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Second Anglo-Afghan War

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Second Anglo-Afghan War

92nd Highlanders at Kandahar. Oil by Richard Caton Woodville
Date1878–1880
Location
Afghanistan
Result

British victory

Belligerents
Afghanistan

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Commanders and leaders
Sher Ali Khan,
Ayub Khan		 Donald Stewart,
Frederick Roberts,
Samuel Browne
Casualties and losses
12,700+ dead and wounded 1,630+ dead and wounded

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Part of a series on the
History of Afghanistan
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The Second Anglo-Afghan War was fought between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the nation was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty, the son of former Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. This was the second time British India invaded Afghanistan. The war ended in a manner after attaining all the British geopolitical objectives. Most of the British and Indian soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan. The Afghans were permitted to maintain internal sovereignty but they had to cede control of their nation's foreign relations to the British.[3][4]

War

After tension between Russia and Britain in Europe ended with the June 1878 Congress of Berlin, Russia turned its attention to Central Asia. That same summer, Russia sent an uninvited diplomatic mission to Kabul. Sher Ali Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, tried unsuccessfully to keep them out. Russian envoys arrived in Kabul on 22 July 1878, and on 14 August, the British demanded that Sher Ali accept a British mission too.

The Amir not only refused to receive a British mission under Neville Bowles Chamberlain, but threatened to stop it if it were dispatched. Lord Lytton, the viceroy, ordered a diplomatic mission to set out for Kabul in September 1878 but the mission was turned back as it approached the eastern entrance of the Khyber Pass, triggering the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

First phase

A British force of about 40,000 fighting men, mostly British and Indians, was distributed into military columns which penetrated Afghanistan at three different points. An alarmed Sher Ali attempted to appeal in person to the Russian Tsar for assistance, but unable to do so, he returned to Mazari Sharif, where he died on 21 February 1879.[5]

Mohammad Yaqub Khan with Britain's Sir Pierre Cavagnari on May 26, 1879, when the Treaty of Gandamak was signed, photograph by John Burke.

Treaty

With British forces occupying much of the country, Sher Ali's son and successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan, signed the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879 to prevent a British invasion of the rest of the country. According to this agreement and in return for an annual subsidy and vague assurances of assistance in case of foreign aggression, Yaqub relinquished control of Afghan foreign affairs to Britain. British representatives were installed in Kabul and other locations, British control was extended to the Khyber and Michni passes, and Afghanistan ceded various frontier areas and Quetta to Britain. The British Army then withdrew.

However, on 3 September 1879 an uprising in Kabul led to the slaughter of Sir Pierre Cavagnari, his guards, and staff - provoking the next phase of the Second Afghan War.

Second phase

Major General Sir Frederick Roberts led the Kabul Field Force over the Shutargardan Pass into central Afghanistan, defeated the Afghan Army at Char Asiab on 6 October 1879, and occupied Kabul. Ghazi Mohammad Jan Khan Wardak staged an uprising and attacked British forces near Kabul in the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment in December 1879, but his defeat there resulted in the collapse of this rebellion. Yaqub Khan, suspected of complicity in the massacre of Cavagnari and his staff, was obliged to abdicate. The British considered a number of possible political settlements, including partitioning Afghanistan between multiple rulers or placing Yaqub's brother Ayub Khan on the throne, but ultimately decided to install his cousin Abdur Rahman Khan as emir instead.

Ayub Khan, who had been serving as governor of Herat, rose in revolt, defeated a British detachment at the Battle of Maiwand in July 1880 and besieged Kandahar. Roberts then led the main British force from Kabul and decisively defeated Ayub Khan in September at the Battle of Kandahar, bringing his rebellion to an end. Abdur Rahman had confirmed the Treaty of Gandamak, leaving the British in control of the territories ceded by Yaqub Khan and ensuring British control of Afghanistan's foreign policy in exchange for protection and a subsidy.

Abandoning the provocative policy of maintaining a British resident in Kabul, but having achieved all their other objectives, the British withdrew.

Captured British soldiers

The British officer John Masters recorded in his autobiography that Pathan women in the North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955) of British India during the Second Anglo-Afghan War would castrate non-Muslim soldiers who were captured, like British and Sikhs.[6][7] They also used an execution method involving urine, Pathan women urinated into prisoner's mouths.[8] Captured British soldiers were spread out on the and fastened with restraints to the ground, then a stick, or a piece of wood was used to keep their mouth open to prevent swallowing. Pathan women then squatted and urinated directly into the mouth of the man until he drowned in the urine, taking turns one at a time.[9][10][11][12][13][14] This method of execution was reported to have been practiced specifically by the women of the Afridi tribe of the Pashtuns.[15][16]

Timeline of battles

There were several decisive actions in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, from 1878 to 1880. Here are the battles and actions in chronological order. An asterisk (*) indicates a clasp was awarded for that particular battle with the Afghanistan Medal.

British team at the site of the Battle of Ali Masjid
British Royal Horse Artillery fleeing from Afghans at the Battle of Maiwand
Afghan victors of the Battle of Maiwand

1878

  1. Battle of Ali Masjid* (Decisive British victory)
  2. Battle of Peiwar Kotal* (Decisive British victory)

1879

  1. Action at Takht-i-Pul
  2. Action at Matun
  3. Battle of Khushk-i-Nakud
  4. Battle of Fatehbad
  5. Battle of Kam Dakka
  6. Battle of Charasiab*
  7. Battle of Shajui
  8. Battle of Karez Mir
  9. Battle of Takht-i-Shah
  10. Battle of Asmai Heights (Afghan victory)
  11. Siege of Sherpur* (Decisive British victory)

1880

  1. Battle of Ahmed Khel* (British victory)
  2. Battle of Arzu
  3. Second Battle of Charasiab
  4. Battle of Maiwand (Afghan victory)
  5. Battle of Deh Koja
  6. Battle of Kandahar* (Decisive British victory)

1881

  1. Kandahar (and Afghanistan) Evacuation

Order of battle

Durban Maidan of Sherpur Cantonment in 1879.
Bengal Sapper and Miners Bastion in Sherpur cantonment.
Highlanders of Amir Yaqub at Gandamak
Art work
45th Rattray's Sikhs guard Afghan prisoners during an advance through the Khyber Pass
  • Peshawar Valley Field Force Lt Gen Sir Samuel Browne
  • Kurram Valley Field Force Major General Roberts

Royal Artillery Col A. H. Lindsay

  • Kandahar Field Force
  • First Division Lt Gen Donald Stewart

Royal Artillery Brig Gen C. G. Arbuthnot

  • 2nd Division Maj Gen M A Biddulph

Artillery Col Le Mesurier

Sherlock Holmes' friend (and story narrator) Dr. Watson briefly served in the Second Afghan War, as described in the first chapter of A Study in Scarlet. In subsequent books, occasional reference is made to the wound Watson suffered from a Jezail bullet, although Conan Doyle was notoriously poor at remembering whether the wound was in his shoulder or leg.

M M Kaye sets the finale of her novel The Far Pavilions during the Second Afghan War, the hero, Ashton Pelham Martyn (Ashok) is sent to Kabul to assist as a British spy and his best friend is made head of the military mission that accompanies Sir Pierre Louis Cavagnari when he goes to Kabul as an advisor. The book ends with the fall of the Bala Hissar in Kabul, where the British force is living; the death of all the British force, British officers and Indian soldiers, after a bitter and hard fought battle (almost all of which is based on original sources); and the hero and his wife riding north into the Himalyas.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Second Anglo-Afghan War.
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References

  1. ^ L.W. Adamec/J.A. Norris, ANGLO-AFGHAN WARS, in Encycloædia Iranica, online ed., 2010
  2. ^ J.A. Norris, ANGLO-AFGHAN RELATIONS, in Encycloædia Iranica, online ed., 2010
  3. ^ a b Barfield, Thomas (2010). Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Princeton University Press. p. 145. ISBN 0691145687, 9780691145686. Retrieved 2010-08-22. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)
  4. ^ a b Posturee, Bad (2002). Understanding Holocausts: How, Why and When They Occur. iUniverse. p. 84. ISBN 0595238386, 9780595238385. Retrieved 2010-08-22. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)
  5. ^ Hanna, Henry Bathurst (1904). The Second Afghan War, 1878-79-80: Its Causes, Its Conduct and Its Consequences. Vol. 2. Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 150–155.
  6. ^ John Masters (1956). Bugles and a tiger: a volume of autobiography. Viking Press. p. 190. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ^ Michael Barthorp, Douglas N. Anderson (1996). The Frontier ablaze: the North-west frontier rising, 1897-98. Windrow & Greene. p. 12. ISBN 1859150233. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. ^ George Devereux (1976). Dreams in Greek tragedy: an ethno-psycho-analytical study. University of California Press. p. 237. ISBN 0520029216. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ John Masters (1956). Bugles and a tiger: a volume of autobiography. Viking Press. p. 190. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ Donald F. Featherstone (1973). Colonial small wars, 1837-1901. David & Charles. p. 9. ISBN 0715357115. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ Charles Miller (1977). Khyber, British India's north west frontier: the story of an imperial migraine. Macdonald and Jane's. p. 359. ISBN 0354041673. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ Donald Sydney Richards (1990). The savage frontier: a history of the Anglo-Afghan wars. Macmillan. p. 182. ISBN 0333525574. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  13. ^ Charles Chenevix Trench (1985). The frontier scouts. Cape. ISBN 0224023217. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  14. ^ H. S. Mahle (1985). Indo-Anglian fiction: some perceptions : including some lectures on Karnadʾs Tughlaq. Jainsons Publications. p. 24. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  15. ^ Robert E. L. Masters, Eduard Lea (1963). Perverse crimes in history: evolving concepts of sadism, lust-murder, and necrophilia from ancient to modern times. Julian Press. p. 211. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ^ Robert E. L. Masters, Eduard Lea (1963). Sex crimes in history: evolving concepts of sadism, lust-murder, and necrophilia, from ancient to modern times. Julian Press. p. 211. Retrieved 5 April, 2011. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

Bibliography

  • Barthorp, Michael. 2002. Afghan Wars and the North-West Frontier 1839-1947 Cassell. London. ISBN 0-304-36294-8
  • Wilkinson-Latham, Robert. 1977. North-West Frontier 1837-1947. Osprey Publishing. London. ISBN 0-85045-275-9
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