British Imperialism in

AfghanistanDecember 4, 2012

John Palmer Rea

Background

• Afghanistan was a key

to India

• Was a main piece in the

“Great Game”

• Struggle between the

UK and Russia

First anglo-afghan war

• 1839

• British invasion of Afghanistan

• Needed to secure Afghanistan because of its

importance in the Great Game

• Also, to expand the British East India Company

• Initially, this was a success.

• Great Britian attempted repeatedly to impose a

puppet government

1st A-A War, ctd.

• 1842

• Failure started coming about, both in the military and

political realms.

• Slaughter of British army

• Afghan puppet ruler tried to convince Afghans that he

convinced the British to leave

• British bail out of Afghanistan.

Second anglo-afghan war

• Provoked by a new interest by Russia

• Treaty of Gandamak – British vowed to not go

further into Afghanistan.

• The British imposed head was revolted against and

taken off the thrown and the British run out of town.

• British argued they “preserved honor” by massacring

Afghan villages as they marched out.

Durand line

• 1893

• British imperialist government demanded to draw a line

between Afghanistan and British India

• This was an informal end to British imperialistic influence

in Afghanistan.

• A similar line was tried twice before, but did not work.

• Two goals in the eyes of the British

• Gain as much land and population of Afghanistan as

possible

• Establish a defensive perimeter and control passes of the

Hindu Kush mountains

Durand Line

repercussions

• Durand Line laid a foundation for a rocky

relationship between Afghanistan and all other

countries.

• All things considered, this worked out well for the

British as they could control British India well, but it

was not a great victory by any stretch.

• Afghanistan lost 1/3 of its population and some of its

most fertile land in the Peshawar region.

• Eventually, Afghanistan gained their independence

after the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

Bibliography

Barthorp, Michael. Afghan Wars and the North-West Frontier, 1839-1947. London: Cassell, 2002. Print.

Forbes, Archibald. The Afghan Wars, 1839-42 and 1878-80. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1892. Print.

J.A. Norris. Anglo-Afghan Relations. Encyclopedia Iranica. 2010. Online.

Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban. New York: Da Capo, 2002. Print.

Vogelsang, W. J. The Afghans. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2002. Print.