Mughal successor states
The Mughal successor states were the regional polities that emerged in the Indian subcontinent during the first half of the 18th century as the administrative and military authority of the Mughal Empire disintegrated after the 1707 death of Aurangzeb. Conventionally dated from Aurangzeb's death to the consolidation of British paramountcy by the middle of the 19th century, the term denotes the semi-autonomous provincial governments that converted their subahs into hereditary holdings while continuing, at least in form, to acknowledge the emperor at Delhi: the Nawabs of Bengal, the Nawabs of Awadh, the Nizams of Hyderabad, and the Nawabs of Arcot.