Bengal was a country located in the Ganges delta. In 1201 (or 1204?), Muslims started attacking Bengal, conquering it during the next decades, ending the Sena dynasty. Then however, another power rose in the East - Hong China. In 1492 (3189, Yang Water Rat in the Chinese calendar), the sultan of Bengal paid tribute to the Hong. In 1731, France founded the Indochinese League with Bengal, Pegu, Thailand, Khmer, Champa and Melaka. The League fell apart after France became a republic, however. 1779, Italy made a trading treaty with Bengal, which gradually came under the influence of the former.