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History 381: Asian Experience
The Mughal Empire
Islam to 1500
The Mughal Empire
•The founders of the
Moghuls were Chaghatay
Turks descended from Timur
(Timurlane).
•Originating beyond the
Hindu Kush, they were
driven out of central Asia in
1504 by the Uzbek Turks.
•Babur (1483-1530), the
founder of the Moghul
dynasty, seized Kabul and in
1526 defeated the Afghan
king of Delhi.
The Mughal Empire
•Babur's son, Humayun (15301540, 1555-1556), was unable to
hold his legacy and was driven
into exile to Persia.
•With the help of the Safavid
Shah, Tahmasp (1524-1576),
Humayun recaptured Delhi in
1555
The Mughal Empire

One of the greatest rulers in
Indian history was Akbar
(1556-1605), third Mughal
emperor, generally considered
the true founder of the
Mughal Empire.

He followed an aggressive
expansionist policy, and by the
time of his death, the Mughals
controlled the land from the
Himalaya Mountains to the
Godavari River in central
India and from Kashmir to the
mouths of the Brahmapatra
and Ganges Rivers.
The Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire
Along with Delhi and
Agra, newly constructed
(1571-1586) Fatchpur
Sikri, 26 miles from
Agra, also served as an
imperial capital.
 Akbar's son Jahangir
(1605-1627) did not
possess his father's
abilities but did succeed
in consolidating Moghul
rule in Bengal.

The Mughal Empire

Expansion continued
under Shah Jahan (16271657), Jahangir's son,
who waged campaigns on
the northwestern
frontier of the Hindu
Kush and in the Deccan
plateau.

Shah Jahan founded a
new capital at Delhi in
1648 to supersede Agra.
The Mughal Empire
When Shah Jahan's
wife, Mumtaz Mahal,
died delivering her
thirteenth child, he
ordered construction of
the Taj Mahal at Agra
as an enduring
monument.
The Mughal Empire
The Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) had a strong interest in architecture.
His most enduring monument is the Taj Mahal, the supreme
example of a garden tomb. Twenty thousand workers toiled
eighteen years to build this memorial in Agra to Shah Jahan's
favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died at age of 39 giving birth to
their thirteenth child.

With no formal procedure for succession,
Shah Jahan's two sons struggled for
power.

The victor was Aurangzeb (1659-1707)
who executed his brother and had
himself crowned emperor in 1658.

His father was imprisoned. Aurangzeb
expanded the Moghul Empire south to
Mysore and Marathas in the western
Daccan.

Heavy-handed policies led to rebellion of
the Hindu Marathas who were defeated
but nonetheless continued to fight.

After Aurangzeb's death they created a
confederation of almost all the Deccan
states under their leadership.
Western Powers in India

The two major powers contending for control
of weakened India were France and Britain.
The French arrived in India in the 1670s and
established several trading factories.

They captured Fort St. George at Madras in
1746, and by 1751 the French had gained
control of the Deccan and Carnatic regions.
British Expansion in India

In the meantime, British controled Bengal by buying
off the officers of the French-supported governor and
then defeated the governor at Plassey, north of
Calcutta, in 1757. The British gained more in the
south and prevented the arrival of French
reinforcements.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ending the Seven Years'
War in Europe recognized British control of much of
India.
The British East India Company
• The British East India Company traded silver,
copper, zinc, and fabrics to the Indians in
return for cotton goods, silks, sugar and opium
(to be used in the trade with China).
• European factories at Madras and Calcutta
where Indian cotton goods were shipped to the
East Indies and bartered for spices which
were then sent back to England.