The Maratha Period

The Maratha Period, 1674 to 1818, was the era of the Maratha Empire's rise as the dominant power in much of the Indian subcontinent, founded by Chhatrapati Shivaji, who carved a Hindu kingdom out of Mughal and Bijapur territory in western India through a combination of guerrilla warfare and fortress strategy. Under later Peshwa ministers the Maratha Confederacy expanded across most of India, decisively weakening Mughal authority, before a catastrophic defeat by an Afghan invasion at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 checked its northward expansion. The Marathas remained the chief obstacle to British dominance in India until a series of Anglo-Maratha Wars ended in their final defeat and annexation by the British East India Company in 1818.