The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1670–1818
The Marathas built 300 hill forts to stop the Mughals — and the British walked around them
The Maratha Empire's defence was its hill forts: 300 fortresses that stopped the Mughals for a century. The British bypassed them and took the plains.
Maratha Empire
From historyHistory and classical literature, legend included. An analogy to think with, not a modern precedent.
What it means today
Every company that builds its defence against the last competitor — the patent wall against the last entrant, the pricing strategy against the last price war — faces the Maratha fort question: will the next attack look like the last one?
What happened
The Maratha Empire's defence was its hill forts: over 300 fortresses in the Western Ghats, built by Shivaji in the 1670s to resist the Mughal Empire. The forts were the backbone of Maratha military strategy: they controlled the mountain passes, protected the countryside, and forced the Mughals into costly sieges.
The fort system worked against the Mughals for a century. But the British East India Company did not fight the Mughals' war. The British did not storm the hill forts; they bypassed them, took the plains, and cut off the forts' supply lines. The forts, designed to stop a Mughal siege, were useless against a British army that did not besiege them.
By 1818, the Maratha Empire had fallen. The hill forts were taken one by one, not by storm but by starvation and negotiation. The defence that had stopped the Mughals for a century could not stop the British, because the British fought a different war. The Maratha fort system is cited in Indian military history as the definitive case of a defence built for the last attack.
Why it happened
- The Maratha fort system was designed to stop the Mughals: it controlled the mountain passes, forced sieges, and protected the countryside. The British did not fight the Mughals' war; they bypassed it
- The forts were a static defence in a war that required mobility. The British army was faster, better supplied, and more flexible. The forts could not adapt to a different kind of war
- The Maratha Empire's political fragmentation weakened the fort system: the Peshwa, Scindia, Holkar, and Bhonsle each controlled their own forts, and could not coordinate a unified defence
The lesson
A defence built for the last attack is a monument, not a defence. The Maratha forts stopped the Mughals for a century, but they could not stop the British, because the British fought a different war.
Aftermath
The Maratha Empire fell in 1818 after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The hill forts were taken over by the British and later by the Indian government. Many of the forts are now tourist attractions and historical sites. The Maratha fort system is studied in Indian military academies as a case of a defence that was perfectly adapted to one threat and useless against another.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
The Mughals built 200 years of defence against cavalry — Nadir Shah brought artillery
The Rajputs trusted hill forts built to outlast siege — Mughal artillery breached them
Vijayanagara built its army around elephants — then artillery broke it
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.