The Bengal Subah (Bengali: সুবাহ বাংলা; Persian: صوبه بنگاله), also referred to as Mughal Bengal (Bengali: মোগল বাংলা), was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire (and later an independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal) encompassing much of the Bengal region, which includes modern Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, Indian state of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odissa between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, when the region was absorbed into one of the gunpowder empires. Bengal was the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent, due to their thriving merchants, Seth's, Bankers and traders and its proto-industrial economy showed signs of driving an Industrial revolution.
Bengal Subah has been variously described the "Paradise of Nations"[6] and the "Golden Age of Bengal",[7][8] due to its inhabitants' living standards and real wages, which were among the highest in the world.[9] It alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia.[10] The eastern part of Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding,[11] and it was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world.[12] The region was also the basis of the Anglo-Bengal War.[13]
Dutch East India Company factory in Hugli-Chuchura, Bengal by Hendrik van Schuylenburgh (c. 1665)
By the 18th century, Bengal emerged as an independent state, under the rule of the Nawabs of Bengal, it has started observing the proto-industrialization, which made direct significant contribution to the first Industrial Revolution[14][15][16][17] (substantially textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution), but it also led to its deindustrialization,[14][15][16][12] after being conquered by the British East India Company at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The Subah was later established as the Bengal Presidency.
