities, had begun licensed trading at Surat, which was its initial bastion. However, to secure its trade lines and commercial interests in the spice trade, it felt the necessity of a port closer to the Malaccan Straits, and succeeded in purchasing a piece of coastal land, originally called Chennirayarpattinam or Channapatnam, from a Vijayanagar chieftain named Damerla Chennappa Nayaka based in Chandragiri, where the Company began the construction of a harbour and a fort.<br/><br/>

The fort was completed on 23 April 1644, coinciding with St George's Day, celebrated in honour of the patron saint of England. The fort, hence christened Fort St George, faced the sea and some fishing villages, and it soon became the hub of merchant activity.<br/><br/>

The fort currently houses the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and other official buildings. The fort is one of 163 notified areas in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Under King Manuel I, the Portuguese set up a government in India in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to Calicut in southwest India by Vasco da Gama. The Portuguese originally based their administration in Kochi, or Cochin, in Kerala, but in 1510 moved to Goa.<br/><br/>

Until 1752, the ‘State of India’ included all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia, governed by either a Viceroy or a Governor. In 1752 Mozambique got its own government, and in 1844 the Portuguese Government of India stopped administering the territories of Macau, Solor and Timor, restricting themselves to the Malabar coast.<br/><br/>

At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman and Diu. Portugal lost the last two enclaves in 1954, and the remainder in 1961, when they were occupied by India (although Portugal only recognized the annexation in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo regime).