Thats an undisputed fact...but my OP was asking a different question..
Can Mughal Empire be regarded as superpower like Rome and Persia? It certainly seems to have all the ingredients..
It was a greater power than the "greatpower" definition...
I wonder what @
AUSTERLITZ has to say about OP and this ..
The mughals were economically a superpower in every sense of the word,Right up there with rome,ming china,persia etc.
But the reason the mughals are traditionally not counted among the 'best' superpowers was their military machine.
Mughal military machine was always somewhat obsolete in technology compared to its contemporaries and had no power projection capability beyond the subcontinent.They also had no naval ability and were bullied often by small european forces towards the end.
As for land,in the begiunning-It was lean,fast and mean,under babur but small.But while babur's army was superior in tech and ferocity to those in india in central asia and beyond where the ottomans reigned,compared to that it was hardly anything and its vaunted arty new in india, no advantage.Situation declined under humayun slightly.
It reached its peak power and efficiency under akbar,the army became massive and was well drilled due to akbar's obsession with drilling.
But from around jahangir's time military efficiency began to fall off,drilling,corrupt mansabdars,obsolete artillery[in regards to rest of world],shah jahan and aurangzeb's armies were overbloated inefficient machines.
Its infantry was mostly rabble.All european travellers testify to this and have shown total disdain for them..no training,drilling[after akbar's time],no discipline,low pay,no uniforms,logistics or same weaponry.All carried their families with them.Infantry held lowest prestige.They made up the numbers and if the cavalry was succeeding they would rush forward,if it failed they would flee.Morale was nonexistent after shahjahan's time.
Mughal artillery was the best in the subcontinent and primary cause of many mughal victories over indigineous forces who had no arty or very few.But while it was the terror of subcontinent,outside it it was somewhat obsolete.Shahjahan's central asian campaign was massive disaster..both jahangir and shahjahn.aurangzeb[as general] with massive numbers of forces outnumbering safavids couldn't take the simple fort of kandahar as their artillery was ineffective compared to safavids.So while mughal artillery remained master of the field well into 1730s till time of bahadur shah,it was nothing to brag about outside india.
Cavalry was the strike arm of the mughal army....
elephants were used until akbar with good results.After that they became obsolete due to gunpoweder proliferation and cost and were relegated to mobile command centres.
The cavalry was prestigious,well paid and well equipped.
The baburid cavalry was superb,excellent archers and ferocious.When the empire expanded,They drew contingents from the pashtuns and other tribes plus most of the nobility.From time of akbar the excellent rajput cavalry was also available.
But as the empire grew bigger and wealthier,they grew soft...prime example of a mongol generals' quote-
''You could conquer the world on horseback but u couldn't rule it from there''
Corruption,lavish wealthy lifestyle ,lack of earlier ferocity,increasing overreliance on sheer numbers to win[remember babur had won with small but mobile and motivated forces],increasingly bad generalship..many of the nobility were addicted to drugs and wine. Even the vaunted rajputs took large quantities of opium before battle to enter battle frenzy and were addicts.So cavalry lost its earlier edge too towards the end.And this became apparent against the maratha horsemen.
Another large weakness was logistics.mughal army simply had too much tail than teeth.Logistics train was like a mobile city.slow ,lumbering with women and children.This was another weakness exposed in maratha wars.
Mughals kept using old matchlocks and never truly upgraded their field artillery,had no navy.
In terms of wealth and land,they were truly a great power but global power projection not that much.
