Why the Mughal Empire Collapsed Despite Its Massive Wealth
Fexingo History · South Asia
Why the Mughal Empire Collapsed Despite Its Massive Wealth
The Mughal Empire glittered with the Koh-i-Noor diamond, its courts adorned with pietra dura and jali screens, its treasury overflowing from the taxes of a hundred million subjects. Yet by 1858, the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was a pensioner of the British East India Company, exiled to Rangoon after the failed 1857 Rebellion. How did the wealthiest empire of its time—whose construction of the Taj Mahal alone cost over 32 million rupees—collapse into poverty and subjugation? Lucas and Luna unpack the structural decay beneath the marble veneer: Aurangzeb’s endless Deccan wars that drained the treasury, the jagirdari crisis that alienated the nobility, the rise of Maratha power under Shivaji and the Peshwas, and the devastating invasions of Nadir Shah (who carted away the Peacock Throne) and Ahmad Shah Durrani. They examine the empire’s failure to industrialize, its reliance on fragmented revenue farming, and the cultural contradictions between Akbar’s syncretic Sulh-i-Kul and Aurangzeb’s orthodox policies. This show traces the arc from Babur’s victory at Panipat to the British takeover after the Battle of Plassey—a story of brilliant architecture built on shifting sands, and a cautionary tale about the fragility of imperial power.
