of Plassey in 1757 and in the southeast in 1761 in the Battle of Wandiwash, after which the British East India Company was the supreme military and political power in southern India as well as in Bengal. In the following decades, it gradually increased the size of the territories under its control. The enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahé, and Chandernagore were returned to France in 1816 and were integrated with the Republic of India in 1954. Danish Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, but the Danish presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Denmark–Norway established trading outposts in Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu (1620), Serampore, West Bengal (1755), Calicut, Kerala (1752) and the Nicobar Islands (1750s). At one time, the main Danish and Swedish East Asia companies together imported more tea to Europe than the British did. Their outposts lost economic and strategic importance, and Tranquebar, the last Dano-Norwegian outpost, was sold to the British on 16 October 1868. Other external powers Sweden The Swedish East India Company, active between 1731 and 1813, briefly possessed a factory in Parangipettai. Austria The Austrian colonisation of the Nicobar Islands (, renamed to the Theresia Islands [Theresia-Inseln]) involved a series of three separate attempts to colonize and settle the Nicobar Islands by the Habsburg monarchy, and later the Austrian Empire, between 1778 and 1886. During the period of Austrian colonisation, the Nicobar Islands were previously colonized by the Danish in 1756, but were abandoned due to multiple outbreaks of malaria. Japanese occupation The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were briefly occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II. Wars The wars that took place involving the British East India Company or British India during the colonial era: Anglo-Mysore Wars Anglo-Maratha Wars First Anglo-Sikh War Second Anglo-Sikh War Anglo-Nepalese War Anglo-Burmese Wars First Opium War India's First War of Independence (Rebellion of 1857) Second Opium War First Anglo-Afghan War Second Anglo-Afghan War Third Anglo-Afghan War World War I: see List of Indian divisions in World War I, Bombardment of Madras World War II: see Indian Army during World War II See also Ancient India Greater India Indosphere Sanskritization Spread of Buddhism in Southeast Asia Spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia Indian empires Maurya Empire Chola Empire Mughal Empire Maratha Empire Sikh Empire British Raj Economy