Why did only the Mughal Empire among the empires founded by the Mongols last for centuries?

In the history of India since the Middle Ages, the Mughal dynasty or the Mughal empire held the most important position, with its 332 years of statehood, constituting a grand Mughal era, with the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra and Tusil Das's rewriting of the Ramayana almost as a sign of a heydays of prosperity and constituting a uniquely Mughal color and artistic temperament.

Meanwhile, most of the historical legacies, cultural elements and state institutions inherited by modern India and other countries also come from the Mughal operations. When the Mughals were in their heyday, their territory spanned the South Asian subcontinent and Afghanistan, with a total area of more than 4.5 million square kilometers and a population of about 150 million. Moreover, heroes and heroines emerged, such as Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and other famous emperors.

Babur, a descendant of the Turkicized Mongol Timur, after the fall of the Timurid empire, successively led his troops westward and southward, and entered and occupied Kabul, Samarkand, Bukhara, etc. On April 21, 1526, he annihilated the Delhi Sultanate which had accumulated a great deal of evils and conquered the north of India, divided and united the coalition of lords and established the Moghul empire.1528, in the Battle of Bihar. heavy defeat of the Afghan coalition removed the greatest obstacle.

It can be seen that Babur was a warlike and heroic founding emperor, south and north, in 1530 before his death, basically laid the basic territory of the Mughal Empire: from the east of the Gobindra River, west to the Amu Darya River, from the south of the Gwalior, the north of the Himalayas, the capital successively set in Lahore, Delhi, Agra, Khanabad and other places. After the second generation of Emperor Humayun and the third generation of Emperor Akbar's strategy, the Mughal Empire reached its heyday, basically completed the unification of India's historical mission, and the era of Shah Jahan's rule is the peak of the Mughal Empire, and then stepped into decline.

The Mughal Empire adhered to the policy of religious tolerance and commercial development, and adopted the model of "ruling the natives by the natives", liaising with the rich landowners, reforming the tax system, setting up imperial communication posts, and repairing the main arteries, so cities such as Kabul, Agra, and Kannu rose rapidly, and their territories were soon expanded to Bengal, Bihar, and Malawar. The cities such as Kabul, Agra and Kannu rose rapidly, and their territories soon expanded to Bengal, Bihar and Marawah, and were subjugated on all sides.

With the continuous progress of productivity and the gradual enrichment of material life, the aristocrats were inclined to luxury, and all kinds of consumer goods from the East and the West kept appearing, and the art of architecture integrated several styles from India, Persia, Turkey and other places. At the same time, due to the pluralism of the Mughal royal family's origin and culture, the upper class of the empire mainly practiced Islam, while the middle class was mostly Hindu. Meanwhile, Persian was the representative language in social interactions and mainstream figures, a more culturally complex synthesis.

The third emperor of the Mughal Empire, Akbar, was a man of great talent. He ascended to the throne at the age of 15 and, relying on the assistance of Bajram Khan, established a centralized government, combining political, military, economic, legal, and religious powers, setting up councils of ministers, dividing up military territories, and developing a powerful military combination of light infantry + war elephants + artillery + cavalry. Following this, he eliminated the rebel forces around him, attacked Mewar, subdued the tribes, ordered his relatives to retire, and took over the power himself.

In order to minimize religious infighting, he declared all faiths to be equal, improved customs, and softened heretics. At that time, the Mughal land conflicts were prominent, so he implemented the policy of clearing and redistributing land, further standardized weights and measures, and encouraged agricultural and handicraft production.

In order to safeguard the finances of the empire, Akbar divided the empire into 182 tax districts, sent officials to strictly manage them, and clearly defined the Mansabdar (rank), but prohibited the hereditary bureaucrats. Not only that, after the Mughal situation was stabilized, the country was divided into 15 Subahs (provinces), namely Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Allahabad, Awadh, Agra, Marawah, Kandesh, Berar, Gujarat, Ajmer, Multan, Delhi, Lahore, and Kabul. It is clear that the diverse initiatives contributed to the improvement of the administrative system of the Mughal Empire and also developed the economy.

The later Mughal emperors, such as Shah Jahan, were very ambitious and built up the empire, and their internal policies were harsh, with religious taxes, while externally they made poor decisions and deployments, and there were constant wars, and internal strife within the Mughal empire, with the Battle of Kandahar alone being a huge costly endeavor. In the process of conquering Ahmednagar, Gokanda and Bijapur, the financial pressure increased and it was difficult to support.

Emperor Aurangzeb, the famously long-lived emperor, was known for his extremist tactics, claiming to be the "master of the world", his cruelty and suspicion, his destruction of icons, his enforced suppression of non-Islamic believers, and the politics of coolies.

The Mughal empire's control slowly declined as a result of these multiple forces, and the state apparatus was gradually replaced by local lords and warlords, with local governors becoming more powerful and in de facto control, and a new class of aristocrats being formed on top of the military regime. Religious, ethnic, caste, and regional conflicts intensified due to differences in their respective cultures.

The era of great unity became a thing of the past and doomed the Mughals to collapse. There was also an important factor, due to the chaotic system of succession to the throne, too many coups in the later period, such as the mutiny of Aurangzeb imprisoned his father before he became the monarch of the empire, and such hidden dangers led to more decline of the empire organism.

After the first half of the 19th century, Britain accelerated the pace of global expansion and entered the Oriental society, and the Britons' power in India surged. Indeed, Aurangzeb's reign came at a time when the empire was already scorched and torn apart, with the rise of nomadic Afghan armies, Sikhs and Marathas threatening the internal Mughal order, and with the likes of Bahadur Shah II essentially counted as puppets, the empire existed in name only.

Most importantly, the colonial activities of the British, pulling in the powerful and huge merchants to divide and rule, and the non-submissive areas were broken up one by one, and in 1858 the Mughal Empire was overthrown and became one of the British Commonwealth Sequence, with Queen Victoria becoming the nominal Empress of India, while India itself was governed by a Viceroy. After the British came east, the Mughal Empire was eventually completely colonized by the mighty ships and artillery, despite many revolts by the Mughal population. All in all, the 300-year history of the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire, which was also a crucial period in India's leap from the classical era to modern society, is full of historical charm and sadness.