Mughal Empire Timeline

Akbar, born Jalal-ud-din Muhammad, was born at Umarkot Fort to Humayun and his wife Hamida Banu Begum, a Persian princess. He would go on to become one of the greatest Mughal emperors, reigning from 1556 to 1605.

Image source: Akbar

Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) consolidated the empire and built the Mughal imperial structure, sometimes dated to around 1600 under his rule. His reign marked a golden age of expansion, administration, and cultural synthesis.

Jahangir, born Salim, was born to Akbar and his wife Mariam-uz-Zamani, an Indian princess. He would reign as emperor from 1605 to 1627, continuing the empire's prosperity.

Shah Jahan was born to Jahangir and his wife Jagat Gosain. He would reign from 1628 to 1658, an era remembered for architectural magnificence including the Taj Mahal.

Image source: Shah Jahan

Jahangir (reigned 1605–1627) presided over a period of relative peace and economic expansion, maintaining the administrative structures and cultural patronage established by his father Akbar.

Image source: Jahangir

Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658) presided over the height of Mughal architecture and courtly splendor. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century contributed significantly to India's economic expansion.

The Bengal Subah province came under Mughal control in 1590 and became especially prosperous, remaining so until the British East India Company seized control in 1757.

Image source: Bengal Subah

Around 1595, modern historians estimated the Mughal Empire's annual state revenues at approximately 99,000,000 rupees, reflecting the enormous wealth generated by its agrarian and commercial economy.

Under Akbar's reign in 1600, the Mughal Empire's urban population reached up to 17 million people, about 15% of the empire's total population—larger than the entire urban population of Europe at the time.

Geared sugar rolling mills first appeared in Mughal India by the 17th century, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing—an early example of mechanized industry.

By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators began extensively growing two new crops from the Americas, maize and tobacco, diversifying agriculture and boosting rural incomes.

Up until 1750, India produced about 25% of the world's industrial output, accounting for 24.5% of global manufacturing—a testament to the scale of the subcontinent's economy even amid political decline.

Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal Dara Shikoh, became regent in 1658 as a result of his father's illness, setting off a bitter war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons.

Image source: Dara Shikoh

With the support of Islamic orthodoxy, Aurangzeb, a younger son of Shah Jahan, seized the throne in 1658, beginning a reign that would see the empire reach both its greatest extent and the onset of its decline.

Image source: Aurangzeb

Although Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness, Aurangzeb kept him imprisoned until he died in 1666, ending the life of one of the Mughal Empire's most celebrated rulers.

Aurangzeb defeated his brother Dara Shikoh in 1659 and had him executed, eliminating his chief rival for the throne and consolidating his hold on power.

Aurangzeb led campaigns from 1682 in the Deccan, annexing the remaining Muslim powers of Bijapur and Golconda. The prolonged conflict in the region had a ruinous effect on the empire and stretched it to its maximum geographical extent.

After Aurangzeb died in 1707, historians have offered numerous accounts of the factors involved in the rapid collapse of the empire between 1707 and 1720. The Mughal imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the death of this last major emperor.

However, after Aurangzeb's successor died in 1712, the Mughal dynasty began to sink into chaos and violent feuds, accelerating the fragmentation of imperial authority.

After 150 years of rule by Mughal viceroys, Bengal gained de facto independence as a dominion under Murshid Quli Khan, the first Nawab of Bengal, in 1717.

Image source: Nawabs of Bengal

After the execution of Emperor Farrukhsiyar in 1719, local Mughal successor states took power region after region, marking the effective end of centralized Mughal authority.

Image source: Farrukhsiyar

In 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne as figureheads under the Sadaat-e-Bara nobles. Their leaders, the Sayyid Brothers, became the de facto sovereigns of the empire.

Image source: Sayyid brothers

During the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719–1748), the empire began to break up, and vast tracts of central India passed from Mughal to Maratha hands.

Image source: Muhammad Shah

The British East India Company seized control of the Bengal Subah in 1757, ending centuries of Mughal-era prosperity in the region and beginning direct colonial intervention in India.

Reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1760, the once-vast Mughal Empire retained only nominal authority over the remnants of its former dominions.

Delhi was sacked by the Afghans, and when the Third Battle of Panipat was fought between the Maratha Empire and the Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1761, the victorious Afghans left Emperor Shah Alam II having ignominiously taken temporary refuge with the British to the east.

In 1771, the Marathas recaptured Delhi from the Rohillas, reasserting their influence over the former imperial capital and further diminishing Mughal autonomy.

Image source: Maratha Empire

In 1784, the Marathas officially became the protectors of the Mughal emperor in Delhi, a state of affairs that continued until the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

The British East India Company took control of the former Mughal province of Bengal-Bihar in 1793 after abolishing local rule (Nizamat), marking the beginning of the British colonial era over the Indian subcontinent, which lasted until 1858.

Image source: Company rule in India

By 1857, a considerable part of former Mughal India was under East India Company control. The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, nominally led the rebellion, but after a crushing defeat the uprising was suppressed.

Image source: Indian Rebellion of 1857

After the crushing defeat in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Bahadur Shah Zafar was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858 to Rangoon, Burma, formally dissolving the Mughal Empire under the British Raj.

Image source: Bahadur Shah Zafar