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The Sikh Empire was a state in the north-western part of the Indian Subcontinent (present-day India and Pakistan) from 1799 to 1849. The Sikh Empire was a secular state

Ranjit Singh was crowned on April 12, 1801 (to coincide with Baisakhi). Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak Dev, conducted the coronation. Gujranwala served as his capital from 1799. In 1802 he shifted his capital to Lahore and Amritsar. Ranjit Singh rose to power in a very short period, from a leader of a single Sikh misl to finally becoming the Maharaja of Punjab.

Background
At the start of the Sikh Empire, the Punjab region was divided into fourteen warring principalities. The Sikh Confederacy had lost it unity and strength and its member misls were at odds with each other, Zaman Shah and the Afghans were attempting to annex the punjab region as a province, the British East India Company's sphere of influence was growing closer to the Punjab, the Pathans had started establishing towns in the region, and the hindu Hill states encircled the Punjab. "In the 1790s, the Punjab looked like a jig-saw puzzle consisting of fourteen pieces with five arrows piercing it from the sides. Twelve of these fourteen pieces were the Sikh Misals; the other two, the Pathan-controlled district of Kasur in the neighbourhood of Lahore, and Hansi in the south-east under the English adventurer, George Thomas. The five arrows were: The Afghans in the north-west; the Rajputs of Kangra in the north; the Gorkhas in the north-east; the British in the east; and the Marathas in the southeast." The Punjab region had no individually strong power but was a collection of "small, disintegrated states". In 1783, George Forster noted that the Sikh Misls were not not united due to "discordant interests", but that "Should any future cause call forth the combined efforts of the Sikhs to maintain the existence of empire and religion, we may see some ambitious chief led on by his genius and successes, and, absorbing the power of his associates, display, from the ruins of their commonwealth, the standard of monarchy."

Expansion
After Ranjit Singh captured Lahore and established the Sikh Empire in 1801, Ranjit Singh engaged the empire in campaigns of expansion. The first campaigns reduced the Sikh Misls and other states of the punjab region to tributary status. The Sikh Empire captured the historical Multan district in 1818 and Kashmir and Punchh in 1819 which eliminated Afghan influence east of the Indus. In 1823, the empire reduced the Peshewar valley to suzerainty status and annexed it in 1834.

End of Empire
After Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the empire was severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. This opportunity was used by the British Empire to launch the Anglo-Sikh Wars.

The Battle of Ferozeshah in 1845 marked many turning points, the British encountered the Punjabi Army, opening with a gun-duel in which the Sikhs "had the better of the British artillery". But as the British made advancements, Europeans in their army were especially targeted, as the Sikhs believed if the army "became demoralised, the backbone of the enemy's position would be broken". The fighting continued throughout the night earning the nickname "night of terrors". The British position "grew graver as the night wore on", and "suffered terrible casualties with every single member of the Governor General's staff either killed or wounded".

British General Sire James Hope Grant recorded: "Truly the night was one of gloom and forbidding and perhaps never in the annals of warfare has a British Army on such a large scale been nearer to a defeat which would have involved annihilation"

The Punjabi ended up recovering their camp, and the British were exhausted. Lord Hardinge sent his son to Mudki with a sword from his Napoleonic campaigns. A note in Robert Needham Cust's diary revealed that the "British generals decided to lay down arms: News came from the Governor General that our attack of yesterday had failed, that affairs were disparate, all state papers were to be destroyed, and that if the morning attack failed all would be over, this was kept secret by Mr.Currie and we were considering measures to make an unconditional surrender to save the wounded..." .

However, a series of events of the Sikhs being betrayed by some prominent leaders in the army led to its downfall. Maharaja Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh, were Hindu Dogras from Jammu, and top Generals of the army. Tej Singh and Lal Singh were secretly allied to the British. They supplied important war plans of the Army, and provided the British with updated vital intelligence on the Army dealings, which ended up changing the scope of the war and benefiting the British positions.

The Sikh Empire was finally dissolved after a series of wars with the British at the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab, which were granted statehood. Eventually, a Lieutenant Governorship was formed in Lahore as a direct representative of the British Crown.

Geography


The Punjab region was a region straddling India and Afghanistan. The following modern day political divisions made up the historical Sikh Empire:
 * Punjab region till Multan in south
 * Punjab, India
 * Punjab, Pakistan
 * Haryana, India.
 * Himachal Pradesh, India

Jamrud, Khyber Agency District was the westernmost limit of the Sikh Empire. The westward expansion was stopped in the Battle of Jamrud, in which the Afghans managed to kill prominent Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa in an offensive, though the Sikhs successfully held their position at their Jamrud fort.
 * Kashmir, conquered in 1818, India/Pakistan/China
 * Jammu, India
 * Gilgit, Northern Areas, Pakistan (Occupied from 1842–1846)
 * Khyber Pass, Afghanistan/Pakistan
 * Peshawar, Pakistan (taken in 1818, retaken in 1834)
 * North-West Frontier Province and FATA, Pakistan (documented from Hazara (taken in 1818, again in 1836) to Bannu)
 * Parts of Western Tibet (1841), China

Timeline

 * 1762 - 1767, Invasion of Ahmed Shah Abdali.
 * 1763 - 1774, Charat Singh Sukerchakia, Misldar of Sukerchakia misl established himself in Gujranwala.
 * 1773, Ahmed Shah Abdali dies and his son Timur Shah launches several invasions of Punjab.
 * 1774 - 1790, Maha Singh becomes Misldar of the Sukerchakia misl.
 * 1790 - 1801, Ranjit Singh becomes Misldar of the Sukerchakia misl.
 * 1801 April 12, Coronation of Ranjit Singh as Maharaja.
 * 1801 - 27 June 1839, Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose coronation took place in 1801.
 * 27 June 1839 - 5 November 1840, Reign of Maharaja Kharak Singh
 * 5 November 1840 - 18 January 1841, Chand Kaur was briefly Regent
 * 18 January 1841 - 15 September 1843, Reign of Maharaja Sher Singh
 * 15 September 1843 - 31 March 1849, Reign of Maharaja Duleep Singh