Although Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, a Muslim who founded the Mughal Empire, made little effort to assimilate to Indian culture, his grandson Akbar forged a culture that incorporated Indian and Persian, Hindu and Muslim elements. Under him, the Mughal Empire grew to encompass most of northern and much of central India, including the Sultanate of Gujarat, the heart of a rich Indian Ocean trade. Under Aurangzeb, who attempted an Islamic revival and was largely intolerant of the Hindu population, the empire weakened as it battled the Maratha Empire for dominance over the states of seventeenth-century India.

Europeans sought to control India’s wealth. First the Portuguese attempted to establish trading posts in India while forcing out Arab and other merchants. Indian rulers and the Mamluk sultan tried to force them from India, but unsuccessfully. The Portuguese were assisted by alliances with some Indian rulers but soon found themselves competing with the English and French, who also formed alliances with Indian rulers and took advantage of their disputes with one another. As the Mughals and Marathas battled each other and the invading Afghan forces, states in northern India broke free of their rule and allied themselves instead with the British, allowing Britain to gradually consolidate its power in India.

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/2-1-india-and-international-connections

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