Preview

Differences Between The Mughal Empire And The Shah-En-Shahs

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1611 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Differences Between The Mughal Empire And The Shah-En-Shahs
With the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the Mughal period started to become more unpopular. By the mid of the next century, the British had totally overpowered the Mughal ‘Shah-en-Shahs’. This period of transition can be further broken into two periods of transitions, the first one from the Mughal Empire to the regional states and the second from the regional states to the British colonies which are both described separately later in the essay. A society always maintains the notion of constant total power. If a society is controlled by another society, the latter one may be seen as an external power factor. This implies that all individual powers of a society should add up to a constant. If the power of some object (Mughal Empire) …show more content…
“Population, production, prices, wages tended, generally speaking, to be on a gentle upward incline during the eighteenth century.” The high land-labour ratio granted peasants to demand for relatively extortionate sums of money from the land owners. While this period brought overall agricultural prosperity, some of the regions in ‘Jalal and Bose’ were described as being more thriving. “The Maratha territories under Poona were noted for their low revenue rates and agricultural prosperity……. Mysore under Haidar Ali was described as a garden from end to end.” A new system in which farmers, more often called as contractors, were given a task to collect a certain amount of revenue from a fixed tract of land. Any additional revenue would be their own. This saved money for the state, as the farmer was not given any salary, and for the farmers, as it was their authority to collect as much revenue as they want to. The clever farmers combined military fiscalism and trade with manufactured commodities. Metcalfs gives the evidence of the success of the above process as “The forty years when Mian Almas Ali held districts yielding one-third the revenue of Awadh, for example, were looked back upon by the people in later years as a ‘golden age’’. One alternative scheme adopted by some rulers, such as that of Mysore, was to …show more content…
Although, the Mughal rule was disintegrated and declined in this period, the 18th century was a period of remarkable development. The regional authorities gained dominance but were soon kicked upon by the Brits. For British, this was the dawn of the golden period to be followed. There were certain areas whose development were fully independent of the regional autonomies. Many of these fields such as the culture, religion, agriculture, military, economy got boost and became more mature in this transition period. The only subject which faced dwindling in this era was the Mughals, who are given a significant amount of attention but are not the most notable part of this century as the progresses of this epoch did more for the future of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Marshall, P. (2014, July 14). The British Presence in India in the 18th Century. Retrieved from BBC History: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Mughal and Safavid had Islam, the base of military conquest and a centralized government as similarities. In the time of their reign, Islam was of great power in the world. The development and introduction of gun powder helped these empires expand and strive. Islam played a big role in the management of their political systems, for example, women’s rights would be affected by the strict rule of Muslim religion. Being based on military conquest was beneficial to Islam, expanding Islam and influencing a wide range of people; bringing many of the tribal religions under one rule, expanding the political strength of the Safavid and Mughal empires. Having a centralized government meant that one person made all the decisions; this could be beneficial or could destroy an empire. For example, the person who’s making all the decisions could be biased and choose something that they believe is right, not including the views of the people.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Ottoman and Mughal empires were two of the greatest and most successful empires to ever form in history. However, they both had some similarities as well as differences. Both empires went through tough periods of time, but at some point they also went through times of growth and prosperity. Although the Ottoman and Mughal Empire both did not force conversions into Islam, the Ottoman’s development relied on their tough military force, while the decline of the Mughal Empire was caused by Aurangzeb’s policy of religious persecution and high taxes.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    On the Political side, the Ottoman Turks was the most successful at maintaining power for a longer time. It was able to survive until modern times. The two other empires collapsed by the seventeenth century. The leader of the Ottoman Turks was known as the Sultan which was similar to an emperor. It was hereditary. Islamic Law was applied to all Muslims. Regarding the Safavid empire politically, the Shahs walked around the streets in disguise in order to find the sincerity of the citizens. The high positions were given by merit and often were foreigners. In the Mughal Empire politically, Even though the population was predominately Hindu most high government positions were held by Muslims. Functioned by dynasties, and leadership was hereditary. This created power struggles between the military and the power families which led to their demise. Examples would be the struggle between Shah Jahan’s sons. Another main factor in the demise of the Empire was when the British got a seat on the imperial court of Agra.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Muslim Empire Dbq

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Mughal empire was founded by a Chagatai Turk named Babur, who claimed descent from both Chinggis Khan and Tamerlane. The Mughal was a very influential empire, but it reached its greatest point under the leadership of Aurangzeb. During his reign, Aurangzeb conducted a continuous campaign to impel Mughal authority deep into the southern India. The Mughals were also known to be a very rich and powerful empire. They used their wealth to build up their military and to show other nations how easily they could buy advanced weaponry and armor to strengthen their army (Doc. 2). Even though the Mughals were a very rich and influential empire, the leadership of the dynasty became very naive and ignorant. The monarch would give land to their military men, and whoever lived the villages within it automatically became were under their control. The people living in these villages started questioning “why should I toil for a tyrant who may come tomorrow and lay his rapacious hands upon all I possess?” (Doc. 5). As a result, the government became faulty and untrustworthy to the citizens and this caused a decline in their…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ottoman vs. Mughals

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Ottoman and Mughal empires were two of the most successful empires to ever come together. However, in their dominance there was many similarities as well as differences. Both went through their share of struggle. Whether through political, religious, or cultural struggle the two empires had to rely on their emperors for guidance and rule.…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some people would say politically British rule helped India out but the statistics beg to differ. The British ultimately took advantage of the weakening of the Mughal Empire creating a government that benefitted them through East India Company. According Dr. Lalvani the British created the world’s largest democracy for India. However document 2 brings to our attention the reality of out of 960…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid Empires all rose to power by the 1500’s CE. Their strengths in many things, including military, helped them remain in power for tens of years. By the 1700’s CE, they had all declined due to their weaknesses. The cruel monarchs and poor treatment of government officers, among other things, are reasons the empires fell. The three empires did have their times of success, but weakness did occur, breaking them…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between 1500 and beginning of 19thcentury, the issue of power began to rise in Europe; the paradox of this issue raise a question of power; under what condition will individuals and groups like nobles and the church sacrifice present power for the expected future benefit? People always prefer more power rather than less, unless the benefit exceed the present power. Thus, if we assure narrow rationality, then we would predict power maximization. However, that is not what happened, people gave up power in expectation of a better life. The first hypothesis, which is about bargaining suggest that the surrender of power by autonomous constitution allowed territorial rulers expand their power. The second hypothesis is coercion, which falsify the…

    • 1812 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the collapse the Maurya Empire, Chandra Gupta II led India to its Golden Age. Under Chandra Gupta II and during this Golden Age they kept a high level being sure to…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death → Downfall of the empire (Same with Mughal Empire) B. Government Structure - Islamic & Local cultures B1. Power Bi. Divided into provinces (Each one has a landlord) ← Mughal Empire Bii.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sati Regulation

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages

    This paper is a part of internal assessment of History curriculum. It would be deal with the first question on a broad theme of 'gender and law'. Through this paper the author would make an attempt to ascertain the motives of the British behind regulation of Sati. Whether Sati was regulated due to their obligation to civilize the native barbarian or there were other reasons for the same. The paper will try to ascertain the real intentions of the British behind the legislative reforms by analysing the socio-political environment leading to legislations. This would be illustrated by their acts such as discourse towards religious scriptures to legitimize their stance; their change in stance on issue of sati from partial to complete restraints; existing judicial and executive perception over the issue of Sati at that time; and material gain if any of the British in regulating Sati.…

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Reconstruction for Nineteenth-Century Britain and India.” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Aug., 1989), pp. 354-374…

    • 4305 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Land Revenue System

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Different land revenue systems were introduced in various part of British India, as the British annexed different parts of India in various periods. Let us have an introspection into three broad land revenue systems introduced by the British. These land revenue systems are 1. Zamindari system, 2. Rywotari System and 3. Mahalwari System.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays