Loading

History of India

India is the world's seventh-largest country by area and its most populous, a federal republic since 1950.. 5 eras, 322 BCE to today.

Maurya empire, 322–185 BCE Draft, not yet reviewed

The Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE and lasted in a loose-knit form until 185 BCE. Chandragupta Maurya defeated the Nanda dynasty and extended his rule as far west as Afghanistan and as far south as the northern Deccan. Under Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka, who ruled around 268 to 232 BCE, the empire briefly controlled the major cities and routes of the subcontinent except the deep south. After the Kalinga War, in which Ashoka's troops visited much violence on the region, he embraced Buddhism and promoted its tenets in edicts around South Asia.

Seat of power: Pataliputra

Rulers

Delhi Sultanate, 1206–1526 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Delhi Sultanate was a late medieval empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries. The sultanate was established in 1206 in the former Ghurid territories in India. The Central Asian king Timur made a devastating raid on Delhi in 1398. In 1526 Babur invaded northern India and conquered the sultanate, leading to its succession by the Mughal Empire.

Seat of power: Delhi

Rulers

Mughal Empire, 1526–1857 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. It is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley in Central Asia, who defeated the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, in the First Battle of Panipat. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India. Reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1760, the empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Seat of power: Lahore

Rulers

British Raj, 1858–1947 Draft, not yet reviewed

The British Raj was the period of rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, lasting from 1858 to 1947. The system was instituted on 28 June 1858, when, after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria. It included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, called British India, and areas ruled by indigenous rulers under British paramountcy, called the princely states. It lasted until 1947, when it was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states, the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.

Seat of power: Kolkata

Rulers

Republic of India, 1947 to today Draft, not yet reviewed

In 1947 the British Indian Empire was partitioned into the independent dominions of a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. The partition brought large-scale loss of life and unprecedented migration. The Constitution of India was adopted in 1950 and declared India to be a federal republic governed through a democratic parliamentary system. Economic reforms of the 1990s integrated India's economy with the world's.

Seat of power: New Delhi

Rulers

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.