Why the Mughal empire fell apart after Aurangzeb, the later Mughals ruler by ruler, and how Hyderabad, Awadh, Bengal, the Marathas and the Sikhs rose in its place.
Aurangzeb ruled from 1658–1707; historians treat his reign as the point where the seeds of Mughal decline were sown. His policies destabilised the state, and after his death the empire was pulled apart by succession wars and a run of ineffective rulers. Muhammad Shah occupied the throne for 29 years (1719–48), the longest of the "later Mughals," yet the empire never recovered its old strength. Out of this vacuum, Hyderabad, Bengal, Awadh and Punjab emerged as autonomous regional powers, while the Marathas began positioning themselves as claimants to the imperial legacy.
Hyderabad (Asaf Jahi house) was founded by Chin Qilich Khan ("Nizam-ul-Mulk"), who defeated the Mughal Deccan viceroy at the Battle of Shakr-Kheda (1724). Awadh was founded by Saadat Khan ("Burhan-ul-Mulk"); his successor Safdar Jang took over after Nadir Shah's forces pressured Saadat Khan to death. Bengal was founded by Murshid Quli Khan; after his grandson Sarfaraz Khan was killed in 1740, Alivardi Khan seized power as de facto independent ruler while still paying nominal tribute.
Mysore passed from the Wodeyar dynasty to Hyder Ali and then Tipu Sultan. Travancore, under Martanda Varma, expanded from Kanyakumari to Cochin and reorganised its army along Western lines. Among the Jats, Suraj Mal built an efficient administration across the Ganga-Chambal-Agra-Mathura belt. The Sikhs organised into twelve confederacies (misls) after Banda Bahadur's defeat; Ranjit Singh unified them, took Lahore (1799) and Amritsar (1802), and under the Treaty of Amritsar accepted British authority east of the Sutlej. The Marathas, founded by Shivaji, pushed Mughal authority out of Malwa and Gujarat before their defeat at Panipat (1761), and went on to become the Company's most formidable rival.
Every regional power continued to symbolically acknowledge the Mughal emperor even while ruling independently. Governance stayed local and personal, resting on individual chieftains' loyalty rather than durable institutions; none built a lasting fiscal, administrative or military system, and constant warfare among neighbours meant no single state ever secured lasting supremacy — several states were individually strong enough to have challenged the Mughals outright, but fragmented politics meant none of them ever did.
Agriculture was technically backward and peasants saw little return, but trade and industry held up well — India was largely self-sufficient in handicrafts and farm produce. Imports came via the Persian Gulf (pearls, raw silk), Arabia (coffee, gold), China (tea, porcelain), and Europe (woollens, copper, iron). Exports included cotton textiles, raw silk, indigo, saltpetre, opium and spices. Major textile centres included Dacca, Murshidabad, Surat, Ahmedabad and Varanasi; shipbuilding was led by Maharashtra, Andhra and Bengal.
Subsidiary Alliance — a treaty stripping an Indian state of sovereignty, first used by the French Governor-General Dupleix and formalised as standard policy by Lord Wellesley (1798–1805). The allied ruler had to disband his own army, host and fund British troops, and lose the right to ally with any foreign power — while gaining a British pledge of non-interference in internal affairs.
Doctrine of Lapse — an annexation policy pursued extensively by Lord Dalhousie (1848–56), though first applied at Kittur as early as 1824. Any princely state under Company control would be annexed outright if its ruler died without a legal male heir — an adopted son could inherit personal property but not the kingdom, pension, or titles. The widely-perceived illegitimacy of this doctrine became one of the contributing causes of the 1857 revolt.
