Decline of Mughal Empire in the Sub-Continent
Aurangzeb’s Successors
Decline of Mughal Empire in reference to the
successors of Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb had defeated his rivals to take
over the government and to expand his empire. He even killed his brothers and
imprisoned his father to take over the government. When he grew old and his
three sons were young enough to take care of the government’s matters ,he did
not want them to waste their energy fighting against each other so he divided
the Empire into three parts and gave each part to each son There was no use of
such an activity because his sons kept fighting with each other ,kept taking
over the governments and kept killing each other wasting resources at a large
scale .These fighting developed weakness in the stability of the Mughal Empire
.There were constant oppositions, rebellion movements and attacks from other
countries. Wastage of money on these wars was so much that till 1719 it could
be clearly seen during Muhammad Shah’s reign
that the Empire was not going to stay for a longer time.
Foreign attacks from
Afghanistan and Persia and later on from British EIC, added fuel to the fire
.In these attacks Mughal provincial governments were mostly defeated which
caused the loss in the government treasury, a lot of gold and jewels were taken
by Nadir Shah and also local people could easily see that the prestige of their
government was declining, so respect from them started ending .It caused a
sharp decline in the sincerity of local public for Mughal Rule .Marhatta forces also kept
taking many lands after defeating Aurangzeb’s successors .A lot of
Mughal Empire areas went under Marhatta’s control by 1737. In 1741 Afghan
general Ahmed Shah Durrani /Abdali attacked Kabul, Peshawar and Lahore. He
defeated Marhatta forces in the Battle of Panipat in 1765. It showed that
constant wars caused a big loss for the army and weaponry resources of the
country. It encouraged British EIC to plan against Mughal government after
Ahmed Shah Durrani /Abdali left .In this manner the Mughal government started
to shrink and losing its control.
Power of British East India Company in the form of army strength, disciplined planning and increase of modernized weapons, gave a final blow to the Mughals .They started taking over the provinces e.g. Bengal ,Orissa, Bihar and forced emperor to British protection agreement. Clive persuaded one of the Nawab’s key men, Mir Jafar, to side with the British. Jafar’s defection weakened the Nawab’s army, which Clive was
able to use to his advantage.
• Clive ordered his men to cover their cannon when it rained. So, the dry
cannons of Clive’s army outfired the Nawab’s cannons.
• Clive was an experienced soldier as he had fought the French in
southern India. He was used to the tactics of warfare, this helped to
defeat the Nawab. Battle of Bexar in 1764 and the Battle of Plassey in 1757 caused the shrinking
of Empire at large scale. British were constantly and had strongly held over
the sub-continent .Akbar II and Bahadur Shah II were the last emperors who
finally fought against British .In result of 1857 final war, Bhadur Shah Zafar
II was expelled and kept in prison in Rangoon (Burma) till his death after the
defeat of Indians in War of Independence 1857.Contant defeats by strong foreign
forces caused the establishment of British government over India and at last,
complete end of Mughal dynasty.
Aurangzebs thirst for power lead to the decline of the empire because the land had spread so far it was extremely hard to defend invasions and listen to suggestions of the local people in the far lands/Hamza Naqvi
ReplyDeleteAurangzeb's successers were not doing there work properly and have thirst of wealth.
ReplyDeleteAurangzeb faced many challenges during his reign. He proved successful in many but these battles would decrease his power and resources so these decrease in powers led to the decrease in power of the Empire.
ReplyDeleteHN
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