It was fought between forces of the British East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the latter of whom had been invited in 1759 by the Nawab of Bengal, Mir Jafar, to help him expel the EIC and establish the VOC as the leading European power in Bengal.

Despite the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic not formally being at war, the VOC's forces advanced up the Hooghly River.

They met a force of Bengal Army troops under Francis Forde at Chinsurah on 25 November, fifty kilometres from Calcutta.

Britain and the Dutch Republic were at peace, although tensions were high due to the Seven Years' War, and British East India Company administrator Robert Clive was preoccupied with fighting the French.

A fleet of seven ships, containing more than fifteen hundred European and Malay troops, came from Batavia and arrived at the mouth of the Hooghly River in October 1759, while the Nawab was meeting with Clive in Calcutta.

The Nawab had been forced to ask the British for assistance against threats on his northern border in the interim, and told Clive that he would return to Hooghly, summon the Dutch directors, and demand the departure of their ships.

This news, combined with reports that the Dutch were recruiting in and around Chinsurah, led Clive to treat the situation as a real military threat.

The Dutch landed their troops on the northern shore of the Hooghly on 21 November, just beyond the range of the British river batteries, and marched for Chinsurah.