ASKiIMAN™ MEDIEVAL / HISTORY
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Foreign Invasions

Realm 105: The Shattered Gates, The Stolen Throne, and The Qatl-e-Aam

WORLD O — 18TH CENTURY & MARATHA SUPREMACY

MICRO-REALM 01

Northwestern Collapse

  • Decades of factionalism severely weakened frontier defenses.
  • Kabul and Kandahar governors left unpaid and unsupported.
  • Intelligence networks identifying foreign threats completely failed.
  • Left the traditional invasion route into India wide open.
MICRO-REALM 02

Nadir Shah

  • Rose from a shepherd/bandit to Emperor of Persia (Iran).
  • Founded the Afsharid dynasty, expelling the Afghans.
  • A military genius, often called the "Napoleon of Persia".
  • Invaded India primarily to fund his wars against the Ottomans.
MICRO-REALM 03

Battle of Karnal (1739)

  • Fought just 110 km north of Delhi.
  • Mughal army of ~300,000 crushed by Nadir's ~80,000.
  • Persians used highly mobile camel-mounted swivel guns (Zamburaks).
  • Battle lasted barely three hours; Mughal commanders divided.
MICRO-REALM 04

The Sack of Delhi

  • A rumor of Nadir's death led locals to attack Persian soldiers.
  • Nadir ordered a general massacre (Qatl-e-Aam) in retaliation.
  • Between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians slaughtered in one day.
  • Nadir watched the carnage from the Sunehri Masjid.
MICRO-REALM 05

The Great Loot

  • Extracted an estimated 700 million rupees in wealth.
  • Carried away Shah Jahan's legendary Peacock Throne.
  • Looted the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor diamonds.
  • Persian taxation was suspended for three years due to this plunder.
MICRO-REALM 06

Ahmad Shah Abdali

  • Former general in Nadir Shah's army.
  • Elected King of the Afghans after Nadir's assassination (1747).
  • Founded the Durrani Empire (Durr-i-Durrani: Pearl of Pearls).
  • Shifted Afghan focus eastward towards India.
MICRO-REALM 07

Repeated Invasions

  • Abdali invaded India eight times between 1748 and 1767.
  • Primarily massive raiding expeditions for wealth, not conquest.
  • Sacked Delhi again in 1757, leaving it utterly ruined.
  • Annexed Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir to the Afghan empire.
MICRO-REALM 08

Devastation of Punjab

  • Sikh Misls waged relentless guerrilla warfare against Afghans.
  • Abdali blew up the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) multiple times.
  • Vadda Ghalughara (The Great Holocaust, 1762): ~25,000 Sikhs killed.
  • Sikhs ultimately drove the Afghans out of Punjab.
MICRO-REALM 09

The Maratha Clash

  • Marathas had expanded into Punjab by 1758, challenging Abdali.
  • Abdali formed a coalition of Rohillas and Awadh to stop them.
  • Set the stage for the climactic Third Battle of Panipat (1761).
  • A contest for supreme mastery of North India.
MICRO-REALM 10

The Pensioner Emperor

  • Invasions destroyed the last vestiges of Mughal military prestige.
  • Mughal emperor Shah Alam II became a wandering fugitive.
  • Eventually blinded and reduced to a pensioner of the Marathas, then the British.
  • The empire existed only as a legal fiction.