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Why did Aurangzebās long military campaigns strain the Mughal Empire?
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Mughal dynasty
Emperors (from left, seated) Jahangir, Akbar, and Shah Jahan are depicted with their ministers (foreground) and Prince Dara Shikoh in a watercolor from India, c. 1630ā40.
Aurangzebās long military campaigns significantly strained the Mughal Empire by draining imperial resources and destabilizing its administrative and economic foundations. Spending the last 25 years of his reign in the Deccan, Aurangzeb engaged in laborious and ultimately fruitless sieges against the Marathas, whose shift to guerrilla tactics prevented him from achieving a decisive victory.123
This prolonged warfare caused several critical issues:
- Economic Decline: The constant military expenditure deepened an incipient economic crisis. Financial pressure on the land, exacerbated by the need to pay mansabdars through land revenue assignments, strained the entire administrative framework.12
- Administrative Weakness: Aurangzebās prolonged absence from the north weakened his control over the rest of the empire, leading to a decay in the quality of government.12
- Widespread Rebellion: His militant policies and the reimposition of the jizya tax alienated Hindu subjects and Rajput allies. This, combined with the persecution of Sikhs and other groups, triggered widespread agrarian and regional uprisings that the empire struggled to contain.123
By the time of his death in 1707, the empire was burdened by these unresolved conflicts and internal instability.12