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16th century complicated interconnections between European and Indian powers

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interconnections gave way to interdependence

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from changing commodities with each other, they also became aware of each other

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began exporting slaves from Africa, deployed in the new colonies

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slaves and colonies were used to create new levels of wealth which was used to change the relations with the rest of the world

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a paradox at the heart of global history

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in India, we witnessed the ways which the transformations began the slow secular erosion of central authority in the Mughal Empire

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Mughal Empire had built up a compound machine that tied local chieftains and kingdoms to central Mughal authority

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this began to erode over the 17th century

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new decentralized coalitions emerged between European power brokers and local power brokers at the expense of centralized Mughal authority

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gave rise to a steady state of warfare which eventually engulfed Bengal, then the richest province of the Mughal Empire

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1739: defeated in the Battle of Karnal by the forces of Nader Shah

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Nader Shah saw himself as a latter-day Genghis Khan

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sacked Dehli and carried away the emperors throne

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the paradox was the way the new money and new concentrations of wealth shift the balances of power

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favored new kinds of regimes in Europe

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the struggle for power motivated the drive for new sources of wealth, a paradox which fueled the instability of the 17th century

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brought the Spanish and the Portuguese into a struggle of religious orthodoxy

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Europe's religious divisions

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Protestants vs. Catholics

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Reformation and Counter Reformation

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1618-1648: Thirty Years War

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spread of political violence

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reached its high water marker in the 1640s

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Treaty of Westphalia

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defined the political boundaries

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buried the hatchet

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then turned their sites to colonies in the new world

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peace on the continent translated into war abroad

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tensions resolved at home and began again abroad

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led to mini world wars starting in the 1750s and, one might argue, do not really end until the end of the Cold War in 19989

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in this way the treaty of Westphalia is a hinge in global history