A History of India, Third Edition

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

defeat by Humayun, was an isolated incident. Once Akbar had
reconquered Gujarat in 1574 and had incorporated it into the Mughal
empire, there was no repetition of Portuguese intervention: the Portuguese
even had to leave their trading post at Hugli when Akbar drove them out
of it. He made no further moves against them, although he did send a
message to Shah Abbas of Persia—who doubted Akbar’s faith in Islam—
that they should make common cause against the Portuguese infidels.
As traders the Portuguese were generally well received by the Indian
rulers who granted them the same rights as they did to other merchants but
nevertheless disliked their monopsonistic practices. Therefore the
appearance of European competitors in the ports of the Indian Ocean was
also welcomed, because these newcomers could be played off against the
Portuguese. Their potential for intervention in the affairs of the
landpowers was underrated: a century of experience of the Portuguese
seemed to have shown that these Europeans stuck to the sea and would not
be able to do much on land. Actually, a military expedition into the
interior of the country was in any case highly unlikely, because the
monsoon brought the ships to the Indian shores only during a few months
of the year and thus the supply lines would be cut quickly by nature itself.
Indeed, it was only later, when the Europeans trained Indian mercenaries
whom they paid with money brought to India by their ships, that their
potential for intervention increased by leaps and bounds.
The Portuguese remained satisfied with strongholds on the coast and
never made the sort of daring expedition into the interior of India as had
prompted their unfortunate young King Sebastian in Morocco, so causing
his death on the battlefield of Kasr-al-Kabir in 1578. It seems that the
future of Portugal died with Sebastian on that battlefield. The great drive
of the Portuguese to rule the seas was broken; they now merely clung on to
what they had gained.

The rise of Dutch and British seapower

At about the same time as the future of the Portuguese began to wane the
future of the Dutch emerged under most adverse circumstances. The union
of the seven Dutch provinces was accomplished in 1579 and in the midst of
their freedom struggle against their Spanish overlords, who were by then
also ruling Portugal, the Dutch dared to invade the Indian Ocean in such a
big way that the earlier Portuguese achievements were immediately
dwarfed by their success. Several favourable preconditions accounted for
this Dutch success. The Dutch had a good educational system and had
made much headway in science and technology. This enabled them to
acquire nautical information from the Portuguese and to improve upon it
in many ways. Although they themselves were later to prove quite secretive
about their nautical knowledge, they were past masters at collecting useful