Unlike their predecessors, the Mughals created a huge empire and accomplished what had hitherto seemed possible for only short periods of time. From the latter half of the 16th century they expanded their kingdom from Agra and Delhi until in the 17th century they controlled nearly all the subcontinent. They imposed structures of administrations and ideas of governance that outlasted their rule, leaving a political legacy that succeeding rulers of the subcontinent could not overlook.