ANGLO-AFGHAN WARS AND THE GREAT GAME IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan served as a buffer zone between British interests in South Asia and Soviet interests in Central Asia. Both the Russians and British also worried about the affect of the unruly tribesmen in Afghanistan on their respective empires. In the end, Afghanistan was allowed to become independent largely because it didn’t seem like it was worth the trouble of conquering.
Dost Mohammad ruled Afghanistan at the beginning of the Great Game period in the 19th century, when Britain and Russia maneuvered against each to gain control of Central Asia. During this period, Afghan rulers were able to maintain virtual independence, although some compromises were necessary. In 1838 , the British defeated the Sikhs and took the Punjab Valley and Peshawar Valley in what is now Pakistan. From there they began making moves into the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs in part to subvert Russian influence in the area. The British wanted to make Afghanistan a buffer state to protect British India from Russian expansion. Afghan wars of 1839-1842, 1878-1880 and 1919 were fomented by British fears of Russian expansion.
In the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42), the British deposed Dost Mohammad, but they abandoned their Afghan garrisons in 1842. In the following decades, Russian forces approached the northern border of Afghanistan. In 1878 the British invaded and held most of Afghanistan in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. In 1880 Abdur Rahman, a Durrani, began a 21-year reign that saw the balancing of British and Russian interests, the consolidation of the Afghan tribes, and the reorganization of civil administration into what is considered the modern Afghan state. During this period, the British secured the Durand Line (1893), dividing Afghanistan from British colonial territory to the southeast and sowing the seeds of future tensions over the division of the Pashtun tribes. Abdur Rahman’s son Habibullah (ruled 1901–19) continued his father’s administrative reforms and maintained Afghanistan’s neutrality in World War I. [Source: Library of Congress, August 2008 **]
See Separate Article THE GREAT GAME
Rise of Dost Mohammad
It was not until 1826 that the energetic Dost Mohammad was able to exert sufficient control over his brothers to take over the throne in Kabul, where he proclaimed himself amir. Although the British had begun to show interest in Afghanistan as early as their 1809 treaty with Shuja, it was not until the reign of Dost Mohammad, first of the Muhammadzai rulers, that the opening gambits were played in what came to be known as the "Great Game." The Great Game set in motion the confrontation of the British and Russian empires — whose spheres of influence moved steadily closer to one another until they met in Afghanistan. It also involved Britain's repeated attempts to impose a puppet government in Kabul. The remainder of the nineteenth century saw greater European involvement in Afghanistan and her surrounding territories and heightened conflict among the ambitious local rulers as Afghanistan's fate played out globally.[Source: Library of Congress, 1997 *]
Dost Mohammad achieved prominence among his brothers through clever use of the support of his mother's Qizilbash tribesmen and his own youthful apprenticeship under his brother, Fateh Khan. Among the many problems he faced was repelling Sikh encroachment on the Pashtun areas east of the Khyber Pass. After working assiduously to establish control and stability in his domains around Kabul, the amir next chose to confront the Sikhs. *
In 1834 Dost Mohammad defeated an invasion by the former ruler, Shah Shuja, but his absence from Kabul gave the Sikhs the opportunity to expand westward. Ranjit Singh's forces occupied Peshawar, moving from there into territory ruled directly by Kabul. In 1836 Dost Mohammad's forces, under the command of his son Akbar Khan, defeated the Sikhs at Jamrud, a post fifteen kilometers west of Peshawar. The Afghan leader did not follow up this triumph by retaking Peshawar, however, but instead contacted Lord Auckland, the new British governor general in India, for help in dealing with the Sikhs. With this letter, Dost Mohammad formally set the stage for British intervention in Afghanistan. At the heart of the Great Game lay the willingness of Britain and Russia to subdue, subvert, or subjugate the small independent states that lay between them. *
Dost Mohammad, Britain and Russia
The debacle of the Afghan civil war left a vacuum in the Hindu Kush area that concerned the British, who were well aware of the many times in history it had been employed as the invasion route to India. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, it became clear to the British that the major threat to their interests in India would not come from the fragmented Afghan empire, the Iranians, or the French, but from the Russians, who had already begun a steady advance southward from the Caucasus. [Source: Library of Congress, 1997 *]
At the same time, the Russians feared permanent British occupation in Central Asia as the British encroached northward, taking the Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. The British viewed Russia's absorption of the Caucasus, the Kirghiz and Turkmen lands, and the Khanates of Khiva and Bukhara with equal suspicion as a threat to their interests in the Indian subcontinent. *
In addition to this rivalry between Britain and Russia, there were two specific reasons for British concern over Russia's intentions. First was the Russian influence at the Iranian court, which prompted the Russians to support Iran in its attempt to take Herat, historically the western gateway to Afghanistan and northern India. In 1837 Iran advanced on Herat with the support and advice of Russian officers. The second immediate reason was the presence in Kabul in 1837 of a Russian agent, Captain P. Vitkevich, who was ostensibly there, as was the British agent Alexander Burnes, for commercial discussions. *
The British demanded that Dost Mohammad sever all contact with the Iranians and Russians, remove Vitkevich from Kabul, surrender all claims to Peshawar, and respect Peshawar's independence as well as that of Qandahar, which was under the control of his brothers at the time. In return, the British government intimated that it would ask Ranjit Singh to reconcile with the Afghans. When Auckland refused to put the agreement in writing, Dost Mohammad turned his back on the British and began negotiations with Vitkevich. *
In 1838 Auckland, Ranjit Singh, and Shuja signed an agreement stating that Shuja would regain control of Kabul and Qandahar with the help of the British and Sikhs; he would accept Sikh rule of the former Afghan provinces already controlled by Ranjit Singh, and that Herat would remain independent. In practice, the plan replaced Dost Mohammad with a British figurehead whose autonomy would be as limited as that of other Indian princes. *
It soon became apparent to the British that Sikh participation — advancing toward Kabul through the Khyber Pass while Shuja and the British advanced through Qandahar — would not be forthcoming. Auckland's plan in the spring of 1838 was for the Sikhs — with British support — to place Shuja on the Afghan throne. By summer's end, however, the plan had changed; now the British alone would impose the pliant Shuja. *
First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-42)
In 1839, Britain ousted the Afghan leader Dost Mohammed and installed a hand-picked ruler, which resulted in an uprising. The conflict reached its peak in 1841, when a Briton named Alexander “Bokhara” Burns was killed and mutilated by an Afghan mob and the British garrison in Kabul was attacked. The British attempted to retreat to India but were savagely attacked at the Khyber Pass by Afghan tribesmen. Of 16,000 men only a handful survived. The entire episode lasted until 1842 and became known as the First Afghan War. In some cases Afghans were able to defeat British guns with spears and horses. The British later managed to make their way back to Kabul and extract a little revenge by doing some razing and massacring of their own. Even so, the British lost the First Afghan War when the puppet leader was murdered and Dost Mohammed was reinstated.
In October 1838, Auckland issued the Simla Manifesto, setting forth the necessary reasons for British intervention in Afghanistan. The manifesto stated that in order to insure the welfare of India, the British must have a trustworthy ally on India's western frontier. The British pretense that their troops were merely supporting Shuja's small army in retaking what was once his throne fooled no one. Although the Simla Manifesto stated that British troops would be withdrawn as soon as Shuja was installed in Kabul, Shuja's rule depended entirely on British arms to suppress rebellion and on British funds to buy the support of tribal chiefs. The British denied that they were invading Afghanistan, instead claiming they were merely supporting its legitimate Shuja government "against foreign interference and factious opposition." [Source: Library of Congress, 1997 *]
From the British point of view, the First Anglo-Afghan War (often called "Auckland's Folly") was an unmitigated disaster, despite the ease with which Dost Mohammad was deposed and Shuja enthroned. An army of British and Indian troops set out from the Punjab in December 1838 and reached Quetta by late March 1839. A month later, the British took Qandahar without a battle. In July, after a two-month delay in Qandahar, the British attacked the fortress of Ghazni, overlooking a plain leading to India, and achieved a decisive victory over Dost Mohammad's troops led by one of his sons. Dost Mohammad fled with his loyal followers across the passes to Bamian, and ultimately to Bukhara. In August 1839, after almost thirty years, Shuja was again enthroned in Kabul. Some British troops returned to India, but it soon became clear that Shuja's rule could only be maintained with the presence of British forces. After he unsuccessfully attacked the British and their Afghan protégé, Dost Mohammad surrendered to them and was exiled in India in late 1840. *
By October 1841, however, disaffected Afghan tribes were flocking to support Dost Mohammad's son, Mohammad Akbar, in Bamian. On January 1, 1842, their presence no longer wanted, an agreement was reached that provided for the safe exodus of the British garrison and its dependents from Afghanistan. Five days later, the retreat began, and as they struggled through the snowbound passes, the British were attacked by Ghilzai warriors. Although Dr. W. Brydon is frequently mentioned as the only survivor of the march to Jalalabad — out of a column of more than 16,000 (consisting of about 4,500 military personnel, both British and Indian, along with as many as 12,000 camp followers) who undertook the retreat — a few more survived as prisoners and hostages. His British protectors gone, Shuja remained in power only a few months before being assassinated in April 1842. *
The complete destruction of the garrison prompted brutal retaliation by the British against the Afghans and touched off yet another power struggle for dominance of Afghanistan. In the fall of 1842, British forces from Qandahar and Peshawar entered Kabul just long enough to rescue the few British prisoners and burn the Great Bazaar. Although the foreign invasion provided the Afghan tribes with a temporary sense of unity they had previously lacked, the loss of life and property was followed by a bitter resentment of foreign influence. *
After the First Anglo-Afghan War
The Russians advanced steadily southward toward Afghanistan in the three decades after the First Anglo-Afghan War. In 1842 the Russian border was on the other side of the Aral Sea from Afghanistan, but five short years later the tsar's outposts had moved to the lower reaches of the Amu Darya. By 1865 Tashkent had been formally annexed, as was Samarkand three years later. A peace treaty in 1868 with Amir Muzaffar al-Din, the ruler of Bukhara, virtually stripped him of his independence. Russian control now extended as far as the northern bank of the Amu Darya. [Source: Library of Congress, 1997 *]
After months of chaos in Kabul, Mohammad Akbar secured local control and in April 1843 his father, Dost Mohammad, returned to the throne in Afghanistan. During the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848-49), his last effort to take Peshawar failed. By 1854 the British wanted to resume relations with Dost Mohammad, whom they had essentially ignored in the intervening twelve years. The 1855 Treaty of Peshawar reopened diplomatic relations, proclaimed respect for each side's territorial integrity, and pledged both sides as friends of each other's friends and enemies of each other's enemies. In 1857 an addendum to the 1855 treaty permitted a British military mission to become a presence in Qandahar (but not to Kabul) during a conflict with the Iranians, who had attacked Herat in 1856. In 1863 Dost Mohammad retook Herat with British acquiescence. A few months later, Dost Mohammad died. Sher Ali, his third son, and proclaimed successor, failed to recapture Kabul from his older brother, Mohammad Afzal (whose troops were led by his son, Abdur Rahman) until 1868, after which Abdur Rahman retreated across the Amu Darya and bided his time. *
In the years immediately following the First Anglo-Afghan War, and especially after the 1857 uprising against the British (known as the Sepoy Rebellion) in India, Liberal Party governments in London took a political view of Afghanistan as a buffer state. By the time Sher Ali had established control in Kabul in 1868, he found the British ready to support his regime with arms and funds, but nothing more. From then on, relations between the Afghan ruler and Britain deteriorated steadily over the next ten years. The Afghan ruler was worried about the southward encroachment of Russia, which by 1873 had taken over the lands of the khan, or ruler, of Khiva. Sher Ali sent an envoy seeking British advice and support. The previous year, however, the British had signed an agreement with the Russians in which the latter agreed to respect the northern boundaries of Afghanistan and to view the territories of the Afghan amir as outside their sphere of influence. The British, however, refused to give any assurances to the disappointed Sher Ali. *
Second Anglo-Afghan War
In 1878, the British invaded Afghan territory again to halt Russian expansion. It was a similar effort as in the First Afghan War and had a similar result. The British showed they could defeat Afghan armies and occupy Afghan cities but they had difficulty maintaining order and getting a return on their investment for resources. British forces won some engagements but the results were brief occupations, destruction and subsequent withdrawals.
After tension between Russia and Britain in Europe ended with the June 1878 Congress of Berlin, Russia turned its attention to Central Asia. That same summer, Russia sent an uninvited diplomatic mission to Kabul. Sher Ali tried, but failed, to keep them out. Russian envoys arrived in Kabul on July 22, 1878 and on August 14, the British demanded that Sher Ali accept their mission. [Source: Library of Congress, 1997 *]
The amir not only refused to receive a British mission but threatened to stop it if it were dispatched. Lord Lytton, the viceroy, called Sher Ali's bluff and ordered a diplomatic mission to set out for Kabul on November 21, 1878. The mission was turned back as it approached the eastern entrance of the Khyber Pass, thus triggering the Second Anglo-Afghan War. A British force of about 40,000 fighting men were distributed into military columns which penetrated Afghanistan at three different points. An alarmed Sher Ali attempted to appeal in person to the tsar for assistance, but unable to do so, he returned to Mazar-e-Sharif, where he died the following February. *
With British forces occupying much of the country, Sher Ali's son and successor, Yaqub, signed the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879 to prevent a British invasion of the rest of the country. According to this agreement and in return for an annual subsidy and vague assurances of assistance in case of foreign aggression, Yaqub relinquished control of Afghan foreign affairs to the British. British representatives were installed in Kabul and other locations, British control was extended to the Khyber and Michni passes, and the Afghanistan ceded various frontier areas to Britain. An Afghan uprising opposed to the Treaty of Gandamak was foiled in October 1879. A noted historian, W. Kerr Fraser-Tytler, suggests that Yaqub abdicated because he did not wish to suffer the same fate that befell Shah Shuja following the first war. *
In 1879, following the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Afghan government conceded control of all the major passes into India to the British. The Durand Line was drawn in 1893 to mark the line between British influence and Afghan influence. It is now the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After the Second Anglo-Afghan War
After realizing that Afghanistan was unconquerable the British managed to maintain a degree of influence there by offering bribes in the form large annual subsidies to the king. After Afghanistan and Britain signed the Treaty of Gandamak in 1879, the Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan was given authority over internal affairs, but Britain kept control of international affairs.
The British established a mission in Kabul but almost immediately after it was set up all of the British residents stationed there were murdered. After that Britain exercised control over the region from a distance.
In 1893 and 1895, a border was drawn up to separate British India from Afghanistan. Known as the Durnand Line, it split the Pashtun ethic group, so that roughly half was in Afghanistan and half was in what is now Pakistan. This border established in part to weaken the Pashtuns power in the hope they would be absorbed by the Raj. That didn’t happen. Later the border was the source of conflicts between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many Afghans still refer to eastern Pakistan as Pashtunistan.
In 1897, the Khyber forts and the Malkand and Chakdarr forts were attacked. More than 60,000 troops were put into action by the British. Among them was Winston Churchill, who saw action as a cavalry officer in Afghanistan, Sudan and South Africa. In 1897 he fought wild tribesman near he Khyber Pass. In 1898 he joined Lord Kitchener in the Sudan for one of last great cavalry charges at Omurdurman. At the age of 24 he wrote his mother: "I never felt the slightest nervousness. I felt as cool as I do now."
Struggle in the Pamirs and the End of the Great Game
The capture of Merv and the Pandejah oasis by the Russians in 1884, raised alarm that the Russians were going to try and annex Afghanistan and the Pamirs. The British controlled the Punjab Valley and Peshawar Valley in northern Pakistan.
Both the Russians and Britons set up offices in Kashgar and were courting leaders in the Pamirs, Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains and using spies, posing as explorers, traders, Muslim imam and Buddhist monks to establish contacts and keep an eye on the enemy.
The British were angered by presence of Russian troops in the Pamirs and proceeded to seize the Hunza valley in northern Pakistan. Around the same time the Russians were fighting in northeast Afghanistan.
All of this activity brought Russia and Britain to the negotiating table. A series of agreements hammered out in 1895 and 1907 that gave the Russian the Pamirs (present-day Tajikstan) and established the Wakhan Corridor, the finger of Afghanistan that touches China. The Wakhan corridor was attached to northeast Afghanistan as a no-man land between Russia-controlled Central Asia and Britain-controlled India (Pakistan). The agreement on the Pamirs for all intents and purposes brought the Great Game to an end. But spy activity in Kashgar and other places continued.
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Last updated April 2016