Empires
Mauryan Empire:
The Mughal Empire in India
Early History of the Mughals
- Chandragupta Mauryan was a military leader.
- The empire began when Chandragupta killed the Nanda king and claimed the throne.
- He defeated one of Alexander the Great's generals, Seleucus, took over his empire and united North India.
- He raised a very big and strong army.
- Chandragupta aided the government by raising the taxes.
- He divided the empire into four providence, which each were ruled by a prince.
- Each providence was divided into local districts that each had a different taxes and laws.
- Magasthens, an emperor appointed by Seleucusto, kept peace with emperor, went to Chandragupta's capital.
- He described the architecture and the community to Seleucusto.
- Chandragupta's son, Asoka, took the throne after him.
- He followed in his father's footsteps of using war to expand his empire.
- Asoka felt sorrow for wars so he started to study Buddhism then decided to rule with peace and treat everyone fairly.
- He had religious tolerance, which is the acceptance of people who held different religion beliefs.
- Asoka built better roads to visit far places in India, he made it better for officials, and improved the communication but his system failed to hold up the empire after his death.
- After Asoka's death, the kingdom in central India regained independence.
- Andhra, the central dynasty, took over the most because of its location and profited from trade between the north and the south.
- North Indian had a flood of people who fled from other Asian countries.
- Those people disrupted the society, yet brought other languages.
- Chandra Gupta started the Gupta Empire. (He is not the Chandragupta).
- He came to power by marry in a daughter of a royal family.
- After Chandra Gupta, his son, Samurda Gupta, took over.
- The majority of the people were farmers.
- The city was were all the craftsmen and merchants came together.
- Drought was common during this empire and every family member helped out.
- A larger part of the families' profit went to taxes.
- Southern Indian house holds were matriarchal meaning that the mother lead the family and the inheritance was passed down through the female family members.
- Chandra Gupta II added coastal territory which lead to better trade with Mediterranean countries.
- After his death, invaders threatened North India
- The empire broke up into small kingdoms then it ended.
The Mughal Empire in India
Early History of the Mughals
- Sultan Mahmud led Turkish armies across India and weakened the region.
- Thirty-three sultans ruled between the 13th century and the 16th century and divided the territory.
- In the 16th-century the empire was unified again by Babur.
- Babur came into power when he was 11-years old in 1494 in the region that is now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and created the foundation for the Mughal Empire.
- Akbar recognized military power as the root of his strength and was very tolerant about religions.
- Akbar let people practice any religion freely
- Akbar was a fair ruler, except for his distribution of land.
- He collected the land of an official after they have died and redistributed it as he saw fit. This meant the children of the officials didn't benefit from their parents' work.
- Akbar's son, Jahangir held a powerful grasp on India.
- Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan was a very intelligent politician, who held most of the power and Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan was his successor.
- Shah Jahan assassinated all of his possible rivals.
- After Shah Jahan's wife, Mumtaz Mahal died, he built the Taj Mahal, a beautiful tomb made with marble and jewels, in her honor.
- Conditions became worse for the people of India under Shah Jahan; Many died of famine and farmers had many hardships.
- Shah Jahan's third son, Aurangzeb took control after his death and was a master of military.
- Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal to it's greatest size, weakening it at the same time and oppressed his people.
- Aurangzeb drained the empire of it's resources.
- Over two million people died of famine.
- Western traders built their own power in the region.
- Portuguese people were the first to reach India