Affairs of State

Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80

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Title: The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80
Author: Archibald Forbes
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8428] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 9, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AFGHAN WARS ***

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[Illustration: Sir Frederick Roberts]
* * * * *
THE AFGHAN WARS 1839-42 AND 1878-80
by ARCHIBALD FORBES
With Portraits and Plans
* * * * *
CONTENTS

PART I.--THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR
CHAP.
I.--PRELIMINARY
II.--THE MARCH TO CABUL
III.--THE FIRST YEAR OF OCCUPATION
IV.--THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION
V.--THE BEGINNING OF THE END
VI.--THE ROAD TO RUIN
VII.--THE CATASTROPHE
VIII.--THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF JELLALABAD
IX.--RETRIBUTION AND RESCUE

PART II.--THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR
I.--THE FIRST CAMPAIGN
II.--THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN
III.--THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM
IV.--THE DECEMBER STORM
V.--ON THE DEFENSIVE IN SHERPUR
VI.--AHMED KHEL
VII.--THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN
VIII.--MAIWAND AND THE GREAT MARCH
IX.--THE BATTLE OF CANDAHAR * * * * *
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
PORTRAIT OF SIR FREDERICK ROBERTS Frontispiece PLAN OF CABUL, THE CANTONMENT
PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE POLLOCK
PORTRAIT OF SIR LOUIS CAVAGNARI AND SIRDARS
PLAN OF CABUL SHOWING THE ACTIONS, DEC. 11-14
PLAN OF ACTION, AHMED KHEL
PORTRAIT OF THE AMEER ABDURRAHMAN
PLAN OF THE ACTION OF MAIWAND
PLAN OF THE ACTION OF CANDAHAR
_The Portraits of Sir G. Pollock and Sir F. Roberts are engraved by permission of Messrs Henry Graves & Co._
* * * * *
THE AFGHAN WARS

PART I: THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR

CHAPTER I
: PRELIMINARY
Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression.
By a treaty, concluded between England and Persia in 1814, the former state bound itself, in case of the invasion of Persia by any European nation, to aid the Shah either with troops from India or by the payment of an annual subsidy in support of his war expenses. It was a dangerous engagement, even with the caveat rendering the undertaking inoperative if such invasion should be provoked by Persia. During the fierce struggle of 1825-7, between Abbas Meerza and the Russian General Paskevitch, England refrained from supporting Persia either with men or with money, and when prostrate Persia was in financial extremities because of the war indemnity which the treaty of Turkmanchai imposed upon her, England took advantage of her needs by purchasing the cancellation of the inconvenient obligation at the cheap cost of about ��300,000. It was the natural result of this transaction that English influence with the Persian Court should sensibly decline, and it was not less natural that in conscious weakness Persia should fall under the domination of Russian influence.
Futteh Ali, the old Shah of Persia, died in 1834, and was succeeded by his grandson Prince Mahomed Meerza, a young man who inherited much of the ambition of his gallant father Abbas Meerza. His especial aspiration, industriously stimulated by his Russian advisers, urged him to the enterprise of conquering the independent principality of Herat, on the western border of Afghanistan. Herat was the only remnant of Afghan territory that still remained to a member of the legitimate royal house. Its ruler was Shah Kamran, son of that Mahmoud Shah who, after ousting his brother Shah Soojah from the throne of Cabul, had himself been driven from that elevation, and had retired to the minor principality of Herat. The young Shah of Persia was not destitute of justification for his designs on Herat. That this was so was frankly admitted by Mr Ellis, the British envoy to his Court, who wrote to his Government that the Shah had fair claim to the sovereignty of Afghanistan as far as Ghuznee, and that Kamran's conduct in occupying part of the Persian province of Seistan had given the Shah 'a full justification for commencing hostilities against Herat.'
The serious phase of the situation for England and India was that Russian influence