Indians

The fall of India’s mighty Mughal Empire coincides with the rise of British rule in the subcontinent, occurring in the 18th century; yet even as the British established control, their arrival was little more than the last blow to an already struggling native dynasty. The Mughal Empire, bastion of high culture, geographic expansion, and military might, had fallen. The Mughal Empire has its origins in neighboring Afghanistan and Turkestan, where descendents of the Mongol Empire had become Muslims and where the Muslim ruler Babur began forming the foundations of a new kingdom in 1504 with the seizure of Kabul, and territories leading east into the Indus River Valley. In 1526, he pushed further into India and defeated the last of the Delhi Sultans, Ibrahim Shah Lodi, at the First Battle of Panipat. Babur’s son Humayun succeeded him in 1530, but quickly lost most of the newly won territory. For a time he ruled in exile, but eventually raised an army large enough to march back to Delhi in 1555 and conquer it a second time. Next in the line of succession was Humayun’s son Akbar, who succeeded his father on 14 February 1556, while in the midst of a war against Sikandar Shah for the reclamation of the Mughal throne. Akbar won his first victory at the age of 13 or 14, and quickly established himself as a confident ruler who had a vision for the future of his empire. He created fair taxes, built an efficient government, placed an emphasis on high culture, and encouraged radical religious tolerance. Because of his contributions, Akbar is considered the greatest of the Mughal rulers. The Mughal Empire only lasted for another one hundred years. Its last great ruler was Aurangzeb Alangir, a zealous Muslim who abandoned the tolerance of his predecessors and began to crack down on other faiths, especially the Hindus. During his fifty-year reign, religious prejudice drove a wedge between the ruler and his subjects. Aurang’s intentions were to force the Hindus to convert. Temples were despoiled and a tax for non-Muslims was introduced. Following Aurang, the Mughal Empire suffered from a lack of powerful authority, causing regional nawabs, or governors, to split and found their own kingdoms, such as the Marathas in the south and the Sikhs in the north. The next 27 years of the Mughal Empire were spent in clashes with its neighbors, and in 1739, invading Persian and Afghan armies invaded Delhi. The greatest empire in India had crumbled and individual kingdoms rushed to gobble up the pieces. The stage was set for the British, who would overpower the smaller weakened kingdoms and in doing so would gain control of the country.

From the game's History encyclopedia.