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This is such a fun visualization, I’m going to try and do a history of India 1500-2019 using screenshots from it.
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10 most populous cities in the world from 1500-2018. #dataviz reddit.com/r/dataisbeauti
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1500: Islamic sultanates are still struggling to expand out of their base in Delhi. “India” is best represented by Vijaynagar, the Hindu kingdom in the south, roughly modern Karnataka where I’m from. There is no evidence I’m not descended from kings of Vijaynagar. Wtf is Gauda?
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1560s: Blink-and-you-miss-it, coalition of Deccan Sultanates takes Vijaynagar down. You can visit the ruins at Hampi, a world heritage site. On my bucket list. In the North the Mughals have just gotten started. Akbar has not yet risen to greatness. They’re not on map yet.
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1596: Who will shape the future more, the Gujarati trader-sailors out of Ahmedabad, or the successors of Vijaynagar, Bijapur, the biggest of the Deccan sultanates? Will Akbar promote pre-modern mercantile trade or insular medievalism?
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1600 - 1720s: Aaaand.... trade pulls ahead in the next century! Good job Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jansen. Not enough sadly. The world is pulling ahead. The Europeans are coming!
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1739: Oh noes! No Indian city in the top 10. The Mughal empire is in sharp decline after Bad Emperor Aurangzeb. It’s a few decades before Plassey. European powers are still getting chess pieces on the board.
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1852 -1872: Before and after the 1856 revolt... the mercantile base created by the Portuguese is still the biggest city, but the Company has given way to the Crown. Calcutta rises.
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1920-1940: After nearly a century of post-Company British Raj, even Calcutta drops off the leaderboard. But makes a brief appearance again on the eve of WW2.
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And finally after independence and half a century of stagnation under Nehruvian socialism, something of a return. 1998-2015, just before internet to today. Commie Calcutta is out, IT/politics power Delhi finally pulls ahead if mercantile power Bombay.
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