Mughal Decline

The death of Aurangzeb in 1707 was the end of the Mughal empire's greatness. A war of succession would break out amongst his sons, and eventually the empire was divided up between them. Large parts of the empire had already declared independence during the time of Aurangzeb, and such developments increased after his death. The Mughal empire, which had once been one of the greatest empires of Indian history slowly declined to become just an empire in name, with a small area under its command. The empire would drag on for another 150 years, with a series of inconsequential kings, collectively referred to as the later Mughals. The Empire could perhaps have been saved had someone like Akbar succeeded Aurangzeb, but the later Mughals were failures as emperors. Most of them were given more to the luxuries and pleasures of life, and had little interest in rescuing their declining empire. The court of the Mughals was now overrun with nobles and was an active ground of intrigue and treachery. The nobles keen on advancing their own power, would raise one puppet king after the other to the throne. Over time most of the empire had broken up into small kingdoms and only a small region in the north was left under its control. Thus in such a chaotic state, the time was once again ripe for a foreign invader to come in and establish a new empire. Such a development took place and the British slowly emerged as the dominant European force in India, and eventually set up the British Empire, which covered most of the country. The Mughal empire had been the last major empire of Indian history, for the British did not settle down and become Indian rulers. Instead India was made a colony, and Indians were ruled by a foreign power for almost two hundred years, becoming second rate citizens in their own country. The economic wealth of India would be drained and by the time India would win independence much of its earlier glory would have been lost. Had the Mughal empire continued, history...