A history of the British conquest of Afghanistan and Western India, 1838-1849

An exploration of British empire building in South Asia in the final decades of East India Company hegemony in India. It traces the history of military expeditions west of the Indus and north of the Sutlej rivers into Afghanistan, Sind, Gwalior, and Punjab. These are critical episodes in the history of empire as it manifested itself in the sub-continent in the middle of the nineteenth century, as an interdisciplinary case study to test theories of imperialism. This study explains causes and consequences of British imperial policy as it was made, largely by men on the spot, the governors general of India, who operated from a sense of white entitlement to rule dark skinned peoples. Imperial presence implies expansion. The British Government simply called this “defense of the frontier”, but when defense meant conquest of the frontier, presence extended to a new political boundary, and the periphery of empire kept moving. This happened in British India most forcefully from 1838 to 1849, beginning with Lord Auckland’s “expedition to the westward” (into Afghanistan), and ending with Lord Dalhousie’s annexation of Punjab. Special note is made of behavioral interaction between metropole and periphery, core and frontier, i.e., London and India. Based on primary documents, mostly from the India Office, and Historical Manuscripts, all located in the British Library, London. Of most value were the private papers of Lords Auckland, Broughton (Hobhouse), Dalhousie, Ellenborough, Ripon, and Sir Robert Peel and Gen. Sir Henry Hardinge. Other correspondence from Queen Victoria, Lord John Russell, Lord Melbourne, and Viscount Palmerston proved highly relevant and instructive. The "expedition to the westward" began as a policy response to the perception of Russian ambition in Central Asia, and to a weakening Persia which was assumed to be falling under the Tsar’s influence. The invasion of Afghanistan in 1838-39 was an attempted British resolution of this twin problem, known as the Great Game. The pretext was reinstallation of Shah Shuja, the deposed Afghan king, to his throne in Kabul. Preparations involved gaining the support of Maharaja Runjit Sing, ruler of Punjab, and securing the acquiescence of the Amirs of Sind through military intimidation. The western Afghan city of Herat came to be an object of obsession for British policy men, as they tried unsuccessfully to detach its ruler Kamran Shah from Russian and Persian influence. Beyond the Khyber and Bolan passes the Br

שנה

2009

שפה

English

הוצאה

Edwin Mellen Press

מהדורות

1

ISBN

9780773446755

מקור הנתונים: Wikidata