Like a lot of people, I first began to learn about the Maratha Confederacy after playing Empire Total War. In addition to the East India Company, there was also the Dutch V.O.C, the Portuguese, and the French East India Company, all had invested interest in the Indian subcontinent, with the Portuguese still holding Goa, and France still had Pondicherry into the twentieth century, the Dutch lost Ceylon to the British after the Napoleonic conquest of the Dutch Republic.
I'm not some chauvinist but let's be honest, India is today majority hindu cause of the rise of maratha empire, Their rise lead to decline of mughals and other muslim powers and lead to revival of other hindu states, it wasn't a Perfect empire, they lacked financial powress or let's say fought way too many wars that often drained their treasury and had some problems of their own but still India is hindu today cause of the rise of that empire.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj father of Hindavi Swaraj i) Hindavi means People who live in Hind for centuries irrespective of religion & caste ii)swaraj means Self rule, independent & sovereign iii) founder of ideology of Swaraj who motivated lokmanya tilak against the British & many others.. Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj 🚩 The king who was never born as a king & who never ruled over people but always protected its people. 🙏🙏 & who never fought for empire but fought for Swaraj.
I had no idea the Maratha even employed European mercenaries! I’d love to hear more 18th century history beyond just Britain, so much you’d never expect!
There were many fascinating European mercenary leaders in India, mostly of Swiss or French extraction. By the end of the century native armies could at the very least stand toe to toe with European armies, and in a significant number of battles even won against the colonizers. Their defeat was ultimately caused by economic factors rather than military ones
At that time, European mercenaries were common all over the world, including in Europe itself (e.g. Imperial Russian army famously hired its officer corps from all over Europe, especially from German states and France). Russia, Ottoman Empire, Persia, India, Burma, Indo-China, China, and Japan, they all hired European mercenaries.
During end of 18th century when the eic was gaining foothold in india many kingdom's in india tried to employ europian mercenaries . Much of the being French. Talking about marathas we have - 1.benoit de boigne- an extremely brilliant and talented French commander and a soldire and a close friend of mahdaji scindia( one of the most powerful maratha chieftain) . He was first a servant in eic and later gave services to marathas . He greatly modernized maratha armies. 2.general perron-he too was French and successor of general de boigne . However he wasn't that skilled like he . He atlast was defeated by lord lake in battle of delhi ( 1803) 3. Sir George Thomas- he was a British and served marathas in 1799 . However while being in service of scindia he founded an independent principality at haryana region and ruled for nearly 3 years as sovereign untill he was defeated by perron. Similarly there are many more examples .. during its ending days maratha soldiary was largely composed of mercenaries esp arabs ; afghans ; purbiyas and Europeans. Similarly Europeans were also employed by nizams of hyderabad -in court of nizam debussy was a French general of nizam and was extremely influential. - tipu sultan had many French mercenaries and generals . He also had close ties with napolian Bonaparte. General pohlmal who took field at assaye against Duke of wellington was German.
What is ironic is that, when maratha kingdom began under the first Chhatrapati Shivaji, he adopted various measures and rules like having minimal feudal armies and more of local peasantry army of foot soldiers paid in cash. They were also loyal to the maratha cause and to the chhatrapati. They had the orders strictly to not plunder the local population as to not make them hostile towards the marathas. Sadly all these early rules and measures were forgotten by the later marathas.
Battle of Assey- The French commanders of the Maratha artillery were bribed and put on ships bound for France before the battle. Moral of the story- Don’t trust foreigners to fight your battles.
@@theinformationbomber7102Most probably the Marathas would have won the second Maratha war just as they won the first. Then things would have hit the negotiation table and they would have screwed things all over again by allowing the Brits to exist in India. The brits would have waited for the right opportunity to strike yet again. Another lesson- Indians never learn from their mistakes.
@@kun14al07 yeah the Marathas didn't uproot the british from Indian soil when they had the chance which was unfortunate since they had the resources and the fighting ability to do so
@@cariopuppetmaster 😂😂😂 Ask the Dutch, Portuguese and English/Brits who had a very hard time in dealing with them. Maratha Navy has a long history of successes and victories over Europeans. Both at sea and land. Read about the exploits of Kanhoji Angre, Tulaji Angre and Dhulaps, who led Maratha Navy. Maratha Navy was both a brown and blue water navy. They had lots of ships of Indian and European origin. They also possessed European 'Ships of the Line' ships too. Some of their naval vessels were having 40 guns which is almost equivalent to a European frigate ships of that period. They also had lots of European sailors, captains, gunsmiths, advisors, ex-pirates,etc. in their navies too.
@@cariopuppetmaster No naval battles and war took place during the events of the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War of 1802-06. There were negotiations between the both sides after 3rd Anglo-Maratha War and abolishment of the office of Peshwa in 1817-19, after which it got disbanded. Or probably existed as a force even after the 1819 but the Angre Maratha state was annexed by Brits in 1840s. This is how it ended.
I have researched a lot on maratha history . Very thank you for making this video. During end of 18th century when the eic was gaining foothold in india many kingdom's in india tried to employ europian mercenaries . Much of the being French. Talking about marathas we have - 1.benoit de boigne- an extremely brilliant and talented French commander and a soldire and a close friend of mahdaji scindia( one of the most powerful maratha chieftain) . He was first a servant in eic and later gave services to marathas . He greatly modernized maratha armies. 2.general perron-he too was French and successor of general de boigne . However he wasn't that skilled like sir de boigne . He atlast was defeated by lord lake in battle of delhi ( 1803) 3. Sir George Thomas- he was a British and served marathas in 1799 . However while being in service of scindia he founded an independent principality at haryana region and ruled for nearly 3 years as sovereign untill he was defeated by perron. Similarly there are many more examples .. during its ending days maratha soldiary was largely composed of mercenaries esp arabs ; afghans ; purbiyas and Europeans. Similarly Europeans were also employed by nizams of hyderabad -in court of nizam debussy was a French general of nizam and was extremely influential. Ibrahim khan gardi the cheif of maratha artillary at third battle ofbpanipat was a pashtun who was trained by de bussy. - tipu sultan had many French mercenaries and generals . He also had close ties with napolian Bonaparte. The commander who took field at assaye against Duke of wellington - pohlman was a German Rene madec who was a scottish was another such commander who was in service of emperor of delhi . He fought against marathas st battle of purana qila in 1773.
Rene Madec or René-Marie Madec(1736-84) was a French not Scottish. He was a Frenchman and probably the earliest European who was recruited (in 1772) by Maharaja Shrinath Mahadji Shinde Ji(1730-94) to recruit, train and create a force of Westernized Indian troopers of Shindeshahi Maratha Army.
@@CheesecakeXIII The Rise And Fall of Marath Empire By Nadakarni , Rajaram & New History of Marathas Vol I,II,III By Sardesai , Govind Sakharam These Are The Books I Recommend You If You Want To Read More Books On Maratha Empire History Comment Here So I Can Cite The Names
In the run up after the conquest of Bengal in 1757 the British suffered a series of defeats over the 18th century, that was until Lord Wellesely turned things around. The destruction of British power was within sights, and one can wonder what could have happened if they had been driven out entirely.
@@gimzod76 The Kingdom of Mysore was highly centralized with a capable arms industry. It would have eventually united most of India similar to how Prussia did with Germany
@@sneckotheveggieavenger9380 kingdom of mysore didn't had that much resources . It had westernized millitary but definitely its sphere of activity was limited to south india .. Effectively it could have been only marathas or the nominal mughal emperor who could unite since they had influence over large parts of india .but they had huge amt of dissensions within themselves and further they imposed huge taxes on their vassles and tributaries . As a result eic effective crushed both of them.
@@SAMARTHSAMANT the empire structure was ineffective against the modern nation state. I say Mysore since small centralized states often succeeded in times of turmoil. The early ottomans, Prussians, Sardinia all started small but could have faster military responses/mobilization
Fascinating topic and excellent video! It's refreshing to see you each out and cover non-British military forces. I hope you're able to make more videos on both the Maratha Confederacy and other, non-British, militaries of the 18th and 19th centuries.
I love the history of the Maratha Empire and Confederacy, I think they have a compelling story of resistance from the Mughals in the start and later the British
Hello there, I am a Maratha myself here who loves Maratha history. I agree that maratha history is very fascinating. The main part is that the nascent 3 decade old Maratha kingdom faced the full wrath of the Mughal kingdom when the mughal emperor Aurangzeb descended in their land of Maharashtra from the mughal capital at Delhi with 170,000 soldiers. This was a huge number and the max Maratha kingdom was put on field were about 100,000 soldiers. Yet the Marathas started fighting against the mughal invaders and you wouldnt believe but the fight (war) went on for a long 27 years until the mughal emperor himself died here at 90. No other Indian warrior clan has fought such a huge and powerful war against such a powerful enemy.
@@harveykaler991 No they weren't. Marathas just took Taxes from rajputs and jats and from some sikh misls. Rajputs always needed maratha help in their kingship problems and administration. Sikhs were assured of protection.
@@Raut-warrior yeah Patiala invited and hired Marathas to wage a war for them for a year. But for the rest of the time. Marathas were trying to forcefully conquer the Sikhs and they failed. They even attempted to forcefully subdue the Rajputs of Jaipur and then a Sikh-Rajput alliance threw them out. Same with Bengalis. Marathas were invaders to many. They weren’t always the good guy.
@@harveykaler991 Marathas were invited by the mughal and Sikhs of Punjab to throw away Afghans and Marathas successfully conquered areas till Peshawar. Later Abdali came and defeated the Marathas and maratha control over Punjab (north of Sutlej) ended. But Marathas bounced back 10 years later and successfully conquered the red fort and Delhi and also took taxes from patiala and the sikh misls south of Sutlej. Mahadji Shinde defeated the rajputs in 1790 and brought whole Rajputana under the Maratha Empire and made them tributary once again.
i know you made a video about the East India Company a while back, but i would love to see a more in-depth look at the Company Army of the Colonial and Napoleonic time periods. Besides the Native and European regiments raised by the company, you had regular regiments augmenting the company army during the colonial and Napoleonic era (Including a regiment of Highlanders!) You even had a full regiment of volunteers from guard regiments.
This is hands down one of the best video on the topic. It does not shy away from depth and gives us actual historical context. Thank you! From the Maratha POV, here is what I think caused their failure, in descending order of importance. 1. Mass desertions by European officers before the 2nd Anglo-Maratha war - Perron [Scindia's top general], Louis Bourquin, Chevalier Dudrenec, etc. All of them surrendered entire battalions to the British. Perron ended up retiring in France even before the war had ended. Marathas did have prior experience with Europeans defecting from their ranks before, such as Portuguese naval officers in Shivaji's time. Guess this time they couldn't manage it well. Marathas were ig at least a decade away from producing indigenous officers at a reliable rate. 2. Maratha disunity - They did not consider EIC a threat and by the time they did, it was too late. There is a letter by Bhonsle of Nagpur to the other Maratha lords which goes into this. Reason for disunity lies mostly on the disaster at Panipat which weakened the central authority of the Peshwa. 3rd battle of Panipat broke both Maratha and Afghan back and created a power vacuum which the British filled. The last time all Marathas fought together against common foe, was in the Battle of Kharda, in 1795. 3. Early deaths of Maratha lords in quick succession - James Grant Duff [EIC officer who fought against Marathas and later wrote history books on it] stated on the death of Peshwa Madhavrao, “…the plains of Panipat were not more fatal to the Maratha Empire than the early end of this excellent prince”. Many important Maratha lords died in a short span of time, leading to a crisis at the top level. So many leaders died in Panipat including young Vishwas Rao and Sadashiv Rao. Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao passed away 3 months later. Young Peshwa Madhavrao too passed away. Mahadji Scindia, who was the most powerful Maratha lord at that time. Young Peshwa Narayan Rao, then also his son Peshwa Sawai Madhav Rao. Then Nana Fadnavis whom the British called 'The Maratha Machiavelli' passed away. Yashwantrao Holkar also passed away despite getting victories and favourable terms over EIC. 4. Marathas failed to make an alliance with Mysore and the Nizam because the British weren't a threat by that time. Later they[Holkar] failed at their attempt at an alliance with Nepal and Punjab because it was too late. 5. Bengal had the largest revenue of all other regions in India. Bengal alone had 8x the revenue of Scindia's Malwa region. British getting Bengal without much trouble was their greatest win. 6. The Doji Bara famine.
Nice video just one angle i think you missed is that, marathas lost their leaders at very quick succession between 1760 to 1802 there are 4 Peshwas , still all parts of Empire was intact it was only after dead of able leaders like Nana fadnis , madhadaji shinde and sawai madhavrao maraths empire collapsed. It all happened after 1800
I would not call Nana fadnavis anything other than a decent leader. His incompetence and cowardice became the reason behind their indecisive war against Mysore . Despite mobilizing 80k troops they couldn't decisively defeat Mysore.
But yeah, death of able generals Mahadji shinde, tukoji holkar , Hari pant phadke, patwardhans, yashwant Rao holkar etc and also the destruction of most of the Maratha campoos during the shinde-holkar civil war were the main reason behind their defeat.
I have seen the video and am overwhelmed by it. Before I start I wish to say 2 things by 2 great thinkers. "Don't stare into the abyss for too long, for the abyss stares back at you". Marathas started off as a bright and brilliant counter to the Turkic states established in India who ruled for 600 years. The Marathas studied their enemies thoroughly, the trained themselves in cavalry using it in a manner, India never seen before. Their horses being quick, sturdy and light is modeled on the Turkic horses that trampled the Asian steppes. But like the Turks who considered foot soldiers as inferior, prefering lightning quick raids, the Marathas adopted that. It's like they became the Turks themselves not by faith or culture but by soul, Hindu Turks. The few battles that the Turks lost against infantry armies like Doryaleaum, happened coz a well disciplined infantry army stood like a wall without breaking formation and that is what happened in India as well, a well disciplined British infantry stood ground breaking the Maratha cavalry charge. Machiavelli said not to rely on mercenaries coz they fight for the highest bidder. This was a major flaw in the Marathas, they over relied on mercenaries, who swapped sides or fought half heartedly. Compare this with the Pashtuns who did not give away to the impulse of shiny toys and soldiers of Europeans and stuck to natives to fight their wars, and the results are clear, Afghanistan was never colonized, meanwhile India... The third thing is the Maratha cannons were modelled from the Mughals which were modelled from the Ottoman bombards. These bombards could bring down fortifications and strike terror in their enemies. But were difficult to transport like you said. Moreover most of the artillery crew were manned by hired Afghans and Persians, not natives. This is a stark difference to what the Marathas started off with, coz Peshwa Baji Rao one of the greatest generals of India won many battles by deceiving the enemy to point their guns on a different direction than the one from which they were charging from. Once again they simply adopted the tactics of their vanquished foes and got defeated by a thoroughly drilled well trained army. This video is so good that I barely have words to describe, it was enlightening. Sorry for the long comment. Thank you.
"Don't stare into the abyss for too long, for the abyss stares back at you" - thanks for the quote, love that. Machiavelli also said of mercenaries, that when the cause (employer) was winning, and the fighting easier, a time when they were needed the least, they would make themselves available in large numbers, creating expense and impositions, and when the cause was in jeopardy, when they were needed the most, ... they would depart.
Good timing since only recently I'd finished the book 'the Anarchy' which is about the early rising of the EIC and it mentioned the Maratha Confederacy.
The Pindaris and their counterpart the Pathans were particularly nasty mounted brigands and looters. While the Pindaris were practically wiped out in the Pindari War, the other group, the Pathans, whose leader followed the Maratha chief Holkar of Indore, and who had been given land to rule and the title of Nawab, grovelled before John Company and survived.
People in India put false heroes above real ones. Maratha's military history is astonishing. Killed more Maleechs than Sikhs and Rajput's combined. The main reason behind the collapse of the Mughal occupation. One of the main catalyst to Hindu awakening. Love and respect to Marathas from Himachal Pradesh
@@theinformationbomber7102 disunity. Because when they were United during the 1770s and 80s, they were able to defeat the British. But when they were fighting amongst themselves, they lost to British in 1803.
Wonderfully nuanced video that doesnt employ the oft used trope of European gun powder supremacy over native swords to explain away the conquest of India.
@@devyanilimaye8560 James skinner was a British officer who was in service of maratha and eic armies . He was son of a British father and a Hindu mother hence half indian. After maratha defeat at delhi however he joined lord lake . There was a millitary unit called skinners horse in indian army which is named after him.
I doubt that is correct. European officers leading Indian troops with a percentage of the troops being European was the magic which won India for the British. Also a good chunk of the officers were French, who hated the English. Indeed the Anglo Maratha enemity was partly driven by larger global Anglo French enemity as the Marathas were perceived more friendly to the French.
Hello Brandon. I really enjoyed this. I may have Indian ancestry myself, according to family rumours of Indian army influence. After the video clip in the introduction, I await a video of AWI re-enactors doing a flash mob dance.
The Maratha did not learn the lesson of the Roman Empire, Caliphates of Egypt or German princes. Paying mercenaries to fight your wars for you will NEVER END WELL
The sad part is, early on in their history, the Marathas specifically avoided mercenaries. Pre 1750s, most of the Maratha army was native Marathi. That was part of what allowed them to keep such high morale through what was effectively a non stop all out war for a century straight. It was only after Raghunath Rao that mercenaries became key to the Marathas
@@mvalthegamer2450 under peshwa bajirao marathas armies were largely native . But foreign element would came after 1750s during era of balaji bajirao . These non native mercenaries were less loyal and ready to switch size . Take eg - death of peshwa Narayan rao . He was a gardi mercenary who was payed by raghunathrao to kill peshwa .
It was only in the very late 18th century and at the start of the 19th century. Before that the Maratha army didn't used pindaries as much , they did but not at the same level.
I greatly enjoyed this video. It covers History quite well, gives us multiple quotes from various sources, and as a general overview of the Marathas, it is very instructive. Moreover, I liked Brandon F's. willingness to point to other great TH-cam authors such as Lloyd and Matt Easton (which I follow, btw). That tells a lot about Brandon himself. Keep up the good work!
Great video. I appreciate your video very much. I think we must understand that before the Marathas, there was no Hindu Empire for about 600 years. Only the Rajputs who were at the time Mansubdars the Moghuls, regularly fielded feudal armies. The Marathas were almost a common man army out of the villages. They had great leaders but not so great resources, and not even a protected walled city yo operate out of. Literally sons of the soil and always on the run for about 30 years harassing the Moghuls and inflicting heavy losses on them as Guerella warriors. Eventually by the time of the British expansion, the Moghuls had shrunk to just around Delhi. The Sikhs from the west and Marathas from the south and Rajputs were independent by that. The Marathas needed another 25 to really modernize and solidify their empire.
Awesome vid!!! Very interesting and informative; as ways. Id love some more videos about the Maratha Military where you go more in depth and get into the nitty gritty details of the various sub topics you didn't have time for. Cheers!
I hope that's not a leather wallet. Might not go over well in the Maratha Confederacy Seriously, this is a great video, about a little talked about superpower. The rise and fall of the Martha Empire is extremely dramatic, and they seem to have run afoul of the same issues most growing nations did. The decline and fall of the Moghuls and the subcontinent before the Raj is very important, and it's not just a story of British triumphalism and looted treasure, but of incredibly complex politics, epic battles, and the strengths and weaknesses of humanity and our social systems. What are we fighting for? Who do we fight? What defines us? What makes a soldier and how do they live? And where do our loyalties lie in a time of betrayal, infighting and avarice? Keep your Game of Thrones- this was a real setting of intrigue, heroism, corruption, greed, tragedy, triumph and bloodshed.
I clicked on this video because I own the musket the Indian soldier is holding in the thumbnail. Mine is either Maratha or Mughal, but I'm no expect on Indian weapons (even though I like them and I know a little bit more than most) It's called a Toradar, it's a kind of matchlock arquebus/musket The strange looking stock is a lot more comfortable than you would think, but it's very long. Mine is missing it's ramrod, but Its in good condition for being 300 years old and I love it. It's always cool to know more about the states which used the historical items I own.
My, what a lovely channel I stumbled upon! Do you know Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe-series? I only just discovered it and I awm very much hooked :) Your channel is the perfect addition to provide me with additional historical accuracies.
@@BS-cc4ks No. They would be the ones who prevented British imperialism from coming to India. India needed to be united in order to avoid colonization and maintain its dignity.
Thank you for making a video on Maratha Armies. It helped me for my research. Please let me know where I can know more on Maratha rockets, and types of cavalry and infantry?
Thanks for the video. Many details of the workings of the Maratha Confederacy are also available in the book titled 'The First Republic : The Untold True Story of the Imperial Karbhari Sarkar' by Venkatesh Rangan.
The British would eventually form Maratha Light Infantry Regiments which continues to this day as a regular infantry regiment in the modern day Indian Army.
37:22 Forgive my Balkans side tangent 😃 But I had to say this: In modern Serbian the word for a pirate is Gusar Now in different Slavic languages you will find same words but with letter G switched by H and vice versa! So the Polish and Hungarian hussars (for whom we suspect first came from Serbia) might have actually been exactly the same thing as Pindarris - horse mounted pirates
Bro you are stretching it a bit, i have never heard about hussars being pirates either in Poland or Hungary. They are same as western hussars, soldiers not bandits. I am sure they would plunder but there is still expectation to be able to attack enemy units, not to run away and plunder more. They are organized into military units and wear most extravagant uniforms in army or at worst, they are lower nobility like knights. Far cry from pirates.
@@ZS-rw4qq Sorry but I don't understand you, I am slovakian not serbian. I sort of get what you are talking about but can't say precisely what you meant.
@@robertkalinic335 Sorry, I thought you were Croatian based on your nick 😃 I basically said that it's completely realistic that they originated as light cavalry raiders the terms could be linked - and I mentioned Uskoci, of which you may or may not be familiar with, they kinda did the same thing but the term is more famous now in Serbia and especially Croatia.
I am from Maharashtra and a native Marathi speaker, and it's great to see our history being told to the world. Thanks for making this! :) BTW all of those words/titles are in the Marathi language, not Hindi!
"... (Their guns) having the names of their gods given to them, are painted in the most fantastic manner..." Reminds me of the trucks and passenger vans of today. Another thought: A lot of the poor management and logistics was probably down to the internal "departmental" politics and rivalries.
I would say the biggest cause of failure/downfall was Poor leadership & No Greater purpose. It began with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ( One Great leader ) taking oath to form a Hindvi Swaraj ( A great purpose ) to Sambhaji Maharaj ( Another great leader ) resisting against the Mughals led by Aurangzeb ( another great purpose ) to Peshwa Bajirao ( Another great leader ) who expanded the Empire and captured Delhi to fly the Bhawga Dwaj on it after 600 years of foreign rule ( Again a great purpose ). Later on leaders came and went, political infighting resulting into the Empire becoming Confederacy. Panipat battle loss. No Singular strong leader No Great Purpose to fight. Which eventually led to the downfall. They did win the first Anglo Maratha war but lost the other two and that ended it. I think the Maratha empire served its purpose while it lasted. Today the Maratha Light Infantry is part of the Indian Army.
Fun fact: a common political insult in Latin America is "cipayo", which refers to a person who works against their own nation (for example a landowner selling land to a foreign corporation or a politician protecting the interests of foreign powers), and the term refers to the "Sepoys" of the indian subcontinent (also to the Persian "Sipahi").
I would say the biggest cause of failure/downfall was Poor leadership & No Greater purpose. It began with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ( One Great leader ) taking oath to form a Hindvi Swaraj ( A great purpose ) to Sambhaji Maharaj ( Another great leader ) resisting against the Mughals led by Aurangzeb ( another great purpose ) to Peshwa Bajirao ( Another great leader ) who expanded the Empire and captured Delhi to fly the Bhawga Dwaj on it after 600 years of foreign rule ( Again a great purpose ). Later on leaders came and went, political infighting resulting into the Empire becoming Confederacy. Panipat battle loss. No Singular strong leader No Great Purpose to fight. Which eventually led to the downfall. They did win the first Anglo Maratha war but lost the other two and that ended it. I think the Maratha empire served its purpose while it lasted. Today the Maratha Light Infantry is part of the Indian Army.
Why did they rely so heavily in European advisors and officers? Some say it was because of the loss of young nobles to serve as commanders after Panipat in 1761
Nope, that was because they wanted to modernise their armies. It was Scindia who relied the most on his European officers. This wasn't the case with other Maratha states and their Westernised armies. Battle of Panipat of 1761, has got nothing to do with that. MARATHAS recovered from that long ago and their embarcing of Western-style of warfare probably began in 1740s itself when they encountered Portuguese and French-led French Indian troops for Nizam of Hyderabad. Marathas defeated the French in early 1750s. They have a long history of defeating and inflicting defeats on many European powers like Portuguese, English/British, Dutch, French,etc.
@@RR-pc7yv it's incorrect to say that marathas completely recovered from shock of panipat. If they had won map of subcontinent might have been different ... With defeat of panipat marathas lost punjab for ever . Poona was sacked by nizam Had they won nizam won't have dared to look at poona ; the English could have certainly payed them chauth of Bengal and could have never attacked them ... panipat exposed a lot of weaknesses in maratha arms and politics. Had they learned from it they were formidable enough to drive english out of subcontinent.
@@SAMARTHSAMANT They did recovered bro. This narrative that Panipat(1761) resulted in the fall of the Marathas in early 19th century is pure BS and is mostly peddled those people who are lack knowledge of that period of history. During the reign of Peshwa Madhavrao(1761-1772), the Maratha Empire successfully recovered and re-established its lost prestige and supremacy in Northern India by defeating, humbling and destroying states of Rajputana & Jats, Rohilla Pashtuns, remnants of what remained of the Mughal Empire, Nizam of Hyderabad, Mysore's Haider Ali,etc. During the time of Peshwa Madhavrao, Maratha Empire stretched from Kumaon and Jammu in the North to Seringapatam in the South. They were also planning to send to a large expeditionary force to Tamil Nadu in 1779. But unfortunately, these plans never materialised. Problem was that Marathas lacked killing instinct otherwise they fully recovered. You should read about the largest and fiercest battles fought in India even after Panipat(1761). Like Gajendragarh(1785), Kharda(1795),etc. All these were fought and won by the Marathas. Their real decline and downfall began only after the deaths of Mahadji Shinde ji in 1794, Tukoji Rao Holkar ji in 1797 and finally Nana Fadnavis in 1800. As the deaths of these able men created huge vacuum in the senior politico-military leadership of the Marathas and no one ever managed to fill this vacuum fully. Afghans and their allies, themselves also suffered heavy losses in the battle of Panipat(1761). For Ahmed Shah Abdali and his men, the whole war and its conclusion but nothing but a pyrrhic victory. Rohillas were destroyed by the Marathas and massacres of Rohilla Pashtun populace of Rohilkhand were carried out by Maratha troops in revenge in 1771-73. And in fact in 1779, Taimur Shah Durrani himself asks Mahadji Shinde for help in crushing Sikh Misls in what is now today's Pakistani Punjab in exchange of Lahore, which was refused by the latter. So, saying that Marathas didn't recovered from Panipat(1761) is not true. One needs to understand and study that whole period's history. "If they had.....been different". Marathas had a long history of contraction and expansion. The Marathas had expanded even after Panipat(1761). "With defeat......for ever". This is not entirely true. As the only pre-Sikh Empire era established Sikh states were those of the Cis-Satluj region ones aka in today's Punjab and Haryana. These states (Patiala, Kapurthala, Jind, Faridkot,etc.) were tributary vassals of the Shindeshahi. They use to pay tribute to Marathas. Marathas had influence on Punjab even after Panipat(1761). They ruled and had their sphere of influence up to Satluj (directly) and had Pakistani Punjab as a de-facto buffer (with some influence) and "no mans land" between them and Afghans. In fact, the 1787 Afghan invasion of Punjab was repulsed by Sikhs and Marathas. Shindeshahi supported Sikhs. "Poona.....Subcontinent". That was only in 1760s. By then, Nizam was humbled and defeated by Peshwa Madhavrao ji at Rakshasbhuvan in 1763. Later Nizam refused to pay his annual chauth to the Marathas and paid dearly for it. He suffered a humiliating and crushing defeat at the hands of combined Maratha arms in Kharda in 1795. He ended up losing half of his territories and was forced to disband his Westernised Army and became a British EIC's vassal to protect himself from the Marathas. As I said, problem was that the Marathas lacked killing instinct. Marathas(Bhonsales of Nagpur) were accepting Bengal Subah's chauth from Brits as late as 1780s. I dunno about the status of chauth collection from Bengal after that. Same was the case in their wars with the Europeans including Brits in 18th century. As I said, the Marathas lacked killing instinct and continued spare their enemies like Nizam, Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. If they had ended and neutralised these threats permanently then the history of whole of India could have been a different one. But saying that Panipat(1761) event caused their downfall is pure BS and is factually incorrect. Marathas united and stood as one entity during the Anglo-Maratha War of 1775-83, Mysore War against Tipu in 1780s-90s and Nizam of Hyderabad in Kharda War of 1795. All these were won by the Marathas.
@@SAMARTHSAMANTPoona was not sacked although Nizam only raided the outskirts of Poona and Peshwa Madhavrao humbled him in the battle of Uruli and Rakshasbhuvan
Reminds me of when I played as the Dutch in Empire: Total War, I funded the Marathas and they bullied the Mughals until later I decided to secretly prop up their rival causing them to stubbornly hold out in the north. Once I was strong enough I betrayed them launching a massive invasion into india, it was a fuasco at first but After a decisive battle in league with the Mughals they were put at a disadvantage, after about a decade of brutal war the Marathas were gone with the Mughals content and grateful in northeast India. That game might be unfinished trite but the base there has so much potential.
Like i mentioned, a brilliant video. Would love to see more. Vedios on Indian military traditions are sorta rare on the internet. So i appreciate this video highly. Consider looking into the Maratha Navy, also the war between the Kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch is also pretty interesting. One of the first instances of an asian military defeating a european one at sea! Also +Subscribed. Tbh i love videos about combat regardless of where they might originate from.
As I am watching your excellently researched and detailed video, I wonder if there is a link between why the Indian state of Maharashtra is a major industrial/machinery hub today and if it has something to do with the legacy of the tradesmen and metallurgists who made the cannons and the weapons for the Maratha Confederarcy. This is similar to how the British raising the 'Madras Sappers' Regiment in Bangalore ( Where the Congreave rocket and the WW2 Bangalore tube munition was developed ) lead to armaments factories being set up there in WW2 which eventually led to high concentrations of skilled workforce in the post independence era and Bangalore becoming the 'Silicon Valley of India' during the big 'IT' boom at the turn of the century. Learning history from various perspectives and sources has made me understand the nuances of my own country much better. -Much Love and appreciation for making this video from India.
To be exact, by the 1800s, Napoleonic emphasis on light and easily manoeuvred field guns had easily surpassed any tactical utility larger guns brought to any dynamic and fluid battlefield. Both the Marathas and the Sikhs had excellent cavalry for their time but what the European powers brought to the field was substantially more mobile and hard-hitting infantry to the field. Their manoeuvre elements were thus excellent at defeating swift cavalry charges and blunting any skirmish with their field guns. And their drilling was more rigorous, which, along with the concept of their officer class, which still hadn't crystallised in Indian armies, gave them a potent edge in mobilizing momentum in each sector of the battle instead of waiting for central command to issue orders or from the vassal king/headsman commanding that detachment. Heck, even the present-day Indian army is a potent fighting force precisely because of this tradition of junior officers and NCOs leading from the front and employing tight control of morale and commitment in the company and section!!! BTW, full marks for emphasising that India was conquered by the British by understanding India itself. The brilliance of European mercenaries in understanding the ethos of war and the distinction of caste and culture in the ranks of any military force employed was critical to how the British went about recruiting more and better recruits than the native forces themselves. This kind of army was what persisted until Kitchener's reforms in the earlier twentieth century, by which time, the British Raj had reached its greatest extent. The role of antagonistic castes and creeds being employed to form special regiments to defeat Indian rulers, like the Mahar regiment against the so called upper caste Peshwas, the Kumaon and Garhwal regiments to counteract the Gurkha expansion and the Assam Rifles to handle the tribes of NE India provides a fascinating insight into the military tactics that won India for the British.
The idea that a bunch of european officers gave their soldiers uniforms to try and outdrip their peer's units is hilarious. Id love to see some of the more flamboyant ones.
Hey, never underestimate the power of the drip! Besides, everybody knows that WW2 was about who has the best drip - Hirodrippo, Joseph Stuntin, Adolph Drippler, Benito Swagollini, Wins-ton Chur-chill...
I belongs to Prominent Maratha Clan - Bhosale, we're told that my forefathers fought for Shivaji Maharaj, and Bajirao Peshwa I... there were part of an Elite maratha force called 'Hujirat'... Maratha Infrantry was useful in Guerilla warfare, while Cavalry was good in Plundering... Marathas Never used Canons as their primary weapon... coz marathas were know for their agile armies... War elephants and Canons were considered useless in early stages of Maratha empire...
Thanks Brandon. It's always refreshing to see a historical presentation which tries to analyse things as objectively as possible without any bias. Well researched and with numerous quotations from various sources. Few thoughts: we cannot fully separate military fortunes from the destiny of the polity, the state itself. There were problems inherent in the structure of the Maratha state, which in the 18th century, beyond the core Maratha areas was designed to farm wealth and resources to the various Maratha confederates, rather than rule, govern and forge an internally strong imperial state. This is why it became so decentralised. And hence there was no one unified vision for the state itself - it was more like each to his own. Hence they weren't able to utilize the scale of the state for having one unified idea of state structure, cooperation of people (from where comes patriotism), economy and defence. The military decline is just a reflection of this. Hence you find this contradiction of feeble attempts at improvement trying to stem the larger forces of decline.
India has a history of getting overwhelmed by foreign incursions whenever the internal structure has become decentralised, and there is no one strong imperial state. Be it the Kushanas, Shakas, Hunas invaded us in early centuries CE, or the Turko-Afghan invasions in 11-13th centuries or the Colonial invasions post 16th century, it's our internal disunity, lack of coherent vision that defeated us. With great difficulty we united in the middle of last century and thanks to WW II mainly we were able to become independent in 1947. But now 7 decades on I see those centrifugal fissiparous tendencies gradually increasing again. Around half of Indians put primacy on nationalism, unity but there are maybe 30 p.c. at least for whom nationalism is not that high on priority vs other things like their caste, religion, ethnicity.
The damn Maratha's are a constant thorn in my side in TW Empire. Take the island off the coast of India, befriend them, and otherwise just try to leave that whole region alone 😆
Good video and a nice introduction to Maratha army, but I suggest you to study briefly on the military costumes or uniforms which were present in India from 200 BC you can study types of uniform and military gears described in Chanyak niti there are also medicine to make able to infantry men to walk long and medicines to see in dark ,you can see its crude form in a drug made by use of a little house lizard, uniforms ,shoes and a military gear was in use from long ago and you can study it in various kings granths which were written by them from time to time. I hope you will not ignore this.
How did you fail to mention that the Congreve rocket was a development from the Mysore rockets of Tipu? The Marathas, who fought Tipu and his father, Hyder Ali, also used it. It is moot who learnt it, the manufacture of rockets, from whom.
The word Gardee is a corruption of Guardo.Gaurdos were native Indian soldiers who were in the employment of East India Company. Those of them who joined Marathas came to be known as Gardees.Gardees were never a caste as such.
Marathas were a power to regularly defeat Foreign invaders ( Mughals, Afghan, Portuguese, British) in pitched combat. probably the only power defeat British in a pitched war like first Anglo Maratha war. Also they managed to defeat Portuguese under leadership of Chimaji appa brother of Peshwa bajirao.
@@saurabhmehta5018 uhhh.. Napoleonic France took on 3 superpowers at once was rarely ever defeated! What do you mean by nah ??? Lol!! and the native indian Soldiers were led by British generals, not to mention, large number of Scots and irish soldiers in india at that time. Australian and Canadian soldiers fought under the British in ww2. Doesn't mean Australia amor canada won the war
Like a lot of people, I first began to learn about the Maratha Confederacy after playing Empire Total War. In addition to the East India Company, there was also the Dutch V.O.C, the Portuguese, and the French East India Company, all had invested interest in the Indian subcontinent, with the Portuguese still holding Goa, and France still had Pondicherry into the twentieth century, the Dutch lost Ceylon to the British after the Napoleonic conquest of the Dutch Republic.
Few people know that India and Portugal fought a war for Goa . . . in 1960. It was the last province in India to be liberated.
Same here. Funny how that game educated us about India.
This guy deli horsemans
@MMaximmachinegun that's hilarious 😂
@@CatastrophicDisease it wasnt really a war tho. Portugal just basicslly gave the province away
I'm not some chauvinist but let's be honest, India is today majority hindu cause of the rise of maratha empire, Their rise lead to decline of mughals and other muslim powers and lead to revival of other hindu states, it wasn't a Perfect empire, they lacked financial powress or let's say fought way too many wars that often drained their treasury and had some problems of their own but still India is hindu today cause of the rise of that empire.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
father of Hindavi Swaraj
i) Hindavi means People who live in Hind for centuries
irrespective of religion & caste
ii)swaraj means Self rule, independent & sovereign
iii) founder of ideology of Swaraj
who motivated lokmanya tilak against the British & many others..
Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj 🚩
The king who was never born as a king &
who never ruled over people but always protected its people.
🙏🙏
& who never fought for empire but fought for Swaraj.
I had no idea the Maratha even employed European mercenaries! I’d love to hear more 18th century history beyond just Britain, so much you’d never expect!
Well they had to learn to organize their armies in an napoleanic style from some one!
There were many fascinating European mercenary leaders in India, mostly of Swiss or French extraction. By the end of the century native armies could at the very least stand toe to toe with European armies, and in a significant number of battles even won against the colonizers. Their defeat was ultimately caused by economic factors rather than military ones
You'd be surprised who hired who throughout history.
At that time, European mercenaries were common all over the world, including in Europe itself (e.g. Imperial Russian army famously hired its officer corps from all over Europe, especially from German states and France).
Russia, Ottoman Empire, Persia, India, Burma, Indo-China, China, and Japan, they all hired European mercenaries.
During end of 18th century when the eic was gaining foothold in india many kingdom's in india tried to employ europian mercenaries .
Much of the being French.
Talking about marathas we have -
1.benoit de boigne- an extremely brilliant and talented French commander and a soldire and a close friend of mahdaji scindia( one of the most powerful maratha chieftain) . He was first a servant in eic and later gave services to marathas . He greatly modernized maratha armies.
2.general perron-he too was French and successor of general de boigne . However he wasn't that skilled like he . He atlast was defeated by lord lake in battle of delhi ( 1803)
3. Sir George Thomas- he was a British and served marathas in 1799 . However while being in service of scindia he founded an independent principality at haryana region and ruled for nearly 3 years as sovereign untill he was defeated by perron.
Similarly there are many more examples .. during its ending days maratha soldiary was largely composed of mercenaries esp arabs ; afghans ; purbiyas and Europeans.
Similarly Europeans were also employed by nizams of hyderabad
-in court of nizam debussy was a French general of nizam and was extremely influential.
- tipu sultan had many French mercenaries and generals .
He also had close ties with napolian Bonaparte.
General pohlmal who took field at assaye against Duke of wellington was German.
What is ironic is that, when maratha kingdom began under the first Chhatrapati Shivaji, he adopted various measures and rules like having minimal feudal armies and more of local peasantry army of foot soldiers paid in cash. They were also loyal to the maratha cause and to the chhatrapati. They had the orders strictly to not plunder the local population as to not make them hostile towards the marathas.
Sadly all these early rules and measures were forgotten by the later marathas.
Battle of Assey- The French commanders of the Maratha artillery were bribed and put on ships bound for France before the battle.
Moral of the story- Don’t trust foreigners to fight your battles.
Don't trust mercenaries more like.
Not the first time mercenaries screwed someone at the last moment.
what could have happened if those French commanders had not betrayed their masters ?
@@theinformationbomber7102Most probably the Marathas would have won the second Maratha war just as they won the first. Then things would have hit the negotiation table and they would have screwed things all over again by allowing the Brits to exist in India. The brits would have waited for the right opportunity to strike yet again. Another lesson- Indians never learn from their mistakes.
@@kun14al07 yeah the Marathas didn't uproot the british from Indian soil when they had the chance which was unfortunate since they had the resources and the fighting ability to do so
Great video. One thing I feel you missed out on was the Maratha Navy, and how badly it messed up between the first and second Anglo Maratha War
Wasn't it just a few tiny boats by then?
@@cariopuppetmaster 😂😂😂
Ask the Dutch, Portuguese and English/Brits who had a very hard time in dealing with them. Maratha Navy has a long history of successes and victories over Europeans. Both at sea and land. Read about the exploits of Kanhoji Angre, Tulaji Angre and Dhulaps, who led Maratha Navy.
Maratha Navy was both a brown and blue water navy. They had lots of ships of Indian and European origin. They also possessed European 'Ships of the Line' ships too. Some of their naval vessels were having 40 guns which is almost equivalent to a European frigate ships of that period. They also had lots of European sailors, captains, gunsmiths, advisors, ex-pirates,etc. in their navies too.
@@RR-pc7yv I am referring to the navy during the 1802 anglo maratha war
@@cariopuppetmaster No naval battles and war took place during the events of the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War of 1802-06. There were negotiations between the both sides after 3rd Anglo-Maratha War and abolishment of the office of Peshwa in 1817-19, after which it got disbanded. Or probably existed as a force even after the 1819 but the Angre Maratha state was annexed by Brits in 1840s. This is how it ended.
@@RR-pc7yv exactly that's what I meant
I have researched a lot on maratha history . Very thank you for making this video.
During end of 18th century when the eic was gaining foothold in india many kingdom's in india tried to employ europian mercenaries .
Much of the being French.
Talking about marathas we have -
1.benoit de boigne- an extremely brilliant and talented French commander and a soldire and a close friend of mahdaji scindia( one of the most powerful maratha chieftain) . He was first a servant in eic and later gave services to marathas . He greatly modernized maratha armies.
2.general perron-he too was French and successor of general de boigne . However he wasn't that skilled like sir de boigne . He atlast was defeated by lord lake in battle of delhi ( 1803)
3. Sir George Thomas- he was a British and served marathas in 1799 . However while being in service of scindia he founded an independent principality at haryana region and ruled for nearly 3 years as sovereign untill he was defeated by perron.
Similarly there are many more examples .. during its ending days maratha soldiary was largely composed of mercenaries esp arabs ; afghans ; purbiyas and Europeans.
Similarly Europeans were also employed by nizams of hyderabad
-in court of nizam debussy was a French general of nizam and was extremely influential. Ibrahim khan gardi the cheif of maratha artillary at third battle ofbpanipat was a pashtun who was trained by de bussy.
- tipu sultan had many French mercenaries and generals .
He also had close ties with napolian Bonaparte.
The commander who took field at assaye against Duke of wellington - pohlman was a German
Rene madec who was a scottish was another such commander who was in service of emperor of delhi . He fought against marathas st battle of purana qila in 1773.
Rene Madec or René-Marie Madec(1736-84) was a French not Scottish. He was a Frenchman and probably the earliest European who was recruited (in 1772) by Maharaja Shrinath Mahadji Shinde Ji(1730-94) to recruit, train and create a force of Westernized Indian troopers of Shindeshahi Maratha Army.
Ibrahim Khan Gardi was a Telugu muslim
Do you have any book recommendations on Maratha history?
@@CheesecakeXIII The Rise And Fall of Marath Empire By Nadakarni , Rajaram & New History of Marathas Vol I,II,III By Sardesai , Govind Sakharam These Are The Books I Recommend You If You Want To Read More Books On Maratha Empire History Comment Here So I Can Cite The Names
@@Hindrajahnate could the marathas at any point have defeated the british eic ? what do you think ?
In the run up after the conquest of Bengal in 1757 the British suffered a series of defeats over the 18th century, that was until Lord Wellesely turned things around. The destruction of British power was within sights, and one can wonder what could have happened if they had been driven out entirely.
Makes one wonder. Would India have united under another power either foreign or native or would it still be a set of smaller states?
@@gimzod76 The Kingdom of Mysore was highly centralized with a capable arms industry. It would have eventually united most of India similar to how Prussia did with Germany
@@sneckotheveggieavenger9380 kingdom of mysore didn't had that much resources . It had westernized millitary but definitely its sphere of activity was limited to south india ..
Effectively it could have been only marathas or the nominal mughal emperor who could unite since they had influence over large parts of india .but they had huge amt of dissensions within themselves and further they imposed huge taxes on their vassles and tributaries .
As a result eic effective crushed both of them.
@@SAMARTHSAMANT the empire structure was ineffective against the modern nation state. I say Mysore since small centralized states often succeeded in times of turmoil. The early ottomans, Prussians, Sardinia all started small but could have faster military responses/mobilization
@@sneckotheveggieavenger9380 Indian here; I'd put my money on Punjab.
Fascinating topic and excellent video!
It's refreshing to see you each out and cover non-British military forces. I hope you're able to make more videos on both the Maratha Confederacy and other, non-British, militaries of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Yes! It would be interesting for him to talk about the Mysoreans or Pundjabis
Empire not Confederacy.
MARATHA EMPIRE(1645-1948/50)
I love the history of the Maratha Empire and Confederacy, I think they have a compelling story of resistance from the Mughals in the start and later the British
Hello there, I am a Maratha myself here who loves Maratha history. I agree that maratha history is very fascinating. The main part is that the nascent 3 decade old Maratha kingdom faced the full wrath of the Mughal kingdom when the mughal emperor Aurangzeb descended in their land of Maharashtra from the mughal capital at Delhi with 170,000 soldiers. This was a huge number and the max Maratha kingdom was put on field were about 100,000 soldiers. Yet the Marathas started fighting against the mughal invaders and you wouldnt believe but the fight (war) went on for a long 27 years until the mughal emperor himself died here at 90. No other Indian warrior clan has fought such a huge and powerful war against such a powerful enemy.
It’s also important to note that the Marathas were invaders/ oppressors for peoples like the Bengalis, Rajputs, Jatts and Sikhs
@@harveykaler991 No they weren't. Marathas just took Taxes from rajputs and jats and from some sikh misls. Rajputs always needed maratha help in their kingship problems and administration. Sikhs were assured of protection.
@@Raut-warrior yeah Patiala invited and hired Marathas to wage a war for them for a year. But for the rest of the time. Marathas were trying to forcefully conquer the Sikhs and they failed. They even attempted to forcefully subdue the Rajputs of Jaipur and then a Sikh-Rajput alliance threw them out. Same with Bengalis. Marathas were invaders to many. They weren’t always the good guy.
@@harveykaler991 Marathas were invited by the mughal and Sikhs of Punjab to throw away Afghans and Marathas successfully conquered areas till Peshawar. Later Abdali came and defeated the Marathas and maratha control over Punjab (north of Sutlej) ended.
But Marathas bounced back 10 years later and successfully conquered the red fort and Delhi and also took taxes from patiala and the sikh misls south of Sutlej. Mahadji Shinde defeated the rajputs in 1790 and brought whole Rajputana under the Maratha Empire and made them tributary once again.
i've been super interested in the Maratha Confederacy lately, this is great timing
Beautiful! Loved it, I belong to Rajasthan- The Rajput land, and have always glorified the Marathas.
Marathas also looked up to Rajputs ig. Also later during the mercenary phase there were a large number of Rajputs in Maratha army.
Marathas and Rajputs are crowning jewels of Hindurashtra 🚩
i know you made a video about the East India Company a while back, but i would love to see a more in-depth look at the Company Army of the Colonial and Napoleonic time periods.
Besides the Native and European regiments raised by the company, you had regular regiments augmenting the company army during the colonial and Napoleonic era (Including a regiment of Highlanders!) You even had a full regiment of volunteers from guard regiments.
Think I care
2:36 they are actually MARATHI words not Hindi😊
Thanks for the shoutout! Great overview.
This is hands down one of the best video on the topic. It does not shy away from depth and gives us actual historical context. Thank you!
From the Maratha POV, here is what I think caused their failure, in descending order of importance.
1. Mass desertions by European officers before the 2nd Anglo-Maratha war - Perron [Scindia's top general], Louis Bourquin, Chevalier Dudrenec, etc. All of them surrendered entire battalions to the British. Perron ended up retiring in France even before the war had ended. Marathas did have prior experience with Europeans defecting from their ranks before, such as Portuguese naval officers in Shivaji's time. Guess this time they couldn't manage it well. Marathas were ig at least a decade away from producing indigenous officers at a reliable rate.
2. Maratha disunity - They did not consider EIC a threat and by the time they did, it was too late. There is a letter by Bhonsle of Nagpur to the other Maratha lords which goes into this. Reason for disunity lies mostly on the disaster at Panipat which weakened the central authority of the Peshwa. 3rd battle of Panipat broke both Maratha and Afghan back and created a power vacuum which the British filled. The last time all Marathas fought together against common foe, was in the Battle of Kharda, in 1795.
3. Early deaths of Maratha lords in quick succession - James Grant Duff [EIC officer who fought against Marathas and later wrote history books on it] stated on the death of Peshwa Madhavrao, “…the plains of Panipat were not more fatal to the Maratha Empire than the early end of this excellent prince”.
Many important Maratha lords died in a short span of time, leading to a crisis at the top level. So many leaders died in Panipat including young Vishwas Rao and Sadashiv Rao. Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao passed away 3 months later. Young Peshwa Madhavrao too passed away. Mahadji Scindia, who was the most powerful Maratha lord at that time. Young Peshwa Narayan Rao, then also his son Peshwa Sawai Madhav Rao. Then Nana Fadnavis whom the British called 'The Maratha Machiavelli' passed away. Yashwantrao Holkar also passed away despite getting victories and favourable terms over EIC.
4. Marathas failed to make an alliance with Mysore and the Nizam because the British weren't a threat by that time. Later they[Holkar] failed at their attempt at an alliance with Nepal and Punjab because it was too late.
5. Bengal had the largest revenue of all other regions in India. Bengal alone had 8x the revenue of Scindia's Malwa region. British getting Bengal without much trouble was their greatest win.
6. The Doji Bara famine.
Nice video just one angle i think you missed is that, marathas lost their leaders at very quick succession between 1760 to 1802 there are 4 Peshwas , still all parts of Empire was intact it was only after dead of able leaders like Nana fadnis , madhadaji shinde and sawai madhavrao maraths empire collapsed. It all happened after 1800
I would not call Nana fadnavis anything other than a decent leader. His incompetence and cowardice became the reason behind their indecisive war against Mysore . Despite mobilizing 80k troops they couldn't decisively defeat Mysore.
But yeah, death of able generals Mahadji shinde, tukoji holkar , Hari pant phadke, patwardhans, yashwant Rao holkar etc and also the destruction of most of the Maratha campoos during the shinde-holkar civil war were the main reason behind their defeat.
@@Lmao69 Mahadji Shinde too was unable to uproot british from Bengal in the 1st anglo Maratha war
I have seen the video and am overwhelmed by it. Before I start I wish to say 2 things by 2 great thinkers. "Don't stare into the abyss for too long, for the abyss stares back at you". Marathas started off as a bright and brilliant counter to the Turkic states established in India who ruled for 600 years. The Marathas studied their enemies thoroughly, the trained themselves in cavalry using it in a manner, India never seen before. Their horses being quick, sturdy and light is modeled on the Turkic horses that trampled the Asian steppes. But like the Turks who considered foot soldiers as inferior, prefering lightning quick raids, the Marathas adopted that. It's like they became the Turks themselves not by faith or culture but by soul, Hindu Turks. The few battles that the Turks lost against infantry armies like Doryaleaum, happened coz a well disciplined infantry army stood like a wall without breaking formation and that is what happened in India as well, a well disciplined British infantry stood ground breaking the Maratha cavalry charge.
Machiavelli said not to rely on mercenaries coz they fight for the highest bidder. This was a major flaw in the Marathas, they over relied on mercenaries, who swapped sides or fought half heartedly. Compare this with the Pashtuns who did not give away to the impulse of shiny toys and soldiers of Europeans and stuck to natives to fight their wars, and the results are clear, Afghanistan was never colonized, meanwhile India...
The third thing is the Maratha cannons were modelled from the Mughals which were modelled from the Ottoman bombards. These bombards could bring down fortifications and strike terror in their enemies. But were difficult to transport like you said. Moreover most of the artillery crew were manned by hired Afghans and Persians, not natives. This is a stark difference to what the Marathas started off with, coz Peshwa Baji Rao one of the greatest generals of India won many battles by deceiving the enemy to point their guns on a different direction than the one from which they were charging from. Once again they simply adopted the tactics of their vanquished foes and got defeated by a thoroughly drilled well trained army.
This video is so good that I barely have words to describe, it was enlightening. Sorry for the long comment. Thank you.
My god. .a scholarly comment ..on the internet..made my day
"Don't stare into the abyss for too long, for the abyss stares back at you" - thanks for the quote, love that. Machiavelli also said of mercenaries, that when the cause (employer) was winning, and the fighting easier, a time when they were needed the least, they would make themselves available in large numbers, creating expense and impositions, and when the cause was in jeopardy, when they were needed the most, ... they would depart.
Very well written
Hi Brandon, Thank you for the mention. It is an excellent video. Happy to help 😊. 🙌
Good timing since only recently I'd finished the book 'the Anarchy' which is about the early rising of the EIC and it mentioned the Maratha Confederacy.
Such a good book
Garbage work by C grade historian. That book is one of the worst history books I've ever come so far. It is riddled with inaccuracies and just s*cks 🤮
@@nickagalidis1845 True
This video came up just as I was looking for something to watch during dinner! Thanks Brandon!
Perfect timing! Glad to help!
@@BrandonFby chance, will you do a video of the military of the Ashanti empire. Their military will surprise you & their influences.
Thank you for the very interesting video! I never knew this about the Indian armies
Honestly Maratha empire is the most underrated empire.
Wow! This video is just in time. I just started my Maratha campaign on Empire Total War.
Thank you.
The Pindaris and their counterpart the Pathans were particularly nasty mounted brigands and looters. While the Pindaris were practically wiped out in the Pindari War, the other group, the Pathans, whose leader followed the Maratha chief Holkar of Indore, and who had been given land to rule and the title of Nawab, grovelled before John Company and survived.
Amazing to learn about my own country, great video as always, upmost quality
People in India put false heroes above real ones.
Maratha's military history is astonishing. Killed more Maleechs than Sikhs and Rajput's combined.
The main reason behind the collapse of the Mughal occupation. One of the main catalyst to Hindu awakening.
Love and respect to Marathas from Himachal Pradesh
why couldn't Marathas defeat the british then ?
Various traitors within the Confederate who sold it out to the british
Confederacy
@@theinformationbomber7102 disunity.
Because when they were United during the 1770s and 80s, they were able to defeat the British.
But when they were fighting amongst themselves, they lost to British in 1803.
@@Raut-warrior If they were able to defeat the british in the 1770s and 80s then why didn't they uproot the british from Indian soil entirely ?
Wonderfully nuanced video that doesnt employ the oft used trope of European gun powder supremacy over native swords to explain away the conquest of India.
Yet another topic I know very little about but am now very intrigued to learn about! Thank you for another entertaining and informative video Brandon!
Last time I was this early, the Maratha Confederacy still existed
18:52
This is true . James skinner states that recruitment of europian officers had greatly destroyed the maratha cause
Could you please be so kind to elaborate?
Think I have come across an officer named Skinner in the book "the last mughal" by W . DALRYMPLE
@@devyanilimaye8560 James skinner was a British officer who was in service of maratha and eic armies .
He was son of a British father and a Hindu mother hence half indian.
After maratha defeat at delhi however he joined lord lake .
There was a millitary unit called skinners horse in indian army which is named after him.
I doubt that is correct. European officers leading Indian troops with a percentage of the troops being European was the magic which won India for the British.
Also a good chunk of the officers were French, who hated the English. Indeed the Anglo Maratha enemity was partly driven by larger global Anglo French enemity as the Marathas were perceived more friendly to the French.
@@mudra5114 he means the defection of those european officers at crucial battles is what led to the decisive defeats in the anglo Maratha wars
@@SAMARTHSAMANT can you tell me more about Yashwantrao Holkar and the treaty of RajpurGhat ? did Holkar lose or win ?
Hello Brandon. I really enjoyed this. I may have Indian ancestry myself, according to family rumours of Indian army influence.
After the video clip in the introduction, I await a video of AWI re-enactors doing a flash mob dance.
The Maratha did not learn the lesson of the Roman Empire, Caliphates of Egypt or German princes.
Paying mercenaries to fight your wars for you will NEVER END WELL
Don't forget Carthage
The sad part is, early on in their history, the Marathas specifically avoided mercenaries. Pre 1750s, most of the Maratha army was native Marathi. That was part of what allowed them to keep such high morale through what was effectively a non stop all out war for a century straight. It was only after Raghunath Rao that mercenaries became key to the Marathas
It might have to with the massive loss of young noble men at Panipat in 1761
@@mvalthegamer2450 under peshwa bajirao marathas armies were largely native . But foreign element would came after 1750s during era of balaji bajirao .
These non native mercenaries were less loyal and ready to switch size .
Take eg - death of peshwa Narayan rao . He was a gardi mercenary who was payed by raghunathrao to kill peshwa .
It was only in the very late 18th century and at the start of the 19th century. Before that the Maratha army didn't used pindaries as much , they did but not at the same level.
There are some breed of cattle in India which can out perform horses in speed eg. Nagori, khillar, halikar, kangyam.
I greatly enjoyed this video. It covers History quite well, gives us multiple quotes from various sources, and as a general overview of the Marathas, it is very instructive. Moreover, I liked Brandon F's. willingness to point to other great TH-cam authors such as Lloyd and Matt Easton (which I follow, btw). That tells a lot about Brandon himself. Keep up the good work!
Thanks brandon for making a video about this. Love to see wider subjects. 🥳💂♂️
Respect for the hard work you did to publish this video. Excellent resesrch and no bias showed.
Thank you sir for a very interesting video.
A comparison between the times of Maratha Confederacy in India and Sengoku Jidai (Japan) would be interesting.
Great video. I appreciate your video very much. I think we must understand that before the Marathas, there was no Hindu Empire for about 600 years. Only the Rajputs who were at the time Mansubdars the Moghuls, regularly fielded feudal armies. The Marathas were almost a common man army out of the villages. They had great leaders but not so great resources, and not even a protected walled city yo operate out of. Literally sons of the soil and always on the run for about 30 years harassing the Moghuls and inflicting heavy losses on them as Guerella warriors. Eventually by the time of the British expansion, the Moghuls had shrunk to just around Delhi. The Sikhs from the west and Marathas from the south and Rajputs were independent by that.
The Marathas needed another 25 to really modernize and solidify their empire.
Awesome vid!!! Very interesting and informative; as ways. Id love some more videos about the Maratha Military where you go more in depth and get into the nitty gritty details of the various sub topics you didn't have time for.
Cheers!
I hope that's not a leather wallet. Might not go over well in the Maratha Confederacy
Seriously, this is a great video, about a little talked about superpower. The rise and fall of the Martha Empire is extremely dramatic, and they seem to have run afoul of the same issues most growing nations did. The decline and fall of the Moghuls and the subcontinent before the Raj is very important, and it's not just a story of British triumphalism and looted treasure, but of incredibly complex politics, epic battles, and the strengths and weaknesses of humanity and our social systems. What are we fighting for? Who do we fight? What defines us? What makes a soldier and how do they live? And where do our loyalties lie in a time of betrayal, infighting and avarice? Keep your Game of Thrones- this was a real setting of intrigue, heroism, corruption, greed, tragedy, triumph and bloodshed.
Intresting fact, Horatio Nelson actually saw his first action in the first Anglo maratha war when his ships were attacked near Bombay.
I clicked on this video because I own the musket the Indian soldier is holding in the thumbnail. Mine is either Maratha or Mughal, but I'm no expect on Indian weapons (even though I like them and I know a little bit more than most)
It's called a Toradar, it's a kind of matchlock arquebus/musket
The strange looking stock is a lot more comfortable than you would think, but it's very long. Mine is missing it's ramrod, but Its in good condition for being 300 years old and I love it. It's always cool to know more about the states which used the historical items I own.
That sounds like a really cool piece to own!
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing
My, what a lovely channel I stumbled upon!
Do you know Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe-series?
I only just discovered it and I awm very much hooked :)
Your channel is the perfect addition to provide me with additional historical accuracies.
Loved the vid. An interesting period of European history in India.
Also an interesting period of Indian history
Weird way to put it as if Marathas aren’t worthy of interest without reference to colonizers
@@Karamazov9 that is not what I meant.
In a perfect world, the Maratha would have defeated the British, united the Indian subcontinent and avoided colonization.
In a perfect world, the Marathans would have been the Imperialist then? Myzore, I think, would not have conceived "being united" as anything but that.
@@BS-cc4ks No. They would be the ones who prevented British imperialism from coming to India. India needed to be united in order to avoid colonization and maintain its dignity.
@@vetarlittorf1807very true
Thank you for making a video on Maratha Armies. It helped me for my research. Please let me know where I can know more on Maratha rockets, and types of cavalry and infantry?
Dispatches of Arthur Wellesley has details of composition of Marathi Army
thanks for giving additional material to review. I really appreciate that.
Thanks for the video. Many details of the workings of the Maratha Confederacy are also available in the book titled 'The First Republic : The Untold True Story of the Imperial Karbhari Sarkar' by Venkatesh Rangan.
Great info ✌️
The British would eventually form Maratha Light Infantry Regiments which continues to this day as a regular infantry regiment in the modern day Indian Army.
37:22 Forgive my Balkans side tangent 😃
But I had to say this:
In modern Serbian the word for a pirate is Gusar
Now in different Slavic languages you will find same words but
with letter G switched by H and vice versa!
So the Polish and Hungarian hussars
(for whom we suspect first came from Serbia)
might have actually been exactly the same thing as Pindarris
- horse mounted pirates
Bro you are stretching it a bit, i have never heard about hussars being pirates either in Poland or Hungary.
They are same as western hussars, soldiers not bandits.
I am sure they would plunder but there is still expectation to be able to attack enemy units, not to run away and plunder more.
They are organized into military units and wear most extravagant uniforms in army or at worst, they are lower nobility like knights.
Far cry from pirates.
@@robertkalinic335 Komšo, možda su tako evoluirali ali skroz je realno da su počeli kao laka konjica koja je pljačkala osmanske posede, kao uskoci
@@ZS-rw4qq Sorry but I don't understand you, I am slovakian not serbian.
I sort of get what you are talking about but can't say precisely what you meant.
@@robertkalinic335 Sorry, I thought you were Croatian based on your nick 😃
I basically said that it's completely realistic that they originated as light cavalry raiders the terms could be linked - and I mentioned Uskoci, of which you may or may not be familiar with, they kinda did the same thing but the term is more famous now in Serbia and especially Croatia.
@@robertkalinic335 And that they only later evolved into the heavy winged Variant we know from Polish history
Oh this was good. Really hoping you'll cover more armies of the indian subcontinent. Hopefully the Maratha Navy next
I am from Maharashtra and a native Marathi speaker, and it's great to see our history being told to the world. Thanks for making this! :)
BTW all of those words/titles are in the Marathi language, not Hindi!
I knew nothing about this. Thank you.
Fascinating video! I will have to learn more about this state!
Thank you for this.
"... (Their guns) having the names of their gods given to them, are painted in the most fantastic manner..."
Reminds me of the trucks and passenger vans of today.
Another thought: A lot of the poor management and logistics was probably down to the internal "departmental" politics and rivalries.
I would say the biggest cause of failure/downfall was Poor leadership & No Greater purpose. It began with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ( One Great leader ) taking oath to form a Hindvi Swaraj ( A great purpose ) to Sambhaji Maharaj ( Another great leader ) resisting against the Mughals led by Aurangzeb ( another great purpose ) to Peshwa Bajirao ( Another great leader ) who expanded the Empire and captured Delhi to fly the Bhawga Dwaj on it after 600 years of foreign rule ( Again a great purpose ).
Later on leaders came and went, political infighting resulting into the Empire becoming Confederacy. Panipat battle loss. No Singular strong leader No Great Purpose to fight. Which eventually led to the downfall. They did win the first Anglo Maratha war but lost the other two and that ended it.
I think the Maratha empire served its purpose while it lasted. Today the Maratha Light Infantry is part of the Indian Army.
these videos are so fire that I might just have to become a Patreon supporter of this channel
The Marathas! ⚔️🙏🏼
This description of 1700s India reminds me of renaissance Italy and the condottieri.
Fun fact: a common political insult in Latin America is "cipayo", which refers to a person who works against their own nation (for example a landowner selling land to a foreign corporation or a politician protecting the interests of foreign powers), and the term refers to the "Sepoys" of the indian subcontinent (also to the Persian "Sipahi").
Excellent presentation
I would say the biggest cause of failure/downfall was Poor leadership & No Greater purpose. It began with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ( One Great leader ) taking oath to form a Hindvi Swaraj ( A great purpose ) to Sambhaji Maharaj ( Another great leader ) resisting against the Mughals led by Aurangzeb ( another great purpose ) to Peshwa Bajirao ( Another great leader ) who expanded the Empire and captured Delhi to fly the Bhawga Dwaj on it after 600 years of foreign rule ( Again a great purpose ).
Later on leaders came and went, political infighting resulting into the Empire becoming Confederacy. Panipat battle loss. No Singular strong leader No Great Purpose to fight. Which eventually led to the downfall. They did win the first Anglo Maratha war but lost the other two and that ended it.
I think the Maratha empire served its purpose while it lasted. Today the Maratha Light Infantry is part of the Indian Army.
Why did they rely so heavily in European advisors and officers? Some say it was because of the loss of young nobles to serve as commanders after Panipat in 1761
Nope, that was because they wanted to modernise their armies. It was Scindia who relied the most on his European officers. This wasn't the case with other Maratha states and their Westernised armies.
Battle of Panipat of 1761, has got nothing to do with that. MARATHAS recovered from that long ago and their embarcing of Western-style of warfare probably began in 1740s itself when they encountered Portuguese and French-led French Indian troops for Nizam of Hyderabad. Marathas defeated the French in early 1750s. They have a long history of defeating and inflicting defeats on many European powers like Portuguese, English/British, Dutch, French,etc.
@@RR-pc7yv it's incorrect to say that marathas completely recovered from shock of panipat.
If they had won map of subcontinent might have been different ...
With defeat of panipat marathas lost punjab for ever .
Poona was sacked by nizam
Had they won nizam won't have dared to look at poona ; the English could have certainly payed them chauth of Bengal and could have never attacked them ... panipat exposed a lot of weaknesses in maratha arms and politics.
Had they learned from it they were formidable enough to drive english out of subcontinent.
@@SAMARTHSAMANT They did recovered bro. This narrative that Panipat(1761) resulted in the fall of the Marathas in early 19th century is pure BS and is mostly peddled those people who are lack knowledge of that period of history.
During the reign of Peshwa Madhavrao(1761-1772), the Maratha Empire successfully recovered and re-established its lost prestige and supremacy in Northern India by defeating, humbling and destroying states of Rajputana & Jats, Rohilla Pashtuns, remnants of what remained of the Mughal Empire, Nizam of Hyderabad, Mysore's Haider Ali,etc. During the time of Peshwa Madhavrao, Maratha Empire stretched from Kumaon and Jammu in the North to Seringapatam in the South. They were also planning to send to a large expeditionary force to Tamil Nadu in 1779. But unfortunately, these plans never materialised. Problem was that Marathas lacked killing instinct otherwise they fully recovered. You should read about the largest and fiercest battles fought in India even after Panipat(1761). Like Gajendragarh(1785), Kharda(1795),etc. All these were fought and won by the Marathas.
Their real decline and downfall began only after the deaths of Mahadji Shinde ji in 1794, Tukoji Rao Holkar ji in 1797 and finally Nana Fadnavis in 1800. As the deaths of these able men created huge vacuum in the senior politico-military leadership of the Marathas and no one ever managed to fill this vacuum fully.
Afghans and their allies, themselves also suffered heavy losses in the battle of Panipat(1761). For Ahmed Shah Abdali and his men, the whole war and its conclusion but nothing but a pyrrhic victory. Rohillas were destroyed by the Marathas and massacres of Rohilla Pashtun populace of Rohilkhand were carried out by Maratha troops in revenge in 1771-73. And in fact in 1779, Taimur Shah Durrani himself asks Mahadji Shinde for help in crushing Sikh Misls in what is now today's Pakistani Punjab in exchange of Lahore, which was refused by the latter. So, saying that Marathas didn't recovered from Panipat(1761) is not true. One needs to understand and study that whole period's history.
"If they had.....been different".
Marathas had a long history of contraction and expansion. The Marathas had expanded even after Panipat(1761).
"With defeat......for ever".
This is not entirely true. As the only pre-Sikh Empire era established Sikh states were those of the Cis-Satluj region ones aka in today's Punjab and Haryana. These states (Patiala, Kapurthala, Jind, Faridkot,etc.) were tributary vassals of the Shindeshahi. They use to pay tribute to Marathas.
Marathas had influence on Punjab even after Panipat(1761). They ruled and had their sphere of influence up to Satluj (directly) and had Pakistani Punjab as a de-facto buffer (with some influence) and "no mans land" between them and Afghans. In fact, the 1787 Afghan invasion of Punjab was repulsed by Sikhs and Marathas. Shindeshahi supported Sikhs.
"Poona.....Subcontinent".
That was only in 1760s. By then, Nizam was humbled and defeated by Peshwa Madhavrao ji at Rakshasbhuvan in 1763. Later Nizam refused to pay his annual chauth to the Marathas and paid dearly for it. He suffered a humiliating and crushing defeat at the hands of combined Maratha arms in Kharda in 1795. He ended up losing half of his territories and was forced to disband his Westernised Army and became a British EIC's vassal to protect himself from the Marathas. As I said, problem was that the Marathas lacked killing instinct.
Marathas(Bhonsales of Nagpur) were accepting Bengal Subah's chauth from Brits as late as 1780s. I dunno about the status of chauth collection from Bengal after that.
Same was the case in their wars with the Europeans including Brits in 18th century. As I said, the Marathas lacked killing instinct and continued spare their enemies like Nizam, Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan. If they had ended and neutralised these threats permanently then the history of whole of India could have been a different one. But saying that Panipat(1761) event caused their downfall is pure BS and is factually incorrect. Marathas united and stood as one entity during the Anglo-Maratha War of 1775-83, Mysore War against Tipu in 1780s-90s and Nizam of Hyderabad in Kharda War of 1795. All these were won by the Marathas.
@@SAMARTHSAMANTPoona was not sacked although Nizam only raided the outskirts of Poona and Peshwa Madhavrao humbled him in the battle of Uruli and Rakshasbhuvan
@@RR-pc7yv the Japanese never had so many foreign mercenary captains when they were upgrading their armies
Very interesting topic I knw nothing about. Thx for the Video :)
You should have talked about maratha navy too
Maybe another video, some day! But for this one I just wanted to focus on the army.
36:00
I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Ottomans also had a cavalry
unit called Silledar and ekandas remind me of akinci
42 minutes? Oh boy, I am in for a treat
Great work in explaining the empire. Just a correction: most of the words are Marathi and not Hindi. Good work overall!
Awesome video I’m subscribing
Excellent!
Reminds me of when I played as the Dutch in Empire: Total War, I funded the Marathas and they bullied the Mughals until later I decided to secretly prop up their rival causing them to stubbornly hold out in the north.
Once I was strong enough I betrayed them launching a massive invasion into india, it was a fuasco at first but After a decisive battle in league with the Mughals they were put at a disadvantage, after about a decade of brutal war the Marathas were gone with the Mughals content and grateful in northeast India.
That game might be unfinished trite but the base there has so much potential.
Like i mentioned, a brilliant video. Would love to see more. Vedios on Indian military traditions are sorta rare on the internet. So i appreciate this video highly.
Consider looking into the Maratha Navy, also the war between the Kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch is also pretty interesting. One of the first instances of an asian military defeating a european one at sea!
Also +Subscribed.
Tbh i love videos about combat regardless of where they might originate from.
As I am watching your excellently researched and detailed video, I wonder if there is a link between why the Indian state of Maharashtra is a major industrial/machinery hub today and if it has something to do with the legacy of the tradesmen and metallurgists who made the cannons and the weapons for the Maratha Confederarcy.
This is similar to how the British raising the 'Madras Sappers' Regiment in Bangalore ( Where the Congreave rocket and the WW2 Bangalore tube munition was developed ) lead to armaments factories being set up there in WW2 which eventually led to high concentrations of skilled workforce in the post independence era and Bangalore becoming the 'Silicon Valley of India' during the big 'IT' boom at the turn of the century.
Learning history from various perspectives and sources has made me understand the nuances of my own country much better.
-Much Love and appreciation for making this video from India.
Jay bhavani jay shivaji
Can we get an episode on Mysore? And their war that took place during the 1700-1800s?
Marathas,Bundelas Chambal Rajputs and Jats around Delhi saved Hinduism from being anihilated by Muslims.
5 wars in 100 years first two with afghan abdali at panipat leaving dead more than 300000 and then internal clashes led to decline
To be exact, by the 1800s, Napoleonic emphasis on light and easily manoeuvred field guns had easily surpassed any tactical utility larger guns brought to any dynamic and fluid battlefield. Both the Marathas and the Sikhs had excellent cavalry for their time but what the European powers brought to the field was substantially more mobile and hard-hitting infantry to the field. Their manoeuvre elements were thus excellent at defeating swift cavalry charges and blunting any skirmish with their field guns. And their drilling was more rigorous, which, along with the concept of their officer class, which still hadn't crystallised in Indian armies, gave them a potent edge in mobilizing momentum in each sector of the battle instead of waiting for central command to issue orders or from the vassal king/headsman commanding that detachment. Heck, even the present-day Indian army is a potent fighting force precisely because of this tradition of junior officers and NCOs leading from the front and employing tight control of morale and commitment in the company and section!!!
BTW, full marks for emphasising that India was conquered by the British by understanding India itself. The brilliance of European mercenaries in understanding the ethos of war and the distinction of caste and culture in the ranks of any military force employed was critical to how the British went about recruiting more and better recruits than the native forces themselves. This kind of army was what persisted until Kitchener's reforms in the earlier twentieth century, by which time, the British Raj had reached its greatest extent. The role of antagonistic castes and creeds being employed to form special regiments to defeat Indian rulers, like the Mahar regiment against the so called upper caste Peshwas, the Kumaon and Garhwal regiments to counteract the Gurkha expansion and the Assam Rifles to handle the tribes of NE India provides a fascinating insight into the military tactics that won India for the British.
The idea that a bunch of european officers gave their soldiers uniforms to try and outdrip their peer's units is hilarious. Id love to see some of the more flamboyant ones.
Hey, never underestimate the power of the drip!
Besides, everybody knows that WW2 was about who has the best drip - Hirodrippo, Joseph Stuntin, Adolph Drippler, Benito Swagollini, Wins-ton Chur-chill...
It was said their uniforms were simular to the ones worn by the EIC
There would be commanders adding their own flair though.@@cariopuppetmaster
They fought like shit - but they looked fabulous.
@@zaclang6472 well alot of the European mercenary captains did bullshit their way into the Maratha officer corps.
Empire II couldn't have been made at a better time. New campaign!
Why have I never heard of this before? It puts the British conquest into an entirely new perspective
Ignorance I guess
Doesn't suit the narrative.
Nice jacket. Great scholars' cradles as well.
I belongs to Prominent Maratha Clan - Bhosale, we're told that my forefathers fought for Shivaji Maharaj, and Bajirao Peshwa I... there were part of an Elite maratha force called 'Hujirat'...
Maratha Infrantry was useful in Guerilla warfare, while Cavalry was good in Plundering... Marathas Never used Canons as their primary weapon... coz marathas were know for their agile armies... War elephants and Canons were considered useless in early stages of Maratha empire...
Thanks Brandon. It's always refreshing to see a historical presentation which tries to analyse things as objectively as possible without any bias. Well researched and with numerous quotations from various sources.
Few thoughts: we cannot fully separate military fortunes from the destiny of the polity, the state itself. There were problems inherent in the structure of the Maratha state, which in the 18th century, beyond the core Maratha areas was designed to farm wealth and resources to the various Maratha confederates, rather than rule, govern and forge an internally strong imperial state.
This is why it became so decentralised. And hence there was no one unified vision for the state itself - it was more like each to his own. Hence they weren't able to utilize the scale of the state for having one unified idea of state structure, cooperation of people (from where comes patriotism), economy and defence. The military decline is just a reflection of this. Hence you find this contradiction of feeble attempts at improvement trying to stem the larger forces of decline.
India has a history of getting overwhelmed by foreign incursions whenever the internal structure has become decentralised, and there is no one strong imperial state.
Be it the Kushanas, Shakas, Hunas invaded us in early centuries CE, or the Turko-Afghan invasions in 11-13th centuries or the Colonial invasions post 16th century, it's our internal disunity, lack of coherent vision that defeated us.
With great difficulty we united in the middle of last century and thanks to WW II mainly we were able to become independent in 1947. But now 7 decades on I see those centrifugal fissiparous tendencies gradually increasing again. Around half of Indians put primacy on nationalism, unity but there are maybe 30 p.c. at least for whom nationalism is not that high on priority vs other things like their caste, religion, ethnicity.
And cunning as the EITC was they started to shift their times of attack when the Maratha forces were engaged in synchronised dancing!
😂😂
It is later that they've realised that , they couldn't outdance the dance !!!!
The damn Maratha's are a constant thorn in my side in TW Empire. Take the island off the coast of India, befriend them, and otherwise just try to leave that whole region alone 😆
absolute swag
Read the person who defeated Napoleon and what he said about maratha
Hey, make a video on the Sikh Empire pls
Yo, a pre cursor to a video about the Presidency armies?
👀
Good video and a nice introduction to Maratha army, but I suggest you to study briefly on the military costumes or uniforms which were present in India from 200 BC you can study types of uniform and military gears described in Chanyak niti there are also medicine to make able to infantry men to walk long and medicines to see in dark ,you can see its crude form in a drug made by use of a little house lizard, uniforms ,shoes and a military gear was in use from long ago and you can study it in various kings granths which were written by them from time to time. I hope you will not ignore this.
How did you fail to mention that the Congreve rocket was a development from the Mysore rockets of Tipu? The Marathas, who fought Tipu and his father, Hyder Ali, also used it. It is moot who learnt it, the manufacture of rockets, from whom.
@2:38 Hindi words? mate those are Marathi words, language of the Marathas
Actually all Indic languages comes from Sanskrit including the word "Chattrapati".
"Chattrapati" probably comes from Sanskrit "khāstriyā-pāti" means "king of warriors" or "khshāthrā-pāti" meaning"Ruler of Provences"
Also it may be comes from Sanskrit words "kshetrā-Land" "Pāti-Owner/Ruler"
@@Indo-Aryan9644 yes that is true, Marathi evolved from Maharashtri-Prakrit and Sanskrit and has a lot of Sanskrit influence.
@@Indo-Aryan9644 No chhatrapati means "Lord of the umbrella(chhatra)".
Heck yeah, lindybeige shoutout
The word Gardee is a corruption of Guardo.Gaurdos were native Indian soldiers who were in the employment of East India Company. Those of them who joined Marathas came to be known as Gardees.Gardees were never a caste as such.
Marathas were Saviours of Hindus
Marathas were a power to regularly defeat Foreign invaders ( Mughals, Afghan, Portuguese, British) in pitched combat. probably the only power defeat British in a pitched war like first Anglo Maratha war. Also they managed to defeat Portuguese under leadership of Chimaji appa brother of Peshwa bajirao.
when did the Marathas defeat the british and how ? if so then why couldn't they defeat the british in the 2nd anglo Maratha war ?
@@theinformationbomber7102because there were power struggle in Marathas themselves
@@saurabhmehta5018and the British were busy fighting a much bigger threat called Napoleonic France.
@@vatsal7640 nah not really Britain used native soldiers to fight it's wars in India
@@saurabhmehta5018 uhhh..
Napoleonic France took on 3 superpowers at once was rarely ever defeated!
What do you mean by nah ???
Lol!! and the native indian Soldiers were led by British generals, not to mention, large number of Scots and irish soldiers in india at that time.
Australian and Canadian soldiers fought under the British in ww2.
Doesn't mean Australia amor canada won the war