The Maratha Confederacy (1674-1818) was a confederation of Hindu yeoman warrior groups from southern India that eventually brought down the Mughal Empire of northern India. Its capital was Satara, Bijapur.
History[]
The Marathas from Maharashtra were a caste of peasants, landowners, and soldiers, making up the Third Estate of Indian society. Leader Shivaji established a Hindu state in southern India through warfare with Aurangzeb, Emperor of the powerful Mughal Empire, which was of Muslim beliefs. The rebellion of Shivaji Maharaj became a long war between the Hindu Marathas and Muslim Mughals that lasted into the 18th century, and the Kingdom of Carnatica, Kingdom of Bijapur, and Kingdom of Maharashtra united to form a confederacy.
Marathas in 1703
Marathas in 1705
Tarabai I, Queen of the Marathas, fought Emperor Aurangzeb in the Deccan Wars in the early 1700s, and her rule saw the conquest of most of India as well as the opening of the Marathas to trade with France, Prussia, the Ottoman Empire, United Provinces, Great Britain, Mysore, and Russia, all foreign powers that were strong in prestiege and armies. In 1702, the Marathas expelled the Portuguese from Goa and were able to establish their own trading region. They proceeded to launch a series of offensives against the Mughals, driving them far up into northern India. Soon, Russian and British merchants arrived in Barcelor in the Goa region and sold their goods, and the Marathas made their profit mainly from the tea trade; their army upkeep overshadowed their tax income. By 1703, the confederacy had 17,339,848 people, one of the most populous empires on Earth (behind China).
In the next two years, the Marathas rapidly conquered most of the holdouts in India, many of them poorly-guarded. Sultan Ahmad I, the successor of the deceased Aurangzeb (d. 1703), was feeble and had odious ministers. Yet the Hindu population of his country were aligned under him, so the Marathas had to slow their advance to keep garrisons inside of their cities.
In 1710, after years of capturing Mughal cities, the Marathas finally finished their conquest of India (except for Dutch Ceylon and Mysore) and were able to focus on expanding their trade and consolidating their empire. For years, their scholars researched new technology and they built new upgrades to smaller buildings to increase the production of their buildings. They sent trade fleets to the East Indies and built up their empire's cities and towns, and could harbor over 74 million people of various cultures and races. By 1729, the Maratha Confederacy grew to 87,271,952 people, with around 30,000,000 of them living in the region of Bengal alone.
The Maratha Confederacy conquered Mysore in the 1730s as their technology increased, and they gained more resources in this annexation. In 1738-39 they also captured Afghanistan and Baluchistan from the Persian Empire, adding more regions to their empire. However, clamor for reform and against industrialization led to many rebellions; by 1740, two rebellions had occurred in Sindh (one of them captured the capital of Neroon Kot but was later put down) and Orissa & Circars each, in addition to one nationalist anti-Hindu revolt in Afghanistan. The small madrassa at Kandahar was burnt to the ground by rebels in racist attacks in 1738, but it was later repaired.
Culture[]
Prestige levels in 1708
Prestige in 1717
The Maratha Confederacy was a mix of Hindu and Muslim cultures, later adding Buddhism and Sikhism to their cultures. In the Hindu parts of India the people were forbidden from eating cows, regarded as sacred; the Muslims could not eat pig. Some Buddhist areas made sunrise to noon the hours for eating and alcohol could not be consumed; some extreme cases included the prohibition of beauty products, dancing, music, and singing, sleeping in bedding, and refusing to accept gold and silver.
The Marathas' cuisine revolved around rice, which was grown in almost every region. Utilizing spice for their cuisine, key proponents of food were chicken curry and kulcha bread. Tea was a valuable resource, so it became a popular drink as it was grown nearly exclusively in India.
Because of the high military upkeep, the Marathas relied upon foreign trade to make money. They had brokered trade agreements with Great Britain and Russia in 1702 after taking the port of Barcelor from Portugal, and opened up to new powers such as Denmark, Venice, and Spain later on. Their prestige was based solely on military power initially, but when they conquered the Mughal Empire, they could focus on economic, economical, industrial, and enlightenment prestige as well.
The Marathas found themselves in a religious problem with their 1738-39 conquests of Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with the Afghans initially refusing to leave their religion of Islam to become Hindus. Baluchistan gained a small following and an increase in followers of Hinduism, but the two regions were mainly populated by Baluch and Afghan Muslims.
Growth and Development[]
Since India was a fertile land with plentiful amounts of rice and jobs, the population could be in the tens of millions. In winter 1705, there were 40,771,824 people living under the Maratha Confederacy, rising to over 79,471,024 in 1723. In 1729, there were 87,271,952 people living in India, a change of over 7,800,000 people within six years. The conquest of new regions added to the amount of people in the empire, as well as the many resources and wealth that the people had. The empire was a mix of primarily Hindus and Muslims, but in Bengal there was a population of around 20% Buddhists and in the northwest there were Sikhs in Kashmir, Punjab, and other northern regions.
The Marathas branched out in trade after taking Goa from the Portuguese in 1702, and in 1723 made trade agreements with France, Savoy, United Provinces, Great Britain, Mysore, Poland-Lithuania, Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Sweden, Venice, Persia, Russia, Barbary States, and Genoa.
