The Dispatches on War (Part VII)

superlatives having runout...this series is surely the greatest on CHOWK so far.

bravo Khan. You are surely the coolest dude around

Now this is what i call a real ``taup ka gola`` or cannon ball item.At last the machhar met its fate,may its soul rest in peace.
At first read it seems that the generalisation is stretched too far.It could have been made interesting by adding more specific examples from the history with proper chronological references.

#2 ukp that would make it meaningless historical shyster to read. This way the story unfolds better and is better for mass consumption. stop being such an elitist academic prat..... ;-)

Good conclusion ... but was dissapointed with first part.

I continue to be fascinated by the depth of your knowledge of European history. I hope that this series will not be buried in the arid sands of chowk.com and would find a place somewhere else also.

BTW you can say that the dominance of Europe was complete by the end of the 17th century only if you exclude India. At the end of the 17th century, Aurangzeb was still the emperor of India.

re: Dost-Mittar # 5

First of all thanks for your kind words.

As to the European dominance, I guess it would depend on how the word ``dominance`` is defined. :)

However, to answer your question; yes.

The European dominance was pretty much a reality by the end of the seventeenth century. As to India, the Mughul rule was asystemrical rule and with the arrival of the British in India, Mughul monopoly on power would be questioned and then, finally, replaced by the British. By the time, the British would arrive with the first East India Company ship docking in Surat in 1607 in western India, the Mughul rule was already in a state of over-extension.

As mentioned in one of the earlier articles in this series, Mughul in India was based on political dominace of a weak population through the Muslim state monopoly of gunpowder and the Mughul Empire, despite the brillance of its court was a pauper kingdom. Economically, it relied on a regressive form of taxation and suffered from a chronic case of financial mismanagement and corruption.

Hence, whether with India or not, the primacy of the Europeans was well established by the 1650s. :)

Ciao