#1658

17th century cat. The history of four-footed beasts and serpents. 1658.

The English and Dutch East India Companies' Invasions of India

In the early 17th century, the Dutch and English East India Companies turned their eyes towards India, as part of their grand schemes to develop extensive trade networks across the Indian and China Seas. They were faced with two significant challenges: 1) gaining the favor of the Mughals who now controlled most of North India and, 2) pushing out the Portuguese who were well entrenched along the west coast.

The Mughals

By 1600, the Muslim Mughals under Akbar the Great (r. 1556–1605) ruled most of India. The Mughals had arrived on the subcontinent about the same time as the Portuguese. Akbar was a ‘workaholic’ who seldom slept more than three hours a night and personally oversaw the administration of his vast country. He built his empire by conciliating conquered rulers through marriage and diplomacy, winning him the support of even his non-Muslim subjects.

When Akbar died, Jahangir became the fourth Mughal emperor, ruling from 1605 until 1627. He was a largely ineffective leader, addicted to opium and subject to court intrigues. Under his tenure ‘the number of unproductive, timeserving officers mushroomed, as did corruption’ (Heitzman, 23). Jahangir was far less impartial than Akbar and supported mass conversions to Islam. He married a Persian princess, and his court became filled with Persian artists, scholars and writers who found asylum in the Mughal court.

Jahangir was replaced by his son, Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), who had a great passion for building, exemplified by the Taj Mahal. He also strongly supported literature, painting and calligraphy and he probably had the largest collection of jewels in the world. This opulent lifestyle was not without consequences as it greatly strapped the Mughal Empire’s economy at a time when resources were shrinking.

The last of the great Mughal leaders was Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), who took power by killing all his brothers and imprisoning his father Shah Jahan. Under Aurangzeb’s reign, the empire became the world’s largest economy, holding almost a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product, although it was at the same time failing. ‘The bureaucracy had grown bloated and excessively corrupt, and the huge and unwieldy army demonstrated outdated weaponry and tactics" (Heitzman, 24). When Aurangzeb died in 1707, the great Mughal Empire that had controlled most of India for 180 years quickly fell apart and dissolved into many smaller independent states that were picked off by the English.

source : @cheminer-poesie-cressant

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Revenir mille fois sur le spontané,

celui qui éloigne le recul, l'égalé des rêves.

Dans le coffre des jours disparaissant,

détenir avec joie les reproductions fidèles et variées,

celles qui éclairent noblement les consciences égarées.

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(Dans la portée des ombres, extrait)

© Pierre Cressant

The Little Street-Johannes Vermeer,1658