Decline of the mughal empire

• Babur

  • First emperor
  • from a ruling family of central asia
  • real name zahir ud din muhammad
  • 1526: defeated emperor of dehli
  • established his control
  • died after 4 years in 1830
• Sha Jahan & Jhengir

  • jhengir signed commercial treaty with British in 1615
  • Sha jahan also known as khurram
  • built taj mehal for his wife mumtaz mehal
  • wanted to extend his empire through campaigns againt persians& uzbekistan
  • wars were costly
  • defeated portugese as they were forcibly converting muslim girls to christianity
  • 1657: fell ill
  • his 4 sons fighting for power
  • arrested by his son aurangzeb
  • in Agra till his death in 1666
  • buried in taj mehal
• Aurengzeb's Policies

  • harsh attitude towards non muslims
  • burned hindu tempels
  • imposed jizya tax on non muslims
  • ban on painting, dance, singing, drinking, gambling & suttee
  • a specific length for Muslim men
  • campaign against rajputs and pathan
  • deccan policy for 25 years against marathas; shivaji
  • spent all of the state treasuries on fighting
  • heavy taxes imposed which was spent on construction of luxurious buildings e.g pearl Mosque & taxes were imposed to pay cost of military Campaigns
• Succession

  • no definite law of succession
  • princes engaged in conspiracies and making loyal groups
  • their success depended on support from military & administrators
  • this resulted in division in army
  • state treasury wasted on this instead of public welfare
  • aurengzeb divided empire between his 3 sons to avoid in fighting
  • but failed
  • prince muzzam became emperor but only ruled for a few years
  • in fighting between his 4 sons ;jhandhar shah the victor also killed
• Corrupt rulers

  • successors of aurengzeb were inefficient
  • lazy, corrupt & luxury loving
  • paid little attention to defence and public affairs as they fell into extravagant lifestyles and as a result they failed to run the huge empire effectively
  • spent state resources for their comfort → financial inefficiencies
  • this led to them being not able to protect the empire from invasions ; muhammad shah ; colourful lifestyle rangeela ; defeated by nadir shah
• invasions

  • persian empire : nadir shah attacked dehli in 1738-1739
  • reason: saw the weak mughal emperors
  • looting raid : stole wealth , jewels ,gold & peacock throne
  • afghan commander : ahmed shah durani
  • attacked various parts of empire in 1748-1767
  • plundered india's wealth like nadir shah the cost of fighting these wars were expensive plus the military also begin to experience inefficiency in their skills which led to a weak
• British EIC

  • primarily came for trade in india in 1608
  • later started to enjoy monopoly over trade
  • earned money used to make sophisticated weapons
  • benefits from industrial revolution
  • most powerful country in the world
  • advanced weapons and superior military skills
  • strong sense of success
  • mughals had no knowledge in technology
  • unexperienced warfare
  • disunited
  • gradually british started to bring in its own army and captured indian territories