Question

1. Why were the Mughals not threatened by the Europeans dominating the seas?

Answer 1

Answer:

When Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty conquered northern India in 1526, the wealth of the country already largely depended on foreign trade, exporting India's enormous production of many types of commodities,[1] in particular textiles. These left India by land and by sea, the latter in relatively small ships making relatively short voyages from the east and west coasts, as they had done for centuries.[2] But political changes in the lands between Europe and India meant that Indian exports to Europe were probably much less than at the peak of the Roman Empire.

Contents

1 Premises of the Mughal empire for the trade

2 Premises of Western Europe for the trade

3 The need for alcohol established the first trading contacts

4 The implementation of trade on the local level in India and the various trading posts

5 The detrimental outcomes of the trade on the Mughal empire

6 References

Premises of the Mughal empire for the trade

Portrait of a European painted by Mughal artists, Ca.1590

Contact between Western Europe and the Mughal empire was put into practice in the very beginning of the 17th century. The Portuguese, English, and later on, the Dutch were the ones to trade with the Mughal empire. As the first Islamic power on the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal empire was more interested in assimilating the land, studying the history, customs and religion of the people occupying this area, and communicating with the other two Islamic empires – the Saffavid and the Ottoman Empires. The Mughal empire was blessed with very strong leaders, however, very different in approach and strategy. Akbar was known for his tolerance towards unorthodox Muslims and Hindus. The Akbarnama, a book written by Abu’l Fazl on the life and rule of Akbar, gives a lot of evidence on how Hinduism was viewed and explained by the Muslims. Along with being tolerant towards his Hindu and Muslim subjects, Akbar welcomed Portuguese Jesuits, which allowed Portugal to enter the trade with Indian goods. At the very end of his rule, the British, Dutch, and Portuguese started to trade with the Mughal empire as well. Even though the trade started during the reign of Akbar the Great, his son Jahangir was the one to strengthen this economic activity in the Indian subcontinent.

Explanation: