10 Historical Leaders Who Financially Ruined Their Countries
5. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb was the sixth Mughal Emperor who ruled over most of India for nearly half a century, from 1658 until his death in 1707.
Aurangzeb abandoned the legacy of pluralism in India, initiating a policy of Islamization and religious oppression. Rebellions and wars led to the exhaustion of the imperial Mughal treasury and army. He was a strong and brutal ruler, but following his death the dominance of Mughals came to an abrupt end, and occupied territory of the empire declined rapidly.
Although he did not use the royal treasury for extravagant lifestyle, he did finance extremely expensive building projects such as the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, which for 313 years was the world’s largest mosque.
Throughout his reign, Aurangzeb engaged in almost constant warfare. He built up a massive army and began a program of military expansion along all the boundaries of his empire. This constant warfare drove his empire to the brink of bankruptcy. Famine and bubonic plague became a common place toward the end of his reign.
