Golden Quarter (Napoleon's World)

The Golden Quarter is the common name for the four French Imperial Subcontinental Trade Zones - the major port cities of Bombay, Madras, Goa and Pondicherry on the coast of the Indian subcontinent. The FISTZ, as it is referred to, is a semi-autonomous union between the four trade enclaves that is controlled by a power-sharing system including the French Empire itself, the French Imperial colony of Hindustan to the north, and the nation of Mysore, which is a staunch Imperial ally that takes up almost the entire Deccan Plateau of the subcontinent. The Golden Quarter has a combined population of nearly 18 million people, and speaks a variety of languages including Hindi, Urdu, French, Tamil and Kannada. In 2009, the French Empire and Mysore struck a landmark agreement to transfer rule of the Golden Quarter back to Mysore, with lucrative commercial preferences to French companies, on January 1st, 2020, following years of negotiation towards that goal.