The Anglo-Russian War: Lighting the Fuse

The Pamir Boundary Commission

"The Great Game" was a political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, over Afghanistan and neighboring territories in Central and South Asia. It also had direct consequences in Persia and British India. Britain was fearful of Russia invading India to add to the vast empire that Russia was building. As a result, there was a deep atmosphere of distrust and the talk of war between the two major European empires. Britain made it a high priority to protect all the approaches to India, and the "great game" is primarily how the British did this. Some historians have concluded that Russia had no plans involving India, as the Russians repeatedly stated to the British.

British Political Officer in "native" dress discussing the tribal situation with the local commander.

The Great Game began on 12 January 1830 when Lord Ellenborough, the President of the Board of Control for India, tasked Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General, with establishing a new trade route to the Emirate of Bukhara. Britain intended to gain control over the Emirate of Afghanistan and make it a protectorate, and to use the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Khanate of Khiva, and the Emirate of Bukhara as buffer states between both empires. This would protect India and also key British sea trade routes by stopping Russia from gaining a port on the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean.

The First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838.

Russia proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone. The results included the failed First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838, the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845, the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848, the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878, and the annexation of Kokand by Russia.

 

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 result was that Afghanistan became a buffer state between the two powers. 

Major-General Gerard

 

The Russian deputation under General Povalo-Shveikovsky in the remote Pamir region

 

It was agreed that the Amu Darya river would form the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire. Unfortunatly, the Amu Darya river was not adequately surveyed and there was no clear boundry between Russia, Afghanistan, and some of the Princely States of India to include the Princely State of Chaimbellistan . . .

 

The Royal siblings of Chaimbellistan.

 

The un-surveyed border.

Russian Frontier Guard spotting smugglers in Russian territory . . . or is it?

 

The British Indian Army in Chaimbellistan . . . and the fuse is lit.