This article examines the central role played by teak wood in relations between France and England from 1793 to 1815, and evaluates the development of "non-European" Nature in India. Tectona Grandis was massively used as construction timber; the shipbuilding industry especially favored it for its strength and durability. Thanks to the Indian forests, the English Crown enjoyed a decisive comparative advantage, which demonstrated the environmental foundations of colonial power. This perspective leads to a reconsideration of the desire to preserve forests, as well as the transformation into economically useful teak plantations, in the more global context of the wars against France. The ideal of the colonial administration of the Indian forest then proved to be a useful and orderly plantation, a civilized territory. The period 1793-1815 was, therefore, a time during which Indian forests transformed and reconfigured the relationship between nature and society.