Modern India · Topic 1 of 20
Background decline of Mughal power and arrival of European trading companies
The Basics
In 1707 the Mughal Empire was still vast and respected. Aurangzeb had just died after a 49-year reign. Despite his long wars in the Deccan against the Marathas, the administration was efficient and the army strong. The dynasty still commanded loyalty across India.
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By the 1720s, the Mughal emperor at Delhi kept only nominal authority, while capable governors in the provinces built real, hereditary power of their own.
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Shivaji founded the Maratha kingdom in the 17th century with Raigad as capital.
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Banda Bahadur led the Sikhs after Guru Gobind Singh's death.
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By the mid-eighteenth century the Mughal empire had broken into regional successor states and smaller principalities. These rulers kept internal order and tried to build viable administrations. They curbed unruly zamindars and local chieftains with varying success. None of them modernised agriculture or industry. None could arrest the deeper economic crisis left behind by Mughal decline.
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For centuries spices, silk and cotton moved from India to Europe through Arab and Venetian middlemen along routes through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. After the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, these routes became costlier and less secure. Europe's demand for pepper and spices was pressing, so Portugal and Spain, helped by advances in shipbuilding and navigation, began searching for a direct sea route to India.
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English merchants envied the Portuguese profits from Asian trade. But Portuguese and Spanish naval power kept them out for decades. Two events opened the way. Francis Drake sailed around the world in 1579-80. The English then defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. This opened sea routes to the East. In 1599 a group called the Merchant Adventurers formed a trading company. On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted it a royal charter. It gave exclusive trading rights east of the Cape of Good Hope for fifteen years. This company, the English East India Company, was run by a Governor, a Deputy-Governor and twenty-four elected Directors, later called the Court of Directors.
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By the 1740s, Mughal central authority was collapsing across India. The Marathas controlled the west. Alivardi Khan held Bengal firmly. This left little room for foreign ambition there. In the south, conditions were different. Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah died in 1748. Maratha raids for chauth added to the disorder. The Carnatic and Hyderabad faced succession disputes. This unsettled south became the stage where Europeans first fought for political mastery, not just trade.
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By 1763 the English had beaten the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French. They stood as the only European power with real striking power left in India. This was the result of advantages built up in Europe over two centuries. These advantages were sharpened further in the Carnatic Wars.
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