The Great Game
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The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
and
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
empires over influence in
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
, primarily in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, and
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
. The two
colonial empire A colonial empire is a sovereign state, state engaging in colonization, possibly establishing or maintaining colony, colonies, infused with some form of coloniality and colonialism. Such states can expand contiguous as well as Territory#Overseas ...
s used military interventions and diplomatic negotiations to acquire and redefine territories in Central and
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
. Russia conquered Turkestan, and Britain expanded and set the borders of
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
. By the early 20th century, a line of independent states, tribes, and monarchies from the shore of the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
to the
Eastern Himalayas ] The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. I ...
were made into
protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...
s and
territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...
of the two empires. Though the Great Game was marked by distrust, diplomatic intrigue, and regional wars, it never erupted into a full-scale war directly between Russian and British colonial forces. However, the two nations battled in the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
from 1853 to 1856, which affected the Great Game. The Russian and British Empires also cooperated numerous times during the Great Game, including many treaties and the
Afghan Boundary Commission The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan. The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern ...
. Britain feared Russia's southward expansion would threaten India, while Russia feared the expansion of British interests into Central Asia. As a result, Britain made it a high priority to protect all approaches to India, while Russia continued its military conquest of Central Asia. Aware of the importance of India to the British, Russian efforts in the region often had the aim of extorting concessions from them in Europe, but after 1901, they had no serious intention of directly attacking India. Russian war plans for India that were proposed but never materialised included the Duhamel and Khrulev plans of the Crimean War (1853–1856). Russia and Britain's 19th-century rivalry in Asia began with the planned
Indian March of Paul The Indian March of Paul () was an ultimately unrealized plan by the Russian Empire and French First Republic to invade the British East India Company's possessions in India. It was abandoned following the assassination of Paul I of Russia in Ma ...
and Russian invasions of Iran in 1804–1813 and 1826–1828, shuffling Persia into a competition between colonial powers. According to one major view, the Great Game started on 12 January 1830, when Lord Ellenborough, the
president of the Board of Control President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
for India, tasked Lord Bentinck, the
governor-general Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...
, with establishing a trade route to the
Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...
. Britain aimed to create a protectorate in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, and support the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, Persia,
Khiva Khiva ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva, Хива, ; other names) is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 2,500 years ago. In 1997, Khiva celebr ...
, and Bukhara as buffer states against Russian expansion. This would protect India and key British sea trade routes by blocking Russia from gaining a port on the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...
or the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
. As Russian and British
spheres of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal a ...
expanded and competed, Russia proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone. Traditionally, the Great Game came to a close between 1895 and 1907. In September 1895, London and Saint Petersburg signed the Pamir Boundary Commission protocols, when the border between Afghanistan and the Russian Empire was defined using diplomatic methods. In August 1907, the
Anglo-Russian Convention The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ), was signed on August 31, 1907, in Saint Petersburg. It ended the two powers' longstanding rivalry in Cen ...
created an alliance between Britain and Russia, and formally delineated control in Afghanistan, Persia, and Tibet.


Name

The phrase "the Great Game" was used well before the 19th century and was associated with games of risk, such as cards and dice. The French equivalent dates back to at least 1585 and is associated with meanings of risk, chance and deception. The term ''Great Game'' was coined in 1840 by a British intelligence officer Captain Arthur Conolly (1807–1842).
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
's 1901 novel ''Kim'' popularized the term, increasing its association with great power rivalry. It became even more popular after the 1979 advent of the
Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...
. In the historical sense, the term dates from the mid-19th century. Captain Conolly had been appointed as a political officer. A similar term, the "Tournament of Shadows" was reportedly used by Russian diplomat
Karl Nesselrode Karl Robert Reichsgraf von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, also known as Charles de Nesselrode (; 14 December 1780 – 23 March 1862), was a Foreign policy of the Russian Empire, Russian diplomat of German nobility, German noble descent. For 40 years ( ...
. In July 1840, in correspondence to Major Henry Rawlinson who had been recently appointed as the new political agent in
Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...
, Conolly wrote, "You've a great game, a noble game, before you." Conolly believed that Rawlinson's new post gave him the opportunity to advance humanitarianism in Afghanistan, and summed up his hopes:
If the British Government would only play the grand game – help Russia cordially to all that she has a right to expect – shake hands with Persia – get her all possible amends from Oosbegs – force the Bukhara Amir to be just to us, the Afghans, and other Oosbeg states, and his own kingdom – but why go on; you know my, at any rate in ''one'' sense, ''enlarged'' views. The expediency, nay the necessity of them will be seen, and we shall play the noble part that the first Christian nation of the world ought to fill.
It was introduced into the mainstream by the British novelist Rudyard Kipling in his novel ''
Kim Kim may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kim (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Kim (surname), a list of people and fictional characters ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim dynasty (disambiguation), several dynas ...
'' (1901). It was first used academically by Professor H.W.C. Davis in a presentation titled ''The Great Game in Asia (1800–1844)'' on 10 November 1926. The use of the term "The Great Game" to describe Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia became common only after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


First signs of possible India invasion

At the start of the 19th century, the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
was ruled in part by independent princely states and in part by the
company rule Company rule in India (also known as the Company Raj, from Hindi , ) refers to regions of the Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established its first trading post in India ...
of the British
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
. During the 19th century, a political and diplomatic confrontation developed between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan which would become known as The Great Game. Russia's foreign policy was driven by the perspective that Britain would develop and control commercial and military inroads into Central Asia, and Britain's foreign policy was based on expectations of Russia adding the "jewel in the crown", India, to the vast empire that Russia was building in Asia. This resulted in an atmosphere of distrust and the constant threat of war between the two empires. If Russia were to gain control of the
Emirate of Afghanistan The Emirate of Afghanistan, known as the Emirate of Kabul until 1855, was an emirate in Central Asia and South Asia that encompassed present-day Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan (before 1893). The emirate emerged from the Durrani ...
, it might then be used as a staging post for a Russian invasion of India, was the British line of thinking.
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
had proposed a joint Franco-Russian invasion of India to tsar
Paul I of Russia Paul I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the Pauline Laws, laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules ...
. Expecting a future action by the British against Russia and her allies in Europe, Paul decided in 1801 to make the first move towards where he believed the British Empire was weakest (
Indian March of Paul The Indian March of Paul () was an ultimately unrealized plan by the Russian Empire and French First Republic to invade the British East India Company's possessions in India. It was abandoned following the assassination of Paul I of Russia in Ma ...
). He wrote to the
Ataman Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; ; ) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukra ...
of the
Don Cossacks Don Cossacks (, ) or Donians (, ), are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don River (Russia), Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (, ), which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic rep ...
Troops, Cavalry General Vasily Petrovich Orlov, directing him to march to
Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...
, conquer the Central Asian Khanates, and from there invade India. Paul was assassinated in the same year, and the invasion was terminated. Historian
Peter Hopkirk Peter Stuart Hopkirk (15 December 1930 – 22 August 2014) was a British journalist, author and historian who wrote six books about the British Empire, Russia and Central Asia. Biography Peter Hopkirk was born in Nottingham, the son of Frank St ...
wrote that Tsar Paul had not been able to obtain a detailed map of India until the Cossacks' departure from Orenburg. He quotes the Tsar as instructing Orlov: "My maps only go as far as Khiva and the River
Oxus The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...
. Beyond these points it is your affair to gain information about the possessions of the English, and the condition of the native population subject to their rule".
Hopkirk, Peter Peter Stuart Hopkirk (15 December 1930 – 22 August 2014) was a British journalist, author and historian who wrote six books about the British Empire, Russia and Central Asia. Biography Peter Hopkirk was born in Nottingham, the son of Frank St ...
. '' The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia.'' . Page 17
The British public learned about the incident years later, but it firmly imprinted on the popular consciousness, contributing to feelings of mutual suspicion and distrust associated with the Great Game. Hugh Seton-Watson observed that "the grotesque plan had no military significance, but at least showed its author's state of mind". Hopkirk remarked that "no serious thought or study has been given to this wild adventure". Napoleon tried to persuade Paul's son, Tsar
Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (, ; – ), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first king of Congress Poland from 1815, and the grand duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russian Empire, Russia during the chaotic perio ...
, to invade India; however Alexander resisted. In 1807, Napoleon dispatched General Claude Matthieu, Count Gardane on a French military mission to Persia, with the intention of persuading Russia to invade India. In response, Britain sent its own diplomatic missions in 1808, with military advisers, to Persia and Afghanistan under the capable
Mountstuart Elphinstone Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the open ...
, averting the possible French and Russian threat to India. However, Britain was left with concerns about being able to defend its colony on the subcontinent. At the time, Russia also went to war with Qajar Iran and invaded the Persian Caucasus from 1804-1813, adding to Britain's fears, while Russia was distracted mainly by the Napoleonic Wars. In 1810, British Lieutenant
Henry Pottinger Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet (3 October 1789 – 18 March 1856) was an Bombay Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Hong Kong from 1843 to 1844. ...
and Captain
Charles Christie Charles Herbert Christie (April 13, 1882 – October 1, 1955) and Alfred Ernest Christie (November 23, 1886 – April 14, 1951) were Canadian motion picture entrepreneurs. Early life Charles Herbert Christie was born between April 13, ...
undertook an expedition from
Nushki Nushki (Balochi and Brahvi: or Noshkay, Nushkay; ) is a city in Nushki District of Balochistan, Pakistan. It lies in the southwest of Quetta, the provincial capital, at an elevation of above sea level. From Nushki, the flat Balochistan desert st ...
(
Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...
) to
Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...
(Central Persia) disguised as Muslims. The expedition was funded by the East India Company and was to map and research the regions of "Beloochistan" (Balochistan) and Persia because of concerns about India being invaded by French forces from that direction. After the disastrous
French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the Continenta ...
in 1812 and the collapse of the French army, the threat of a French invasion through Persia was removed. The shah of Iran,
Fath-Ali Shah Qajar Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (; 5 August 1772 – 24 October 1834) was the second Shah of Qajar Iran. He reigned from 17 June 1797 until his death on 24 October 1834. His reign saw the irrevocable ceding of Iran's northern territories in the Caucasus, com ...
would become part of diplomatic intrigues about India. He first received limited British support in 1801 that was canceled after Russia's invasion of Persia in 1804. Fath-Ali then lent a promise to Napoleon in 1807 to theoretically invade British India in exchange for French military assistance (Gardane's mission) which fell through despite the
Treaty of Finckenstein The Treaty of Finckenstein ( Persian: عهدنامه فین‌کنشتاین), often spelled Finkenstein, was a treaty concluded between France and Iran (Persia) in the Finckenstein Palace (now Kamieniec, Poland) on 4 May 1807 and formalised t ...
. When France allied with Russia at
Tilsit Sovetsk (; ) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania. History Early history Tilsit, which received civic rights from Albert, Duke of Prussia in 1552,''Sło ...
in 1807, as Russia was still invading Iran, Fath-Ali Shah turned toward British diplomacy and alliance in 1809. The shah was also able to use a rivalry between the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
and the
British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign an ...
, to garner more British aid. In the 1809 preliminary Treaty of Tehran, Persia agreed to stop any European or foreign army passing to India, while the British agreed to send a mission to train sixteen thousand Persian soldiers and, if Qajar Persia was invaded by a European state, pay a £100,000 subsidy to Persia, while attempting to mediate if at peace with Persia's enemy. Nevertheless, Russia would end up defeating Iran a few years later, with Britain mediating the treaty. The
Russo-Persian Wars The Russo-Persian Wars ( ), or the Russo-Iranian Wars ( ), began in 1651 and continued intermittently until 1828. They consisted of five conflicts in total, each rooted in both sides' disputed governance of territories and countries in the Cauca ...
began to coalesce into a point of tension between the British and Russian empires, particularly following the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, which gave the Russian Empire the theoretical right to intervene in Persia at any time, a humiliation of Persia. Fath-Ali Shah sought to counterbalance Russia by increasing the ties between the Qajars and Britain; the British offered military and financial assistance to the shah, supporting Iran as a buffer between Russia and India. The Russian invasion of Iran in 1826-1828 led to a Russian victory, weakening Qajar Iran which retained only minimal influence and power. This fully placed Persia into another colonial contest between Russia and Britain.


Beginnings


Britain's perspective

The Great Game is said to have begun on 12 January 1830 when Lord Ellenborough, the
president of the Board of Control President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
for India tasked
Lord William Bentinck Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (14 September 177417 June 1839), known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British military commander and politician who served as the governor of the Be ...
, the
Governor-General of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the emperor o ...
, to establish a new trade route to Bukhara. Following the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) and the
Treaty of Adrianople (1829) The Treaty of Adrianople (also called the Treaty of Edirne) concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The terms favored Russia, which gained access to the mouths of the Danube and new territ ...
, Britain expected that
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
(
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
) would be forced to become protectorates of Russia. This would change Britain's perception of the world, and its response was The Great Game. Britain had no intention of getting involved in the Middle East, but it did envision a series of buffer states between the British and Russian Empires that included Turkey, Persia, plus the
Khanate of Khiva The Khanate of Khiva (, , uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva xonligi, Хива хонлиги, , ) was a Central Asian polity that existed in the historical region of Khwarazm, Khorezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid Iran, Afsharid occupat ...
and the
Khanate of Bukhara The Khanate of Bukhara was an Uzbek state in Central Asia from 1501 to 1785, founded by the Abu'l-Khayrid dynasty, a branch of the Shaybanids. From 1533 to 1540, Bukhara briefly became its capital during the reign of Ubaidullah Khan. The Khana ...
that would grow from future trade. Behind these buffer states would be their protected states stretching from the Persian Gulf to India and up into the
Emirate of Afghanistan The Emirate of Afghanistan, known as the Emirate of Kabul until 1855, was an emirate in Central Asia and South Asia that encompassed present-day Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan (before 1893). The emirate emerged from the Durrani ...
, with British sea-power protecting trade sea-lanes. Access to Afghanistan was to be through developing trade routes along the Indus and
Sutlej The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of t ...
rivers using steam-powered boats, and therefore access through the
Sind Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...
and
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
regions would be required. Persia would have to give up its claim on
Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...
in Afghanistan. Afghanistan would need to be transformed from a group of warring principalities into one state ruled by an ally whose foreign relations would be conducted on his behalf by the Governor-General and the Foreign Office. The Great Game meant closer ties between Britain and the states along her northwest frontier. Britain believed that it was the world's first free society and the most industrially advanced country, and therefore that it had a duty to use its iron, steam power, and cotton goods to take over Central Asia and develop it. British goods were to be followed by British values and the respect for private property. With pay for work and security in place, nomads would settle and become tribal herdsman surrounding oasis cities. These were to develop into modern states with agreed borders, as in the European model. Therefore, lines needed to be agreed and drawn on maps. Morgan says that two proud and expanding empires approached each other, without any agreed frontier, from opposite directions over a "backward, uncivilized and undeveloped region."
Here we are, just as we were, snarling at each other, hating each other, but neither wishing for war. –
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
(1835)
American historian
David Fromkin David Henry Fromkin (August 27, 1932 June 11, 2017) was an American historian, best known for his interpretive account of the Middle East, '' A Peace to End All Peace'' (1989), in which he recounts the role European powers played between 1914 a ...
argues that by the mid-19th century the British had developed at least nine reasons to expect a major war with Russia unless Russian expansion in Asia could be stopped: # Expansion would upset the balance of power by making Russia too powerful. # Sooner or later Russia will invade India. # Russian success would encourage anti-colonial elements in India to revolt. # It would undermine the old Islamic regimes of central Asia leading to a frantic war among the powers for shares of the spoils. # It would add power and prestige to the Russian regime that was the great enemy of political freedom. # The British people hated and feared Russia and demanded a pushing back. # It could disrupt the established British trade with Asia. # It would strengthen protectionism and thereby undermine the free trading ideal that Britain was committed to. # When Russia reached the Indian Ocean it could threaten the naval communications that held the British Empire together. # By the late 19th century London added the argument that Russian success against the Ottoman Empire would seriously embarrass Britain's reputation for diplomatic prowess. # And finally petroleum deposits in central Asia were discovered in the early 20th century. This oil was essential to the modernization of the Royal Navy, and to build Britain's economy. In the early 1880s Russia failed to float a nine 9 million loan on the European markets for its strategic geopolitical enterprises, driving severe budget cuts by the Minister of Finance. For the construction of the Russo-Indian railway however, an operation supervised by renowned engineer General
Mikhail Annenkov General Mikhail Nikolayevich Annenkov (formerly also transcribed Michael Nicolaivitch Annenkoff; ; 1835 in St. Petersburg – January 21, 1899 in St. Petersburg) was a Russian nobleman, author, military officer, and engineer. An important fig ...
, funding had been freely furnished. The Tsar also entered into agreements about delivery of munition for its fortresses at an estimated value of one million sterling, with German steel magnate Alfred
Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
, being the arms manufacturer for the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
.


Russia's perspective

In 1557,
Bokhara Bukhara ( ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half ...
and
Khiva Khiva ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva, Хива, ; other names) is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 2,500 years ago. In 1997, Khiva celebr ...
sent ambassadors to
Ivan IV Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...
seeking permission to trade in Russia. Russia had an interest in establishing a trade route from Moscow to India. From then until the mid-19th century, Russian ambassadors to the region spent much of their time trying to free Russians who had been taken as slaves by the khanates. Russia would later expand across Siberia to the Far East, where it reached the Pacific port that would become known as Vladivostok by 1859. This eastward expansion was of no concern to the British Foreign Office because this area did not lie across any British trade routes or destinations, and therefore was of no interest to Britain. Beginning in the 1820s, Russian troops would begin to advance southward from Siberia in search of secure boundaries and reliable neighbors. This advance would not cease until Russia's frontiers and her sphere of influence were firm in the Central Asia, and this would include Bokhara and Khiva. Between 1824 and 1854, Russia occupied the entire Kazakh Khanate (modern-day Kazakhstan). This raised Russo-Khivan tensions in addition to Khiva's legal discrimination of Russian merchants who were just beginning to penetrate Central Asia, and the ongoing issue of Russian slaves. Russia launched an attack in 1839–1840 but it failed to reach Khiva because of the tough terrain and weather. However, the khan of Khiva feared a further Russian assault and released a number of Russian slaves. During the 1840s and 1850s, Russia's aims in Central Asia were for Bukhara and Khiva to refrain from hostile actions against Russia, cease possession of Russian slaves and the granting of asylum to Kazakhs fleeing from Russian justice. Khiva must cease her attacks on caravans along the
Syr Darya The Syr Darya ( ),; ; ; ; ; /. historically known as the Jaxartes ( , ), is a river in Central Asia. The name, which is Persian language, Persian, literally means ''Syr Sea'' or ''Syr River''. It originates in the Tian Shan, Tian Shan Mountain ...
. Russian merchants must be allowed to trade on the same terms as native merchants in Bukhara and Khiva. The khanates must guarantee the safety of the persons and property of Russian merchants, levy no excessive duties, permit unhampered transit of goods and caravans across Central Asia into neighboring states and allow Russian commercial agents to reside in Bukhara and Khiva, and free navigation on the
Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...
river for Russian ships. None of these aims was realised. Russia's borders remained insecure and in addition there was growing British influence in the region. In 1869, when British diplomat Clarendon proposed the Amu Darya river as the basis for a neutral zone between British and Russian spheres of influence,
Alexander Gorchakov Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Горчако́в; 15 July 1798 – 11 March 1883) was a Russian diplomat and statesman from the Gorchakov princely family. He has an enduring reput ...
proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone. Russia feared the influence that a Muslim power with British support might have on the other khanates in the region. The Russian Empire sought to expand its access to strategic coastlines such as the Black Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Pacific. Russian war plans against British India were developed during the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, presented to the Tsar in 1854 and 1855. These were the Duhamel plan and Khrulev plan. According to historian Evgeny Sergeev, the Great Game represented a great power competition that did not initiate only with Russia's defeat in the Crimean War in 1856, but was already well underway and was only intensified thereafter. Expansion into Central Asia was closely connected with ambitions in India. Historian Alexandre Andreyev argued that the rapid advance of the Russian Empire in Central Asia, while mainly serving to extend the southern frontier, was aimed to keep British eyes off of the
January uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
in Poland. Andreyev states that, as late as 1909, strategists of the Russian Empire sought to use Afghanistan to "threaten India... to exert influence on Britain", quoting
Andrei Snesarev Andrei Evgenyevich Snesarev (Russian: Андрей Евгеньевич Снесарев; 13 December 1865 – 4 December 1937) was a Russian linguist, orientalist and military leader. Andrei was the son of a Russian Orthodox priest. After atten ...
. According to diplomatic historian
Barbara Jelavich Barbara Jelavich (April 12, 1923 – January 14, 1995) was an American historian and writer. A prominent scholar in the field of Eastern European history, she specifically focused on the diplomatic histories of the Russian and Habsburg monarchies, ...
, it was logistically not possible for the Russian Empire to invade India and was not seriously considered, however the Tsars understood that making invasion plans threatening the "jewel" of Britain's empire was a way to extract more favorable outcomes in Europe. Similarly to the British Empire, the Russian Empire saw themselves as a "civilizing power" expanding a purely humanitarian mission among the Turcomans into what they perceived a "semi-barbarous" region, reflecting the ideology of the time.


Early explorations and accounts


East India Company

In 1782, George Forster, a civil servant of the East India Company, undertook a journey that began in
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, Bengal and passed through
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
,
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...
, Khorassan,
Mazanderan Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is bordered clockwis ...
, crossed the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
by ship, and then travelled to
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
,
Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...
, Moscow,
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
and then by ship to London. Forster's detailed description of the journey was published in 1798. William Moorcroft was an explorer, doctor, veterinary surgeon, and Superintendent of the East India Company's horse stud. He had an interest in expanding trade in Central Asia, where he thought the Russian traders were already active. In 1820, Moorcroft, George Trebeck and George Guthrie left India for
Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
to buy
Turkoman horse The Turkoman horse, or Turkmene, is an Oriental horse breed from the steppes of Central Asia. It influenced many modern horse breeds, including the Thoroughbred horse. Modern descendants include the Akhal-Teke, the Iomud, the Goklan and Nokhor ...
s and reached Bukhara in 1825. However, all three died of fever on the return journey. His travels were published in 1841.
Charles Masson Charles Masson (1800–1853) was the pseudonym of James Lewis, a British East India Company soldier, independent explorer and pioneering archaeologist and numismatist. He was the first European to discover the ruins of Harappa near Sahiwal in P ...
, formerly of the East India Company, resided in
Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of de ...
, Afghanistan and the Punjab between 1826 and 1838 and published his travels. In September 1829, Lieutenant Arthur Conolly of the East India Company travelled from St. Petersburg, Russia to the Caspian desert, to Kir (northern Iran), was detained in
Astrabad Gorgan (; ) is a city in the Central District of Gorgan County, Golestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It lies approximately to the northeast of the national capital Tehran, and some a ...
(northern Iran) as a Russian spy, then travelled with a caravan of pilgrims to
Meshed Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. In the Central District of Mashhad ...
, marched with the Afghan army from there to Herat, then traveled to Kandahar, to Quetta, then across the Indian desert to the British frontier in January 1831. He published his travels in 1834. However, after 1830, Britain's commercial and diplomatic interest to the north-west would eventually become formidable. In 1831, Captain
Alexander Burnes Captain Sir Alexander Burnes (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed Bokhara Burnes for his role in establishing contact with and expl ...
and Colonel
Henry Pottinger Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet (3 October 1789 – 18 March 1856) was an Bombay Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Hong Kong from 1843 to 1844. ...
's surveys of the Indus river would prepare the way for a future assault on the Sind to clear a path towards Central Asia. Burnes embarked on a dangerous 12-month journey beginning in 1831 into Afghanistan and through the
Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central Asia, Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the wester ...
to Bukhara, returning in 1832. Burnes, a Christian travelling through a Muslim country was one of the first to study Afghanistan for British Intelligence and upon his return, he published his book, ''Travels To Bukhara'', which became an overnight success in 1834. Between 1832 and 1834, Britain attempted to negotiate trade agreements with
Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...
, ruler of the
Sikh empire The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the East India Company, Br ...
, and the Amirs of
Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...
. However, these attempts were unsuccessful.


Afghanistan and Central Asia

In 1835,
Lord Auckland Baron Auckland is a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in 1789 when the prominent politician and financial expert William Eden was made Baron Auckland in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1 ...
was appointed Governor-General, and replaced Bentinck who had pursued a non-intervention policy. The India Board instructed Auckland:
to watch more closely than has hitherto been attempted the progress of events in Afghanistan, and to counteract the progress of Russian influence...The mode of dealing with this very important question, whether by dispatching a confidential agent to Dost Mohammed of Kabul merely to watch the progress of events, or to enter into relations with this Chief, either of a political or merely in the first instance of a commercial character, we confide in your discretion as well as the adoption of any other measures that may appear to you desirable to counteract Russian influence in that quarter, should you be satisfied...that the time has arrived at which it would be right for you to interfere decidedly in the affairs of Afghanistan. Such an interference would doubtless be requisite, either to prevent the extension of Persian dominion in that quarter or to raise a timely barrier against the impending encroachments of Russian influence.
In that year, Lieutenant John Wood of the Indian Navy commanded the first
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...
to paddle up the Indus River and surveyed the river as he went. In 1838, he led an expedition that found one of the River Oxus' sources in central Asia. He published his travels in 1872. In 1837, the Russian envoy Captain Jan Vitkevitch visited Kabul, and the British believed that it was to facilitate some form of diplomatic or military presence in Afghanistan. While in Kabul, he dined with the British envoy, Captain Alexander Burnes, who reported negatively on Russia's intentions. Russia feared British inroads on their commerce in Central Asia, as well as the influence that a Muslim power with British support might have on the other khanates. In 1837, Russian troops occupied the island of Ashuradeh in the
Gorgan Bay The Gulf of Gorgan (), also known as Gorgan Bay, is the largest gulf in the Caspian Sea. It is located at the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea near the cities of Behshahr, Gorgan and Sari in Iran and is separated from the main water body by ...
of the southern Caspian Sea. However, from 1837 to 1857 the Russian Empire lent their support to the Shah. In 1838, Colonel
Charles Stoddart Colonel Charles Stoddart (23 July 1806 in Ipswich – June 1842 in Bukhara) was a British officer and diplomat. He was a famous British agent in Central Asia during the period of the Great Game. Stoddart, the son of Major Stephen Stoddart (176 ...
of the East India Company arrived in the
Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...
to arrange an alliance with Nasrullah Khan. Nasrullah Khan had Stoddart imprisoned in a vermin-infested dungeon because he had not bowed nor brought gifts. In 1841, Captain Arthur Conolly arrived to try to secure Stoddart's release. He was also imprisoned and on 17 June 1842 both men were beheaded. On hearing of the execution of the two British officers, Emperor
Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...
would no longer receive Bukhara's gifts or emissaries, and its ambassador was turned back at
Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...
with a message that the Emperor would no longer have anything to do with the Emir of Bukhara. After its two representatives were executed in Bukhara, Britain actively discouraged officers from traveling in Turkestan. During 1838, there were rumors in London of a coming Russian move towards Khiva. Additionally, Persia intended to annex Herat to make up for territory it had lost in the
Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) The Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 was the last major military conflict between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran, which was fought over territorial disputes in the South Caucasus region. Initiated by Russian expansionist aims and intensifie ...
, however the allegiance of Herat to Afghanistan was crucial to the British strategy. The Siege of Herat began in November 1837, when the new Shah of Persia, Mohammed Mirza, arrived before Herat. His intention was to take Herat then move on to Kandahar. With him was the Russian Envoy Count Simonich, seconded Russian officers and a regiment of Russian deserters under the Polish general Berowski.
Eldred Pottinger Eldred Pottinger (12 August 181115 November 1843) was a Bombay Army officer and diplomat. In 1837 he happened to be in Herat in Afghanistan to gather intelligence on the area when the Persian army, supported by Russians, laid siege to the city. ...
, an officer of the Bengal Artillery, who had earlier entered Herat in disguise, stiffened the defences and despite the presence of Russian advisers the siege lasted eight months. Britain threatened to take military action and Persia withdrew in September. In October 1838, Auckland issued the ''Simla Manifesto'', a piece of propaganda designed to blacken the reputation of
Dost Mohammad Khan (Emir of Afghanistan) Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/; 23 December 1792 – 8 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of ...
and which claimed that Dost Mohammad:
openly threatened...to call in every foreign aid that he could command...we could never hope that the tranquility of our neighborhood could be secured...the Governor-General confidently hopes that the Shah will speedily be replaced on his throne...the independence and integrity of Afghanistan restored, the British army will be withdrawn.


First Anglo-Afghan War

British influence was to be extended into Afghanistan and it was to become a buffer state. The intention to invade was clear, and when a copy of the Manifesto reached London there was no objection. In 1838, the British marched into Afghanistan and deposed
Dost Mohammad Khan Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/; 23 December 1792 – 8 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of ...
. After a period of resistance, Dost Mohammad surrendered despite his victories. The British sent him into exile in India and replaced him with the previous ruler,
Shah Shuja Durrani Shah Shuja Durrani (Pashto/ Persian: ; November 1785 – 5 April 1842) was the ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. A son of Timur Shah Durrani, Shuja was of the Saddozai line of the A ...
, who shared their more progressive vision for the people of the region. Shah Shuja ul-Mulk had ascended the throne in 1803 and had signed a mutual defence agreement with the British in 1809 against a possible Franco-Russian invasion of India via Afghanistan. In the same year he was deposed and imprisoned by his half-brother,
Mahmud Shah Durrani Mahmud Shah Durrani (Pashto/ Persian: ); 1769 – 18 April 1829) was born prince and later ruler of the Durrani Empire (Afghanistan) between 1801 and 1803, and again between 1809 and 1818. From 1818 to 1829 he was the ruler of Herat. From an eth ...
. There were a number of Amirs of Afghanistan until Dost Mohammad Khan gained power in 1826. Shah Shuja was not popular with the Afghans and tensions grew, leading to the killing of the British envoy, Captain Alexander Burnes, in 1841. By January 1842, the Afghans were in full revolt. With a weakening of military discipline, the British decided to withdraw from Kabul. The Kabul garrison of 4,500 troops and 12,000 camp followers left Kabul for Jalalabad that was 80 miles and 5 days march away. They were attacked by 30,000 Afghans. Six British officers escaped on horseback but only one, the wounded Dr
William Brydon William Brydon (10 October 1811 – 20 March 1873) was a British doctor who was assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, famous for reportedly being the only member of an army of 4,500 men ...
riding on a wounded horse, made it to Jalalabad. Over one hundred of the British and 2,000 sepoys and camp followers were taken hostage and the rest killed. So perished the "Army of the Indus". In April, a punitive expedition was dispatched and recaptured Kabul and freed the captives in September. The new Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, decided to withdraw all British garrisons from Afghanistan and Dost Mohammad Khan was freed in India to return to the throne. Dost Mohammad is reported to have said:
I have been struck by the magnitude of your resources, your ships, your arsenals, but what I cannot understand is why the rulers of so vast and flourishing an empire should have gone across the Indus to deprive me of my poor and barren country.


Khiva (1839)

In 1839, acting Captain James Abbott of the Bengal Artillery undertook a mission to the Khanate of Khiva in an attempt to negotiate the release of Russian slaves that would deny the Russians a pretext for invading Khiva. If war had already broken out, Abbot was instructed to attempt to negotiate a settlement. The attempted Russian assault on Khiva may have been in response to Britain's "forward policy" on Afghanistan, however it failed to reach Khiva due to the severe winter conditions. Of the 5,000 men who had left Orenburg, only 4,000 returned. Abbott was hampered by a lack of understanding of Khivan language and culture, and the attempt to release Russian slaves was unsuccessful. He did agree with the Khivan ruler, Allah Quli Khan, to establishing a British agent to Khiva and to mediate between Khiva and Russia. Abbott set off from Khiva in 1840 towards Russia to commence negotiations, which he did on his own initiative and it was not authorised by his superiors. His caravan was attacked by Khazakhs and he was wounded in the hand and taken hostage, however he and his party were released because they feared retribution. He reached Saint Petersburg but the attempt at mediation failed. His bravery was recognized through promotion to full Captain. In the same year, Lieutenant Richmond Shakespear of the Bengal Artillery was successful in negotiating the release of 416 Russian captives, whom he escorted into Russia. He was knighted for this undertaking.


Anglo-Sikh Wars

In 1843,
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
annexed the
Sind Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...
. The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the
Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the East India Company, Br ...
and the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
in 1845–1846, resulting in the partial subjugation of the Sikh kingdom. The Second Anglo-Sikh War was fought in 1848–1849, resulting in subjugation of the remainder of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab Province and what subsequently became the
North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November ...
.


Anglo-Persian War

In 1856, Persia commenced an assault on Herat and the British Home Government declared war on Persia. The Anglo-Persian War was conducted under Major General Sir James Outram until 1857, when Persia and Britain both withdrew and Persia signed a treaty renouncing its claim on Herat.


Further expansion


Under the British Crown

Following the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
, the East India Company's remaining powers were transferred to the British
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
in the person of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
(who in 1876 was proclaimed
Empress of India Emperor (or Empress) of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 (with the Royal Titles Act 1876) to 22 June 1948 Royal Proclamation of 22 June 1948, made in accordance with thIndian Independence Act 1947, 10 & 11 GEO. 6. C ...
). As a state, the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
functioned as the guardian of a system of connected markets maintained by military power, business legislation and monetary management. The
Government of India Act 1858 The Government of India Act 1858 ( 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on August 2 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the East India Company (who had up to this point been ruling Briti ...
saw the
India Office The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the mo ...
of the British government assume the administration of
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
through a
Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the Anglo-Norman ''roy'' (Old Frenc ...
appointed by the Crown. In 1863
Sultan Ahmad Khan Sultan Ahmad Khan b. Sardar 'Azim Muhammadzai (), also known as Sultan Jan () was the ruler of the Principality of Herat from September 1857 to April 1863. He was a nephew of Dost Mohammad Khan. In 1855-56, Sultan Ahmad Khan sent a petition to the ...
of Herat, who was placed into power by Persia and issued coinage on behalf of the Shah, attacked the disputed town of Farrah. Farrah had been under Dost Mohammad Khan's control since 1856, and he responded by sending his army to defeat Herat and reunited it with Afghanistan.


Under Alexander II of Russia

The
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
had ended in 1856 with Russia's defeat by an alliance of Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire. The new and wary
Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Grand Du ...
waited some years so as not to antagonize the British, then Russia expanded into Central Asia in two campaigns. In 1864, a circular was sent to the consular officers abroad by Gorchakov, the Russian Chancellor, patiently explaining the reasons for expansion centering on the doctrines of necessity, power and spread of civilisation. Gorchakov went to great lengths to explain that Russia's intentions were meant not to antagonize the British but to bring civilised behavior and protect the traditional trade routes through the region. The first campaign started from
Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...
and proceeded in the direction of Kabul in Afghanistan. Russia occupied Chimkent in 1864, Tashkent in 1865, Khokhand and Bukhara in 1866, and Samarkand in 1868. Russia's influence now extended to outlying regions of Afghan Turkestan. The second campaign started from the Caspian Sea and was in the direction of Herat, near the Persian frontier. Khiva was occupied in 1873. Russian forces also seized Krasnovodsk (now in Turkmenistan) in 1869. Notable Russian generals included
Konstantin Kaufman Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann (; 2 March 1818 – 16 May 1882), was a military engineer and the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan. Early life and ancestry Konstantin Petrovich was born as the second eldest of four sons to Lieut ...
,
Mikhail Skobelev Mikhail Dmitriyevich Skobelev (; 29 September 1843 – 7 July 1882), a Russian general, became famous for his conquest of Central Asia and for his heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Dressed in a white uniform and mounted on ...
, and
Mikhail Chernyayev Mikhail Grigoryevich Chernyaev ( Russian: Михаил Григорьевич Черняев) (3 November / 22 October 1828 in Bender, Bessarabia Governorate – 16 August 1898) was a Russian major general, who, together with Konstantin Kaufm ...
. From 1869 to 1872, Mir Mahmud Shar was able to gain control of the Khanate of
Badakhshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising the Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic ...
with the help of Afghanistan's new ruler, Amir
Sher Ali Khan Sher Ali Khan (Dari/; c. 1825 – 21 February 1879) was Amir of Afghanistan from 1863 to 1866 and from 1868 until his death in 1879. He was one of the sons of Dost Mohammed Khan, founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Life Sher Al ...
, and by 1873 Afghanistan governed Badakhshan.


Tibet and Inner Asia

British-Russian competition also existed in
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
and "
Inner Asia Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North Asia, North, Central Asia, Central, and East Asia. It includes parts of Western China, western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some d ...
". Strategists of the Russian Empire sought to create a springboard to surround the
Qing dynasty in Inner Asia The Qing dynasty in Inner Asia was the expansion of the Qing dynasty's realm in Inner Asia in the 17th and the 18th century AD, including both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia, both Manchuria (Northeast China) and Outer Manchuria, Tibet, Qingha ...
as well as a second front against British India from the northeast direction. Britain had been exploring territories north of India by recruiting "
Pundits A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...
", native Indian explorers, among them
Nain Singh Nain Singh Rawat (21 October 18301 February 1882), was one of the first Indian explorers (dubbed "pundits") employed by the British to explore the Himalayas and Central Asia. He came from the Johar Valley in Kumaon. He surveyed the trade route ...
, who reached
Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
, Tibet, in 1866. He and his cousin Kishen Singh continued to travel around Tibet and surrounding regions for many years. The publications of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
in 1869 made the arrival of British Pundits at Lhasa known in Russia. The Russian explorer
Nikolay Przhevalsky Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (or Prjevalsky;; , . – ) was a Russian geographer and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia. Although he never reached his ultimate goal, the city of Lhasa in Tibet, he still travelled through regio ...
felt there was a British threat to Russian ambitions in Inner Asia, and set out on a series of 1870s expeditions. Although he failed to reach Tibet's capital at Lhasa, he travelled extensively in Tibet,
Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...
, and
Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
. Przhevalsky's expeditions became famous and increased interest in European expansion into Asia among the Russian press, aristocracy and academia. In the 1880s, Przhevalsky advocated for the "forcible annexation of western China, Mongolia, and Tibet, and their colonization by
Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...
", although the plan received some pushback from
Tsar Alexander III Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal ...
who favoured influence rather than an invasion. Historian argues that Tibet was a major territorial focus of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, and was connected to the Great Game. Andreyev mentions that in 1893, Tsar Alexander III financed an adventurist project by a Tibetan medicine practitioner, Piotr Aleksandrovich Badmaev, which aimed to annex Mongolia, Tibet, and China to the Russian Empire. Although not very successful, various agents were sent out to conduct espionage in Tibet in regards to British influence, investigate trade and attempted to foment rebellion in
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
against the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
. In the late 19th century, Britain strategically supported the Qing Dynasty's protectorates against the Russian Empire. According to Andreyev, "in the days of the Great Game, Mongolia was an object of imperialist encroachment by Russia, as Tibet was for the British."" Britain feared increased Russian influence in Tibet, due to contacts between the Russia-born Buryat
Agvan Dorzhiev Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev (1853 – 29 January 1938) was a Russian-born monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, sometimes referred by his scholarly title as Tsenyi Khempo. He was popularly known as the Sokpo Tsеnshab Ngawang Lobsang (literall ...
and the
13th Dalai Lama The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (full given name: Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal; abbreviated to Thubten Gyatso) (; 12 February 1876 – 17 December 1933) was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet, enthroned during a turbulen ...
. Agvan Dorzhiev claimed that Russia was a powerful Buddhist country that would ally with Tibet against China or Britain. In response, Britain sought to increase its own influence in Tibet as a buffer for British India. British forces, led by Sir
Francis Younghusband Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British ...
, invaded the country with the Curzon expedition in 1904 and made a treaty with the Tibetans, the 1904 Lhasa Convention. According to Robert Irwin, who considers a smaller, espionage-focused interpretation of the Great Game, Tibet was indeed connected to the Great Game, but "the truth is that, in the period concerned, British ruling circles didn't own so much as a sweetshop in Tibet." Specifically, he notes that the commercial trade that followed the Younghusband expedition was negligible compared to the cost of the expedition. Pradip Phanjoubam states that the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Tibet ultimately had implications for Northeast India as well, culminating in the
Simla Convention The Simla Convention (Traditional Chinese characters, Traditional Chinese: 西姆拉條約; Simplified Chinese characters, Simplified Chinese: 西姆拉条约), officially the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet,Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...
, India would have been more threatened than it was. Nonetheless, "On the chessboard of the Great Game in far off places as Mongolia, Afghanistan and Persia was thus determined the fate of British Tibet policy, and therefore, the shadow of the Great Game too came to fall on the future of India's Northeast." In its
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
, the
Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...
would observe the Great Game and participate indirectly through diplomacy and espionage. For example, Japan hosted
Abdurreshid Ibrahim Abdurreshid Ibrahim or Ibragimov (, , ; 1857 – 1944) was a Russian-born Tatar Muslim ''alim'', journalist, and traveller who initiated a movement in the first decade of the 20th century to unite the Crimean Tatars. He visited Japan during M ...
, a pan-Muslim opponent of Russian and British expansion. Japanese interest in the region as well as enmity with Russia led to the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance The was an alliance between the United Kingdom and the Empire of Japan which was effective from 1902 to 1923. The treaty creating the alliance was signed at Lansdowne House in London on 30 January 1902 by British foreign secretary Lord Lans ...
and an attempted Ottoman-Japanese alliance.
Nishi Tokujirō Baron was a statesman and diplomat in Meiji period Japan. Career Nishi was from a ''samurai'' family of the Satsuma Domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture). After the Meiji Restoration, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the new Meij ...
made some of Japan's first official diplomatic interactions in Central Asia and observed Russian colonial policy during the early Meiji period, while during the end of the period, Colonel Fukushima Yasumasa managed Japan's Central Asia policy during its contest with Russia. Later, the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
also changed and weakened Russian designs in Xinjiang. According to researcher Jin Noda, Japanese intelligence activities occurred "against a backdrop of acute Russian and British interest in the geopolitical fate of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Russian Turkestan".
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military commander, aristocrat, and statesman. He served as the military leader of the White Guard (Finland), Whites in the Finnish Civil War (1918), as List of ...
also acted as a tsarist agent during the Great Game, leading an expedition through Tibet, Xinjiang, and
Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
on the way to Beijing. The Russian General Staff wanted on-the-ground intelligence about reforms and activities by the Qing dynasty, as well as the military feasibility of invading
Western China Western China ( zh, s=中国西部, l=, labels=no or zh, s=华西, l=, labels=no) is the west of China. It consists of Southwestern China and Northwestern China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces ...
: a possible move in their struggle with Britain for control of inner Asia. In a report to the Russian General Staff, Mannerheim also argued in favor of a Russian invasion of Xinjiang. Disguised as an ethnographic collector, Mannerheim joined the French archeologist
Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...
's expedition at
Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...
in modern
Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
. They started from the terminus of the
Trans-Caspian Railway The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, ) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19t ...
in
Andijan Andijan ( ), also spelt Andijon () and formerly romanized as Andizhan ( ), is a city in Uzbekistan. It is the administrative, economic, and cultural center of Andijan Region. Andijan is a district-level city with an area of . Andijan is the most ...
in July 1906, but Mannerheim quarreled with Pelliot, so he made the greater part of the expedition on his own. Mannerheim met the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet and acted as an envoy of Russia.


Persia

Various authors connect British-Russian competition in Iran to the Great Game as well. This competition continued until the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 after which the British and Russian Empires largely moved together in their overtures for imperial influence in the region until the Bolshevik Revolution. The Great Game in Iran took the form of military conquests, diplomatic intrigues, and the competition of trade goods. Russian colonists arrived in northern Iran, settling the region around
Astarabad Gorgan (; ) is a city in the Central District of Gorgan County, Golestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It lies approximately to the northeast of the national capital Tehran, and some a ...
. Although Britain had a reputation for industrialization and international trade boosted by its colony of India, Russian authors saw the Russian Empire as competing directly with Britain for trade in Iran and other bordering markets. Russian travelogues written between the 1870s and the turn of the 1900s seem to imply that Russian commerce had become dominant in the northern and western portions of Iran that would be officially delineated to Russia by Britain in 1907. Russia had also acquired concessions such as a monopoly on the lucrative
caviar Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...
in the southern Caspian Sea, which lasted until after the First World War. After the 1828 Treaty of Turkmanchay, Russia received territorial domination in Iran. With the Romanovs shifting to a policy of 'informal support' for the weakened
Qajar dynasty The Qajar family (; 1789–1925) was an Iranian royal family founded by Mohammad Khan (), a member of the Qoyunlu clan of the Turkoman-descended Qajar tribe. The dynasty's effective rule in Iran ended in 1925 when Iran's '' Majlis'', conven ...
—continuing to place pressure with advances in the largely nomadic Turkestan, a crucial frontier territory of the Qajars – this Russian domination of Persia continued for nearly a century. The Persian monarchy became more of a symbolic concept in which Russian diplomats were themselves powerbrokers in Iran and the monarchy was dependent on British and Russian loans for funds. In 1879, the establishment of the Cossack Brigade by Russian officers gave the Russian Empire influence over the modernization of the Qajar army. This influence was especially pronounced because the Persian monarchy's legitimacy was predicated on an image of military prowess, first Turkic and then European-influenced. By the 1890s, Russian tutors, doctors and officers were prominent at the Shah's court, influencing policy personally. Russia and Britain had competing investments in the industrialisation of Iran including roads and telegraph lines, as a way to profit and extend their influence. However, until 1907 the Great Game rivalry was so pronounced that mutual British and Russian demands to the Shah to exclude the other, blocked all railroad construction at the end of the 19th century. In 1907 the British and Russian Empires came to a mutual agreement, which provided a zone of influence in southeastern Iran to Britain and northern Iran to Russia.
Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...
would be a staunch supporter of the
Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (‎; 21 June 1872 – 5 April 1925) was the sixth shah of the Qajar dynasty and remained the Shah of Iran from 8 January 1907 until being deposed on 16 July 1909. He was furthermore the grandson of Iran’s early mod ...
against the revolutionaries, in a large scale intervention that involved both regular Russian troops and the Persian Cossacks. Failing to fully suppress the
Persian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution (, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar Iran, Qajar era. The revolution led to the establishment of a Majl ...
or keep Muhammad Ali Shah in power, the constitutional reforms were put in place against Russia's wishes, though the Cossack Brigade remained a major factor. An Iranian former Cossack,
Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi born Reza Khan (15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and founder of the roughly 53 years old Pahlavi dynasty. Originally a military officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war an ...
, would establish the
Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty () is an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian royal dynasty that was the Pahlavi Iran, last to rule Iran before the country's monarchy was abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. It was founded in 1925 by Reza Shah, Reza S ...
.


Second Anglo-Afghan War

In 1878, Russia sent troops on an uninvited diplomatic mission to
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
.
Sher Ali Khan Sher Ali Khan (Dari/; c. 1825 – 21 February 1879) was Amir of Afghanistan from 1863 to 1866 and from 1868 until his death in 1879. He was one of the sons of Dost Mohammed Khan, founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Life Sher Al ...
, the
Amir of Afghanistan This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first modern Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709. History The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan tr ...
, tried unsuccessfully to keep them from entering Afghanistan, the Russians arrived in Kabul on 22 July 1878. As a reaction, on 14 August the British demanded that Sher Ali also accept a British mission. The Amir not only refused to receive a British mission under Neville Bowles Chamberlain but also threatened to stop it if it attempted to enter his country. Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of British India, ordered an envoy to set out on a diplomatic mission for Kabul in September 1878. The mission was turned back as it approached the eastern entrance of the
Khyber Pass The Khyber Pass (Urdu: درۂ خیبر; ) is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, on the border with the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. It connects the town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by tr ...
, triggering the Second Anglo–Afghan War. In November 1878, 40,000 men led by the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
, invaded Afghanistan from British India. Warfare had been settled for a while through diplomatic negotiations in 1879, in 1880 however the fighting was reignited after a British envoy on a mission to Kabul was massacred.


Diplomacy


Agreement Between Great Britain and Russia 1873

On 21 January 1873, Great Britain and
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
signed an agreement that stipulated that the eastern
Badakhshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising the Wakhan Corridor in northeast Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic ...
area as well as the
Wakhan Corridor The Wakhan Corridor (; ) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajiki ...
to Lake Sariqol were Afghan territory, the northern Afghan boundary was the
Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...
(Oxus River) as far west as Khwaja Salar (near Khamyab), and a joint Russian-British commission would define the boundary from the Amu Darya to the Persian border on the Hari (Harirud) River. However, no boundary west of the Amu Darya was defined until 1885. The agreement was regarded as having defined the British and Russian spheres of influence in Afghanistan and Central Asia, gave the two sides the legitimacy to advance within their designated zones, created cordial relations between the two rival European powers, and raised the new problem of defining what were the frontiers of Afghanistan, Russia and China in the upper Oxus region in the
Pamir mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...
. The agreement was negotiated by Russian diplomat Prince
Alexander Gorchakov Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Горчако́в; 15 July 1798 – 11 March 1883) was a Russian diplomat and statesman from the Gorchakov princely family. He has an enduring reput ...
, the lands of Badakhshan and Wakhan were accepted by Russia as part of Afghanistan, Russia accepted all of Britain's proposals on Afghanistan's northern borders and expected that Britain would keep Afghanistan from committing any aggression. However, this set in motion Russia's annexation of the
Khanate of Khiva The Khanate of Khiva (, , uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva xonligi, Хива хонлиги, , ) was a Central Asian polity that existed in the historical region of Khwarazm, Khorezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid Iran, Afsharid occupat ...
in the same year. Badakhshan would later be divided between Afghanistan and Russian-controlled
Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
by the Pamir Boundary Commission in 1895.


Treaty of Gandamak, 1879

After the British Siege of Kabul, warfare was settled diplomatically by the
Treaty of Gandamak The Treaty of Gandamak (Dari: معاهده گندمک, Pashto: د گندمک تړون) officially ended the first phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The Afghan emir Mohammad Yaqub Khan ceded various frontier areas as well as Afghanistan's con ...
of 1879. The British sent an envoy and mission to Kabul, but on 3 September this mission was massacred and the conflict was reignited. The second phase ended in September 1880 when the British
defeated Defeated may refer to: * "Defeated" (Breaking Benjamin song) * "Defeated" (Anastacia song) *"Defeated", a song by Snoop Dogg from the album ''Bible of Love'' *Defeated, Tennessee Defeated is an unincorporated community in Smith County, Tennessee ...
Ayub Khan outside
Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...
. A new Emir, Abdul Rahman Khan who was known to be a Russian ally and an opponent of the British, ratified and confirmed the Gandamak treaty once more. When the British and Indian soldiers had withdrawn, the Afghans agreed to let the British attain most of their geopolitical objectives, as well as create a buffer between the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
and the Russian Empire. The British were aware that Amir
Abdur Rahman Khan Abdur Rahman Khan (Pashto: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) also known by his epithet, The Iron Amir, was Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for perpetrating the Hazara genocide, but also uniting the ...
had the support of the Afghans to continue fighting and he did not allow a British resident to stay in Kabul which was a British objective that caused the start of the conflict. In return, he accepted British control of Afghanistan's foreign policies while maintaining internal sovereignty and to cede to the British a number of its southern frontier areas, including the districts of Pishin,
Sibi Sibi (; ;) is a city situated in the Balochistan (Pakistan), Balochistan Subdivisions of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. The city serves as the administrative headquarters of the Sibi District, district and Sibi Tehsil, tehsil of the same name ...
,
Harnai Harnai (, ) town serves as the administrative headquarters of Harnai District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Until 2007, the town was in Sibi District. It is located in the northeast of Balochistan province. The town is surrounded ...
, and Thal Chotiali. In 1881, Russian forces however took Geok Tepe and in 1884 they occupied
Merv Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...
. As the Russian forces were close to
Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...
, the British and Russian governments formed a joint Anglo-Russian diplomatic
Afghan Boundary Commission The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan. The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern ...
in the same year to define the borders between the Russian Empire and northern Afghanistan. In 1885, a Russian force annexed the Panjdeh district north of Herat province and its fort in what has been called the
Panjdeh incident The Panjdeh incident (spelled Penjdeh in older accounts, and known in Russian historiography as the battle of the Kushka) was an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885 that led to a diplomatic crisi ...
. The Afghans claimed that the people of the district had always paid tribute to Afghanistan, and the Russians argued that this district was part of the Khanates of Khiva and Merv which they had annexed earlier. The
Afghan Boundary Commission The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan. The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern ...
was supposed to have settled the dispute, however the battle occurred before its arrival. The Afghan force of 500 was overwhelmed by superior Russian numbers. Britain did not aid Afghanistan as was required by the Treaty of Gandamak, leading the Amir to conclude that he could not rely on the British in the face of Russian aggression. German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
saw how important the Great Game had become for Russia and Britain. Germany had no direct stakes, however its dominance of Europe was enhanced when Russian troops were based as far away from Germany as possible. Over two decades, 1871–1890, he maneuvered to help the British, hoping to force the Russians to commit more soldiers to Asia.James Stone, "Bismarck and the Great Game: Germany and Anglo-Russian Rivalry in Central Asia, 1871–1890." ''Central European History'' 48.2 (2015): 151–175. However, Bismarck through the
Three Emperors' League The League of the Three Emperors or Union of the Three Emperors () was an alliance between the German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, from 1873 to 1887. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck took full charge of German foreign policy from 1870 to his ...
also aided Russia, by pressuring the Ottoman Empire to block the
Bosporus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...
from British naval access, compelling an Anglo-Russian negotiation regarding Afghanistan.


Protocol Between Great Britain and Russia 1885

On 10 September 1885, the Delimitation Protocol Between Great Britain and Russia was signed in London. The protocol defined the boundary from the Oxus to the Harirud and was later followed by 19 additional protocols providing further detail between 1885 and 1888. The Afghan Boundary Commission agreed that Russia would relinquish the farthest territory captured in their advance, but retain Panjdeh. The agreement delineated a permanent northern Afghan frontier at the Amu Darya, with the loss of a large amount of territory, especially around Panjdeh. This left the border east of Lake
Zorkul Zorkul (; ; ) is a lake in the Pamir Mountains that runs along the border between the Wakhan District in Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan and the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region of Tajikistan. It is part of both the Wakhan National Park of ...
in the
Wakhan Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and , ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; , ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in ...
region to be defined. This territory was claimed by
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, Russia and Afghanistan. In the 1880s, the Afghans had advanced north of the lake to the Alichur Pamir. In 1891, Russia sent a military force to this area and its commander, Yanov, ordered the British Captain
Francis Younghusband Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British ...
to leave
Bozai Gumbaz Bazai Gonbad or Bozai Gumbaz () is the site of a domed tomb (or gonbad) and nearby settlement of mostly ethnic Kyrgyz herders in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan. It lies in the Little Pamir on the right bank of the B ...
in the
Little Pamir The Little Pamir ( Wakhi: ''Wuch Pamir''; Kyrgyz: ''Kichik Pamir''; ) is a broad U-shaped grassy valley or '' pamir'' in the eastern part of the Wakhan in north-eastern Afghanistan. The valley is 100 km long and 10 km wide, and is bou ...
. The Russians claimed that because they had annexed the
Khanate of Kokand The Khanate of Kokand was a Central Asian polity in the Fergana Valley centred on the city of Kokand between 1709 and 1876. It was ruled by the Ming tribe of Uzbeks. Its territory is today divided between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, a ...
they had a claim over the Pamirs. Afghanistan claimed that the region never paid tribute to Kokand and was independent, so having annexed it the region was theirs. The British claimed that this was a breach of the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1873. Unfortunately for Britain, the Indian government pointed out that Bozai Gumbaz was not included in the Agreement and so it was in an undefined zone. Bozai Gumbaz had not appeared on the Russian map as being in Wakhan. Additionally, the British became aware that Younghusband had mistakenly entered Russian territory near Kara Kul and could have been arrested by the administrator there. Yanov offered a verbal apology if he had mistakenly entered the Wakhan territory, and the Russian government proposed a joint survey to agree on a border. In 1892, the British sent
Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore Charles Adolphus Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore VD DL (24 March 1841 – 27 August 1907), styled Viscount Fincastle from birth until 1845, was a Scottish peer, Conservative politician, explorer, author, and artist. Early life He was born in Lond ...
to the Pamirs to investigate. Britain was concerned that Russia would take advantage of Chinese weakness in policing the area to gain territory. Murray was engaged in some form of diplomacy or espionage but the matter is not clear, and in 1893 reached agreement with Russia to demarcate the rest of the border, a process completed in 1895.


Agreement Between Great Britain and Afghanistan 1893

On 12 November 1893, the Agreement Between Great Britain and Afghanistan was signed in Kabul. The Agreement reconfirmed the 1873 Agreement, required Afghanistan to withdraw from the territory north of the Amu Darya that it had occupied in 1884, and called for delimitation of the boundary east of Lake Sari. When
Mortimer Durand Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, (14 February 1850 – 8 June 1924) was a British diplomat and member of the Indian Civil Service. He is best-known as the namesake for the Durand Line, which serves as the international border between Afghanistan an ...
, Secretary for State of India was appointed administrator of the
Gilgit Agency The Gilgit Agency () was an agency within the British Indian Empire. It encompassed Hunza, Nagar and the governorships of Yasin, Koh Ghizer, Ishkoman, Punial and the tribal areas of Gor, Darel, Tangir, the district of Chilas and the Gilgit teh ...
(now part of the
Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...
of
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
), he opened up the region by building roads, telegraph, and mail systems while maintaining a dialogue with the Mir of Gilgit. He intended to improve the road from Kashmir through the princely states of
Hunza Hunza may refer to: * Hunza, Iran * Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan ** Hunza (princely state), a former principality ** Hunza District, a recently established district ** Hunza River, a waterway ** Hunza Peak, a mo ...
and Nagar and up to the frontier with Russia. The Mirs of Nagar and Hunza saw this as a threat to their natural advantage of remoteness. In 1890, Durand reinforced Chalt Fort that was near the border due to the rumor that Nagar and Hunza fighters were about to attack it, and continued redeveloping the road up to the fort. In May 1891, Nagar and Hunza sent a warning to Durand not to continue work on the road to the fort and to vacate the fort, which was on the Gilgit side of the border, else they would regard it as an act of war. Durand reinforced the fort and accelerated the road construction to it, causing Nagar and Hunza to see this as an escalation and so they stopped mail from the British Resident in Chinese Turkmenistan through their territory. British India regarded this as a breach of their 1889 agreement with Hunza, and after an ultimatum was issued and ignored they initiated the Anglo- Brusho Campaign of 1891. Hunza and Nagar came under a British protectorate in 1893.


Exchange of Notes Between Great Britain and Russia 1895

On 11 March 1895, there was an Exchange of Notes Between Great Britain and Russia. The notes defined British and Russian spheres of influence east of Lake Sari-Qul by defining the northern boundary of the Wakhan Corridor east of the lake. This boundary was subsequently demarcated by a mixed commission. The Great Game is proposed to have ended on 10 September 1895 with the signing of the Pamir Boundary Commission protocols, when the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire was defined. The Pamir Boundary Commission was conducted by Major-General Gerard who met with a Russian deputation under General Povalo-Shveikovsky in the remote Pamir region in 1895, who were charged with demarcating the boundary between Russian and British spheres of interest from Lake Victoria eastwards to the Chinese border. The report of the Commission proved the absolute impracticality of any Russian invasion of India through the Pamir mountains. The result was that Afghanistan became a buffer state between the two powers. It was agreed that the
Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...
river would form the border between Afghanistan and the Russian Empire. The agreements also resulted in the Russian Empire losing control of most Afghan territory it conquered, with the exception of Panjdeh. The
Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...
were demarcated as a border line between the Russian Empire and Afghanistan as well. The Taghdumbash would be the subject of a later Afghan-China agreement. To conclude their agreement, one peak was named Mount Concord. In exchange for a British agreement to use the term '' Nicholas Range'' in honor of the Emperor
Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...
on official maps, the Russians agreed to refer to Lake Zorkul as ''Lake Victoria'' in honour of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
of the United Kingdom.Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Kashmir, Chitral, Gilgit, Pamirs and North-West Frontier: Summary of Diary for August 1895. p.4. Public Record Office. Russia.Proceedings in Central Asia 1873–1898. F.O. 65/1507."Enclosure No. 8. No. 179, dated Lake Victoria, the 28th July 1895 (Confidential). From Major-General M. G. Gerard, C. B. To the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department." Record Office. Russia. Proceedings in Central Asia 1873–1898. PRO/FO 65/1506. pp. 336–337. The Russians had gained all of the lands north of the Amu Darya which included the land claimed by the Khanate of Khiva, including the approaches to Herat, and all of the land claimed by the Khanate of Khoqand, including the Pamir plateau. To ensure a complete separation, this new Afghan state was given an odd eastern appendage known as the Wakhan Corridor. "In setting these boundaries, the final act of the tense game played out by the British and Russian governments came to a close."


Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907

In the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ), was signed on August 31, 1907, in Saint Petersburg. It ended the two powers' longstanding rivalry in Cen ...
, the Russian Empire and British Empire officially ended their rivalry to focus on opposing the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
. In the Convention of 1907, Russia recognized Afghanistan and southern Iran as part of the British sphere of influence, while Britain recognized Central Asia and northern Iran as part of the Russian sphere of influence. Both parties recognized Tibet as a neutral territory, except Russia had special privileges in negotiating with the Dalai Lama, and Britain had special privileges in Tibetan commercial deals. For a time, the British and Russian Empires moved together against potential German entrance into the Great Game, and against a constitutional movement in Iran that threatened to dispel the two-way sphere of influence. Russia had earlier established the
Persian Cossack Brigade The Persian Cossack Brigade, also known as the Iranian Cossack Brigade (), was a Cossacks, Cossack-style cavalry unit formed in 1879 in Qajar Iran, Iran. It was modelled after the Caucasian Cossack regiments of the Imperial Russian Army. Until 1 ...
in 1879, a force which was led by Russian officers and served as a vehicle for Russian influence in Iran. In 1908, the
Persian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution (, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar Iran, Qajar era. The revolution led to the establishment of a Majl ...
sought to establish a Western-oriented, democratic
civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Majilis, a relatively free press and other reforms. Seeking to resolve financial problems of the Qajar dynasty such as heavy debts to Imperial Russia and Britain, the Majilis recruited the American financial expert,
Morgan Schuster William Morgan Shuster III (February 23, 1877 – May 26, 1960), was an American lawyer, civil servant, and publisher, who is best known as the Treasurer-General of Persia by appointment of the Iranian parliament, or Majles, from May to Dece ...
, who later wrote the book ''The Strangling of Persia'' condemning Britain and Russia. The Russian Empire intervened in the Persian Constitutional Revolution to support the Shah and abolish the constitution. The Cossacks bombarded the Majilis in June 1908 and occupied
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
. Additional brigades of the Russian Army were also deployed to assist the Shah and occupied Tabriz after April 1909. Nonetheless, the constitutionalists were able to retake the capital and were initially victorious with the
Triumph of Tehran The Triumph of Tehran () refers to the entrance of the pro-constitutionalists in Tehran on 13 July 1909, which led Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar to seek refuge at the Russian legation in Tehran, before he was sent to exile.Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (‎; 21 June 1872 – 5 April 1925) was the sixth shah of the Qajar dynasty and remained the Shah of Iran from 8 January 1907 until being deposed on 16 July 1909. He was furthermore the grandson of Iran’s early mod ...
, who was exiled and took refuge with the Russians. When a new ruler,
Ahmad Shah Qajar Ahmad Shah Qajar (‎; 21 January 1898 – 21 February 1930) was the List of monarchs of Iran, shah of Iran (Name of Iran, Persia) from 16 July 1909 to 15 December 1925, and the seventh and final ruling member of the Qajar dynasty. Ahmad Shah ...
, took power he found it difficult to completely reverse the constitutional reforms, yet the Qajar state was weakened by the upheaval and the Qajar court dependent on foreign powers. Meanwhile, Britain and Russia aligned to oust Shuster from Iran by an ultimatum in 1911 which was unanimously rejected by the Majilis. British and Russian officials coordinated as the Russian army, still present in Persia, invaded the capital again and suspended the parliament. The Tsar ordered the troops in Tabriz "to act harshly and quickly", while purges were ordered, leading to many executions of prominent revolutionaries. The British Ambassador,
George Head Barclay Sir George Head Barclay, (23 March 1862 – 26 January 1921) was a British diplomat. Early life Barclay was born on 23 March 1862 at Walthamstow, Essex, England. He was the son of Richenda Louisa (née Gurney) Barclay (1827–1888) and Henry ...
reportedly disapproved of this "reign of terror", though would soon pressure Persian ministers to officialize the Anglo-Russian partition of Iran. By June 1914, Russia established near-total control over its northern zone, while Britain had established influence over Baluch and Bakhtiari autonomous tribal leaders in the southeastern zone. Qajar Iran would become a battleground between Russian, Ottoman, and British forces in the Persian campaign of World War I.


Historiographical dating

Historians do not agree on dating the beginning or end of the Great Game. Konstantin Penzev believes that the Great Game commenced with Russia's victory in the
Russo-Persian War (1804–13) The Russo-Persian Wars ( ), or the Russo-Iranian Wars ( ), began in 1651 and continued intermittently until 1828. They consisted of five conflicts in total, each rooted in both sides' disputed governance of territories and countries in the Cauc ...
and the signing of the
Treaty of Gulistan The Treaty of Gulistan (also spelled Golestan: ; ) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gülüstan, Goranboy, Gulistan (now in Goranboy District, the Goranboy District of Azerb ...
of 1813 or the
Treaty of Turkmenchay The Treaty of Turkmenchay (; ) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828). It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the ...
of 1828. Edward Ingram believes that it began between 1832 and 1834 as an attempt to negotiate trade deals with Ranjit Singh and the Amirs of Sind. Hopkirk views "unofficial" British support for Circassian anti-Russian fighters in the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
( 1836 – involving
David Urquhart David Urquhart (1 July 180516 May 1877) was a British diplomat, writer and politician, serving as a Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1847 to 1852. He also was an early promoter in the United Kingdom of the hammam (known to westerners as th ...
and (for example) the ''Vixen'' affair – in the context of the Great Game. Sergeev believes that the Great Game started in the aftermath of the
Caucasus War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...
(1828–59) and intensified with the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
(1853–56). Edward Ingram proposes that The Great Game was over at the end of the First Anglo-Afghanistan war in 1842 with the British withdrawal from Afghanistan. British fears ended in 1907 and the Great Game came to a close in 1907 when Britain and Russia became military allies (with France). They made three Anglo-Russian agreements which delineated spheres of interest between British India and Russian Central Asia in the borderland areas of Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. However historian Elena Andreeva sets the endpoint with the
Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...
in 1917 and the temporary end of Russia's interest in Persia. Konstantin Penzev has stated, echoing Kipling's fictional summary ("When everyone is dead, the Great Game is finished. Not before."), that unofficially the Great Game in Central Asia will never end.


Soviet Great Game

According to German historian David X. Noack, the Great Game resumed from 1919 to 1933 as a conflict between Britain and the Soviet Union, with the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
and Japan as additional players. Noack calls it a "Second Tournament of Shadows" over the territory composing the border of British India, China, the Soviet Union and Japanese Manchuria. To Britain, the Germans initially appeared to be a secret Soviet ally. In 1933–1934 it "ended with Mongolia, Soviet Central Asia, Tannu-Tuva and Xinjiang isolated from non-Soviet influence." Authors Andrei Znamenski and Alexandre Andreyev also describe the continuation of elements of the Great Game by the Soviet Union until the 1930s, focused on secret diplomacy and espionage in Tibet and Mongolia.


Historiographical interpretations of the Great Game


Allegation that "Britain had lost the Great Game by 1842"

Edward Ingram proposes that Britain lost the Great Game. "The Great Game was an aspect of British history rather than international relations: the phrase describes what the British were doing, not the actions of Russians and Chinese." The Great Game was an attempt made in the 1830s by the British to impose their view on the world. If Khiva and Bukhara were to become buffer states, then trade routes to Afghanistan, as a protectorate, along the Indus and Sutlej rivers would be necessary and therefore access through the Sind and Punjab regions would be required. The Great Game began between 1832 and 1834 as an attempt to negotiate trade deals with Ranjit Singh and the Amirs of Sind, and the "first interruption of this magnificent British daydream was caused by the determination of the Amirs of Sind to be left alone." Its failure occurred at the end of the First Anglo-Afghanistan war in 1842 with the British withdrawal from Afghanistan. The failure to turn Afghanistan into a client state meant that The Great Game could not be won. Nonetheless, Britain would win a decisive victory in the Second Anglo-Afghan War which occurred between 1878 and 1880. The victory also strengthened Britain's influence in Afghanistan, which had become a British protectorate. In 1889,
Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...
, who later became Viceroy of India (1899-1905), wrote a book on the strategic balance between the Russian and British Empires, as well as his travels on the
Trans-Caspian railway The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, ) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19t ...
. In that book, ''Russia in Central Asia in 1889 & the Anglo-Russian Question'', he commented:
Our relations with Afghanistan in the forty years between 1838 and 1878 were successively those of blundering interference and of unmasterly inactivity.
However, he also portrayed the great game as a then-ongoing and future event in 1889, stating:
...the Transcaspian conquests of the Czar have brought about, and the seal upon which has been set by the completion of the new railway. The power of menace, which the ability to take Herat involves, has passed from English to Russian hands; the Russian seizure of Herat is now a matter not so much of war as of time; and that the Russians will thus, without an effort, win the first hand in the great game that is destined to be played for the empire of the East.
Russia remained a focus for Curzon through and after his time as Viceroy of India.


"The British colluded with the Russians over Central Asia"

In the 1850s,
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
MP and PM
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
of colluding with Russia during the Crimean War. At the time, Marx alleged that Palmerston weakened Britain's defense of the Ottoman Empire. Although this view was not otherwise widespread, the same accusation was levied by
David Urquhart David Urquhart (1 July 180516 May 1877) was a British diplomat, writer and politician, serving as a Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1847 to 1852. He also was an early promoter in the United Kingdom of the hammam (known to westerners as th ...
(1805-1877). Mail communications between London and Calcutta could take as long as three months either way. Long-distance telegraph lines were built across Russia in the 1850s. In 1870, the Indo-European Telegraph Line was completed and it provided a communication link between London and Calcutta after passing through Russia. For the first time, the India Office within the British Foreign Office could telegraph its orders and have them acted on in a timely manner. The Government in Westminster now had complete control over foreign policy in India and the Governor-General of India lost the discretion that he once enjoyed. In 1868, Russia moved against Bukhara and occupied Samarkand. Prince Gorchakov wrote in the ''Gorchakov Memorandum of 1874'' that the Russian Ambassador to Britain offered an explanation that satisfied Clarendon, the British Foreign Secretary. Clarendon replied that the rapid advance of Russian troops neither alarmed nor surprised the British Government, however it did the British public and the Indian Government. Clarendon proposed a neutral zone between Britain and Russia in the region, a view that was shared by the Russian Government. This led to a confidential meeting in
Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...
between Clarendon and Count Brunow, the Russian Imperial Secretary. After the signing of the Anglo-Russian Agreement of 1873 that was followed by Russia's occupation of Khiva, Gorchakov wrote in the ''Gorchakov Memorandum of 1874'' that "Although ... the Khanate of Khiva remained entirely in our sphere of action, we thought we would make an act of courtesy of not adopting any decisive measure against Khiva before having informed Britain of it." In November 1874,
Lord Augustus Loftus Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus, (4 October 1817 – 7 March 1904), was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Ambassador to Prussia from 1865 to 1868, to the North German Confederation from 1868 to 1871 and to th ...
, British ambassador to Russia called on Russia's V. Westmann, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, and told him that "The advance of Russia in Central Asia of late years was a subject of watchful interest, although it was not one of either jealousy or fear to the Government of India." In December 1874, long before Russia annexed Merv in 1884, Northbrook, the Viceroy of India, wrote to
Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
, the Secretary of State for India, that he accepted an eventual Russian annexation of Merv. In the following year he wrote to Rawlinson, a member of the Council of India, "Our engagement with Russia with respect to the frontier of Afghanistan precludes us from promoting the incorporation of the Turkomans of Merv in the territories subject to the Ameer of Kabul". Northbrook would not accept any extension of Persia towards Merv. It has been proposed that from Sher Ali's (Afghanistan's) point of view, prior to the invasion of Afghanistan by Britain in the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878, that there was evidence of the beginnings of a growing understanding between Britain and Russia to divide Central Asia between themselves. Britain and Russia officially ended their dispute with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, and afterward cooperated to enforce its provisions on Qajar Iran, while covert rivalry continued.


Effect of the Great Game on contemporary political boundaries


On India

Narendra Singh Sarila, aide-de-camp to Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, in 1948 describes in his book ''The Shadow of the Great Game'' that based on his research in The Oriental and India Collection of
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
that the partition of India was partially connected to the Great Game between Britain and the USSR. He stated the following in his book:
Once the British realized that the
Indian nationalists Indian nationalism is an instance of civic nationalism. It is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was f ...
who would rule India after its independence would deny them military cooperation under a British Commonwealth defence umbrella, they settled for those willing to do so by using religion for the purpose. Their problem could be solved if Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League Party, would succeed in his plan to detach the northwest of India abutting Iran, Afghanistan and Sinkiang and establish a separate state there – Pakistan.
Lawyer and mediator in Supreme Court of India, Aman M. Hingorani in his book ''Unravelling the Kashmir Knot'' that Winston Churchill directed War Cabinet to assess 'the long-term policy required to safeguard the strategic interests of the British Empire in India and the Indian Ocean', the report in respect of which was submitted on 19 May 1945. He states in the book:
The report emphasized that 'Britain must retain its military connection with the subcontinent so as to ward off the Soviet Union's threat to the area', citing four reasons for the 'strategic importance of India to Britain'—India's 'value as a base from which forces could be suitably deployed within the Indian Ocean area, in the Middle East and the Far East'; it serving as 'a transit point for air and sea communications'; it being 'a large reserve of manpower of good fighting quality'; and the strategic importance of the northwest region to threaten the Soviet Union.


The Great Game as a legend


Mythologized aspects of the Great Game

A. Vescovi argued that Kipling's use of the term was entirely fictional, "...because the Great Game as it is described in the novel never existed; it is almost entirely Kipling's invention. At the time when the story is set (i.e. in the late Eighties), Britain did not have an intelligence service, nor an Ethnographical Department; there was only a governmental task force called 'Survey of India' that was entrusted with the task of charting all India in response to a typically English anxiety of control." According to military history scholar Matt Salyer, the "Great Game" as a British strategy was a fiction, but the "Great Game" as a vague descriptor of various actions of multiple empires, "as far back as the Seven Years' War" is accurate. He writes that "the 'legend of the Great Game' emerged as a distinct historiographical lens after the Second World War." However, he says, "That does not mean that historians who describe trajectories of British Imperial statecraft in terms of 'the Great Game' are wrong." Two authors, Gerald Morgan and Malcolm Yapp, have proposed that The Great Game was a legend and that the British Raj did not have the capacity to conduct such an undertaking. An examination of the archives of the various departments of the Raj showed no evidence of a British intelligence network in Central Asia. At best, efforts to obtain information on Russian moves in Central Asia were rare, ''ad hoc'' adventures and at worst intrigues resembling the adventures in ''Kim'' were baseless rumours, and that such rumours "were always common currency in Central Asia and they applied as much to Russia as to Britain". After two British representatives were executed in Bukhara in 1842, Britain actively discouraged officers from traveling in Turkestan. Gerald Morgan also proposed that Russia never had the will nor ability to move on India, nor India the capability to move on Central Asia. Russia did not want Afghanistan, considering their initial failure to take Khiva and the British debacle in the First Anglo-Afghan War. To invade Afghanistan they would first require a forward base in Khorasan, Persia. St. Petersburg had decided by then that a forward policy in the region had failed but one of non-intervention appeared to work. Sneh Manajan wrote that the Russian military advances in Central Asia were advocated and executed only by irresponsible Russians or enthusiastic governors of the frontier provinces. Robert Middleton suggested that The Great Game was all a figment of the over-excited imaginations of a few jingoist politicians, military officers and journalists on both sides. The use of the term The Great Game to describe Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia became common only after the Second World War. It was rarely used before that period. Malcolm Yapp proposed that some Britons had used the term "The Great Game" in the late 19th century to describe several different things in relation to its interests in Asia, but the primary concern of British authorities in India was the control of the indigenous population and not preventing a Russian invasion. Robert Irwin argues the Great Game was certainly perceived by both British and Russian adventurers at the time, but was played up by more expansionist factions for power politics in Europe. Irwin states that "Prince Ukhtomsky might rail against the corrupting effects of British rule over India and declare that there could be no frontiers for the Russians in Asia, but Russian policy was usually decided by saner heads. Canny statesmen such as
Witte Witte (and de Witte) are Dutch and Low German surnames meaning "(the) white one". Witte can also be a patronymic surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alfred Witte (1878–1941), German astrologer * Barbara Witte (1922–1992), Ge ...
sanctioned the despatch of diplomatic missions, explorers and spies into Afghanistan and Tibet, but they did so to extort concessions from the British in Europe.
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
, on the other hand, was reluctant to have its foreign policy in Europe dictated to by the Raj." According to historian Patrikeeff, the concept of the Great Game was also applied, possibly inaccurately, to Northeast Asia to describe Russia and Japan's contest over Manchuria – which took the form of the
Russian invasion of Manchuria The Russian invasion of Manchuria or Chinese expedition () occurred in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) when concerns regarding Qing China's defeat by the Empire of Japan, and Japan's brief occupation of Liaodong, c ...
,
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
, and part of the
Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
– and perhaps had similar ideological underpinnings to start with. However, unlike the British-Russian Great Game in South and West Asia, where clear-cut spheres of influence were established, Patrikeeff says that this supposed Great Game in Northeast Asia ignored that economic dominance did not follow political (with Japan's victory in Manchuria not fully ousting the Russian concessions such as the CER) and that centuries-old distinct traditions such as the Qing legacy there led to key differences. Nonetheless, ancient and even mythic appeals to legitimacy were used by exiled supporters of empire, such as Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg's attempt at reviving a 'new Mongolian khanate'. Whereas the Great Game between Russia and Britain was codifying imperial spheres of influence at their frontiers, the supposed Great Game between Russia and Japan did not end up in a similarly defined frontier, with warlord states and
Honghuzi Honghuzi () were armed Chinese robbers and bandits who operated in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderland during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Their activities extended over southeastern ...
emerging through the period.


Role of legends and mysticism in the Great Game

Several scholars have focused on the role of legends and mysticism (sometimes interpreted as a form of
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
that was prominent in the late 19th and early 20th century), during the Great Game and in its aftermath. Some writers such as
Karl Meyer Karl Meyer may refer to: *Karl Meyer (activist) (born 1937), American pacifist, activist, Catholic worker and tax resister * Karl Meyer (aviator) (1894–1917), World War I flying ace *Karl Meyer (biochemist) (1899–1990), German biochemist * Karl ...
and Shareen Brysac have connected the Great Game to earlier and later expeditions in Inner Asia, predominantly those expeditions by British, Russian, and German orientalists. Robert Irwin summarizes the expeditions as " William Moorcroft, the horse doctor with a mission to find new stock for the cavalry in British India; Charles Metcalfe, the advocate of a forward policy on the frontier in the early 19th century; Alexander 'Bokhara' Burnes, the foolhardy political officer, who perished at the hands of an Afghan mob; Sir William Hay Macnaghten, the head of the ill-fated British Mission in Kabul (and a scholar who produced an important edition of ''The Arabian Nights'');
Nikolai Przhevalsky Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (or Prjevalsky;; , . – ) was a Russian geographer and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia. Although he never reached his ultimate goal, the city of Lhasa in Tibet, he still travelled through regio ...
, the explorer who gave his name to a hard-to-spell horse;
Francis Younghusband Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British ...
, the mystical imperialist;
Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, (; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities. ...
, the manuscript hunter;
Sven Hedin Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO,Wennerholm, Eric (1978) ''Sven Hedin – En biografi'', Bonniers, Stockholm (19 February 1865 – 26 November 1952) was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator ...
, the Nazi sympathiser who seems to have regarded Asian exploration as a proving ground for the superman;
Nicholas Roerich Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (), better known as Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth he was influenced by Russ ...
, the artist and barmy quester after the fabled hidden city of
Shambhala Shambhala (, ),Śambhala m. (also written Sambhala): Name of a town (situated between the Rathaprā and Ganges, and identified by some with Sambhal in Moradabad; the town or district of Śambhala is fabled to be the place where Kalki, the last ...
." The founder of
Theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
, esotericist
Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born Mysticism, mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an internat ...
, has also been connected to the Great Game, with her Himalayas-inspired
Western mysticism Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...
both critiquing, and falling for, two forms of
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
by the British and Russian Empires, as they competed to define and claim "the Orient". Blavatsky would be referenced by the poet
Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922), was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of the Russian Futurist ...
, who argued that Britain and Russia had both taken traits from the
Kazan Khanate The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatars, Tatar state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia Republic, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurti ...
and
Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...
respectively, in their colonial struggle over Asia. Blavatsky would also refer to Russia's double-layered conception of itself as a European power in contrast to Asia as well as an empire based in Asia; meanwhile, she would also "consciously appropriate" British rhetoric on Russia in labelling herself a "Russian savage". Both Blavatsky and Khlebnikov claimed Kalmyk ancestry in imitation of the traditionally nomadic culture. Scholar Anindita Banerjee argued this shows a "deconstruction" of national identities by identifying with a "religious, geographic, and ethnic other", relevant to the diversity of Central Asia and India and the frontier that existed between the British and Russian Empires. According to the scholar Andrei Znamenski, Soviet Communists of the 1920s aimed to extend their influence over Mongolia and Tibet, using the mythical Buddhist kingdom of Shambhala as a form of propaganda to further this mission, in a sort of "great Bolshevik game". The expedition of Russian
symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...
Nicholas Roerich Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (), better known as Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure. In his youth he was influenced by Russ ...
has been put in context of the Great Game due to his interest in Tibet, Although Roerich did not like the Communists, he agreed to help Soviet intelligence and influence operations due to a shared paranoia towards Britain, as well as his goal to form a "Sacred Union of the East"
Jan Morris Catharine Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the '' Pax Brita ...
states that "Roerich brought the bewilderments of the later Great Game to America" through mysticism movements called Roerichism. In the early 1920s, Roerich asserted that beings from an esoteric Buddhist community in India told him that Russia was destined for a mission on Earth. That led Roerich to formulate his "Great Plan," which envisaged the unification of millions of
Asian peoples The ancestral population of modern Asian people has its origins in the two primary prehistoric settlement centres – greater Southwest Asia and from the Mongolian plateau towards Northern China. Migrations of distinct ethnolinguistic groups ...
through a religious movement using the Future Buddha, or
Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pali), is a bodhisattva who is regarded as the future Buddhahood, Buddha of this world in all schools of Buddhism, prophesied to become Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha.Williams, Paul. ''Mahayana Buddhism: Th ...
, into a "Second Union of the East." There, the King of Shambhala would, following the Maitreya prophecies, make his appearance to fight a great battle against all evil forces on Earth. Roerich understood that as "perfection towards Common Good." The new polity was to include southwestern Altai,
Tuva Tuva (; ) or Tyva (; ), officially the Republic of Tyva,; , is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Federal subjects of Russia, federal sub ...
,
Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...
,
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