The two protagonists in the naval showdown in the Indian Ocean had as their objective the political dominance of the Indian subcontinent, and a series of battles fought by Admirals Edward Hughes and Pierre André de Suffren in 1782 and 1783 offered France a position to displace the British from its territories.[8] The opportunity only ended when Suffren and Hughes had to stop fighting upon learning of the provisional Anglo-French-Spanish peace treaties of 1783.[3]