Editing History of Asia (section)

=== India ===
{{Main|Mughal Empire|Maratha Confederacy}}
[[File:Shah Abbas the Great receiving the Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618.jpg|thumb|The [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618 negotiating with [[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas the Great]] of [[Safavid dynasty|Iran]]. ]]
In the [[Indian subcontinent]], the Mughal Empire ruled most of India in the early 18th century. During emperor [[Shah Jahan]] and his son [[Aurangzeb]]'s Islamic [[sharia]] reigns, the empire reached its architectural and economic zenith, and became the world's largest economy,<ref>[[Angus Maddison|Maddison, Angus]] (2003): ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=rHJGz3HiJbcC&pg=PA259 Development Centre Studies The World Economy Historical Statistics: Historical Statistics]'', [[OECD Publishing]], {{ISBN|9264104143}}, pages 259–261</ref> worth over 25% of world GDP. In the mid-18th century it was a major [[proto-industrialization|proto-industrializing]] region.<ref name="voss">{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Tirthankar |author-link=Tirthankar Roy |editor1=Lex Heerma van Voss |editor2=Els Hiemstra-Kuperus |editor3=Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk |year=2010 |chapter=The Long Globalization and Textile Producers in India |title=The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650–2000 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |page=255 |isbn=978-0-7546-6428-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f95ljbhfjxIC&pg=PA255}}</ref>

Following major events such as the [[Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire]], [[Battle of Plassey]], [[Battle of Buxar]] and the long [[Anglo-Mysore Wars]], most of South Asia was colonised and governed by the [[British Empire]], thus establishing the [[British Raj]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130704144023/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 4, 2013|title=Manas: History and Politics, Mughals}}</ref> The "classic period" ended with the death of [[Mughal Empire|Mughal Emperor]] [[Aurangzeb]],<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|title=Mughal Empire (1500s, 1600s)|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml|work=bbc.co.uk|publisher=BBC|access-date=18 October 2010|location=London|at=Section 5: Aurangzeb}}</ref> although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Empire was located in the south west of present-day India and expanded greatly under the rule of the [[Peshwa]]s, the prime ministers of the Maratha empire. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the [[Third Battle of Panipat]] against [[Ahmad Shah Durrani|Ahmad shah Durrani king of Afghanistan]] which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederacy of Maratha states.