Editing Bengal (section)

===Mughal period===
{{See also|Bengal Subah}}
[[File:Akbar prays after Bengal victory.jpg|thumb|[[Mughal painting]] showing [[Emperor Akbar]] offering prayers after the conquest of Bengal]]

[[File:Royal Peacock Barge LACMA M.82.154.jpg|thumb|Art of [[Murshidabad]]. An [[ivory]] [[elephant tusk]] crafted into a model of the Royal Peacock Barge of the [[Nawab of Bengal]]]]
[[Mughal Bengal]] had the richest elite and was the wealthiest region in the subcontinent. Bengal's trade and wealth impressed the Mughals so much that it was described as the ''Paradise of the Nations'' by the [[Mughal Emperor]]s.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Collection of Treaties and Engagements with the Native Princes and States of Asia: Concluded on Behalf of the East India Company by the British Governments in India, Viz. by the Government of Bengal Etc. : Also Copies of Sunnuds Or Grants of Certain Privileges and Imunities to the East India Company by the Mogul and Other Native Princes of Hindustan |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_J_1RAAAAcAAJ |access-date=23 August 2013 |year=1812 |publisher=United East-India Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_J_1RAAAAcAAJ/page/n55 28]}}</ref> A new provincial capital was built in [[Dhaka]]. Members of the imperial family were appointed to positions in Mughal Bengal, including the position of governor (''[[subedar]]''). Dhaka became a centre of palace intrigue and politics. Some of the most prominent governors included [[Rajput]] general [[Man Singh I]], Emperor [[Shah Jahan]]'s son Prince [[Shah Shuja (Mughal prince)|Shah Shuja]], Emperor [[Aurangzeb]]'s son and later Mughal emperor [[Muhammad Azam Shah|Azam Shah]], and the influential aristocrat [[Shaista Khan]]. During the tenure of Shaista Khan, the Portuguese and Arakanese were expelled from the port of Chittagong in 1666. Bengal became the eastern frontier of the Mughal administration. By the 18th century, Bengal became home to a semi-independent aristocracy led by the [[Nawabs of Bengal]].<ref name="google7">{{cite book |title=A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century |author=Ahmed, F. S. |date=2011 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=9788131732021 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC |access-date=7 January 2017}}</ref> Bengal premier [[Murshid Quli Khan]] managed to curtail the influence of the governor due to his rivalry with Prince Azam Shah. Khan controlled Bengal's finances since he was in charge of the treasury. He shifted the provincial capital from Dhaka to [[Murshidabad]].

In 1717, the Mughal court in Delhi recognised the hereditary monarchy of the Nawab of Bengal. The ruler was officially titled as the "Nawab of Bengal, [[Bihar]] and [[Orissa]]", as the Nawab ruled over the three regions in the eastern subcontinent. The Nawabs began issuing their own coins but continued to pledge nominal allegiance to the Mughal emperor. The wealth of Bengal was vital for the Mughal court because Delhi received its biggest share of revenue from the Nawab's court. The Nawabs presided over a period of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, including an era of growing organisation in textiles, banking, a military-industrial complex, the production of fine quality [[handicrafts]], and other trades. A process of [[proto-industrialisation]] was underway. Under the Nawabs, the streets of Bengali cities were filled with brokers, workers, peons, naibs, wakils, and ordinary traders.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Murshidabad |title=Murshidabad |website=Banglapedia}}</ref> The Nawab's state was a major exporter of [[muslin trade in Bengal|Bengal muslin]], silk, [[gunpowder]] and [[saltpetre]]. The Nawabs also permitted European trading companies to operate in Bengal, including the [[British East India Company]], the [[John Law's Company|French East India Company]], the [[Danish East India Company]], the [[Austrian East India Company]], the [[Ostend Company]], and the [[Dutch East India Company]]. The Nawabs were also suspicious of the growing influence of these companies.
[[File:Krishna traveling to Mathura (Bengal painting).jpg|thumb|Bengali manuscript painting, 17th century.]]

Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a centre of the worldwide [[muslin]] and silk trades. During the Mughal era, the most important centre of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such as Central Asia.<ref name="eaton">Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 ''The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760'', page 202], [[University of California Press]]</ref> Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks and opium; Bengal accounted for 40% of [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch]] imports from Asia, for example, including more than 50% of textiles and around 80% of silks.<ref name="Prakash">[[Om Prakash (historian)|Om Prakash]], "[http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3447600139/WHIC?u=seat24826&xid=6b597320 Empire, Mughal]", ''History of World Trade Since 1450'', edited by [[John J. McCusker]], vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237–240, ''World History in Context''. Retrieved 3 August 2017</ref> From Bengal, saltpetre was also shipped to Europe, opium was sold in [[Indonesia]], raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands, cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia, and Japan,<ref name="richards95">[[John F. Richards]] (1995), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA202 ''The Mughal Empire'', page 202], [[Cambridge University Press]]</ref> cotton cloth was exported to the Americas and the Indian Ocean.<ref name="riello">{{cite book |title=How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500–1850 |author=Giorgio Riello, Tirthankar Roy |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] | year=2009 |page=174 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=niuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA174|isbn=9789047429975 }}</ref> Bengal also had a large [[shipbuilding]] industry. In terms of shipbuilding tonnage during the 16th–18th centuries, economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates the annual output of Bengal at 223,250 tons, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771.<ref name="ray174">{{cite book |last=Ray |first=Indrajit |year=2011 |title=Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757–1857) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA174 |publisher=Routledge |page=174 |isbn=978-1-136-82552-1}}</ref>

Since the 16th century, European traders traversed the sea routes to Bengal, following the Portuguese conquests of Malacca and Goa. The Portuguese established a [[Portuguese Chittagong|settlement in Chittagong]] with permission from the Bengal Sultanate in 1528 but were later expelled by the Mughals in 1666. In the 18th-century, the Mughal Court rapidly disintegrated due to [[Nader Shah's invasion of India|Nader Shah's invasion]] and internal rebellions, allowing European colonial powers to set up trading posts across the territory. The British East India Company eventually emerged as the foremost military power in the region; and defeated the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the [[Battle of Plassey]] in 1757.<ref name="google7" />