Study Guide: The Mughal Empire
Political Aspects of Mughal Empire (Alex):
● The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur in 1526. Babur was a Muslim who had been
driven from Central Asia.
● The Mughal emperors were a Muslim minority ruling a Hindu majority.
● Akbar was the most famous ruler of the Mughals. He tried to bring together Hindus and
Muslims with a new religion which incorporated aspects of both Hinduism and Islam. He
encouraged intermarriage between Muslims and Hindus as well. He also started a
centralized government with himself as the ultimate source of authority.
● The Mughal military was very important and at its height could not have been beaten. It
was made up of five sections: infantry, which was the largest, cavalry, firearms,
elephants and war boats.
● The Mughals were war-like, but they also were interested in the arts and architecture,
the Taj Mahal being one example.
● When the English arrived in India, the Mughals saw them as inferior and trade was
limited. The Mughals were suspicious of the Europeans’ motives.
● The turning point for the Mughal Empire came during the Deccan War, which was a
series of conflicts between 1680 and 1707 between the Mughals and the Marathas
peoples, who were rebelling against them. The Marathas were Hindus who became
angry when the Mughal emperor imposed a tax on them. This conflict seriously
weakened the Mughal Empire and made it exposed to European dominance.
● As the empire weakened, other breakaway states became more powerful. Reduced in
size and power by internal strife, the last emperor was overthrown by the British in 1858
after his support of the Sepoy Rebellion.
Social Aspects of the Mughal Empire (Joe)
● The Mughal society had a class system similar to the ones that we have today: They had
an upper class, middle class, and lower class. The upper class led extravagant lifestyles
and had the most influence, followed by the middle class who had comfortable lives, but
not as much extravagance or influence that the upper class had, lastly came the lower
class, who were the most neglected and oppressed.
● The Mughals were generally tolerant towards minority groups. During the beginning
years of the empire, the most common example of tolerance by the Mughals was with
the Hindus, during the Mughal empire the Hindus were the majority- most Indians at the
time were Hindus, the Mughals knew this and thought that it would be smart to be
tolerant towards the Hindus. This sparked a time of peacefulness between the two
groups.
● Women were treated well in Mughal society and were allowed to do many things such as
the ability to receive salaries, own land, and participate in business.
● The Mughal’s focused largely on education- they had public works departments
dedicated to building educational institutions such as schools and colleges.
● The Mughals faced an unfortunate social problem; there was a huge gap between the
rich and the poor. The rich led happy and powerful lives, while the poor faced starvation
and oppression.
Economy of the Mughal Empire (Aijan):
● Main exports: cotton, textiles
● Main imports: raw silks, gold, ivory, precious stones, perfumes, horses and slaves; while
the main exports were textiles, spices, opium and indigo
● Trade partners: Europe and rest of Asia
● Global convergence benefits: trade with Europe and taxes levied on European
merchants
● Granted trade privileges to Europeans in exchange for naval support
● Difficulty in maintaining traditional military forces paid through land grants → decline
● Highways, bridges and rivers facilitated the movement of goods
Science and Technology Advancements in the Mughal Empire (Aijan):
● Extensive use of firearms used to expand territories → geographical change
● Good currency system → helpful for trade
● Bridges, highways, use of rivers to move goods → trade
● Islamic astronomy + Indian astronomy → invented seamless celestial globe
● Architecture, art → built Taj-Mahal
● Failed to keep up with technology → decline
Changes
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The mansab and Jagir system
Akbar’s attempt to reconcile Muslims
and Hindus
Rajputs (Hindus) part of the military
Urdu and Hindi languages
New style of architecture
New military techniques (included use
of muskets and gunpowder)
The role of the Emperor
Continuities
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Indo-Islamic civilization
Role of women in the society
Contribution of Islam to the legitimacy
system
Muslim minority ruling Hindu majority