First Afghan War

First Anglo-Afghan War
Part of the Great Game
A British-Indian force attacks Ghazni fort during the First Afghan War, c.1839.
Date March 1839–October 1842 Location Afghanistan Result Afghan victory British conquer Kabul, imprison Dost Mohammad and install Shah Shujah (August 1839) Dost Mohammad escapes, but is recaptured and deported (1840) Afghan uprisings and harsh winters force British withdrawal, Shah Shujah killed (1841–1842) Dost Mohammad reinstalled to the throne (1843)
Belligerents
Emirate of Afghanistan	British Empire British East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Dost Mohammad Khan (POW) Akbar Khan	William Hay Macnaghten † John Keane Sir Willoughby Cotton George Pollock William Elphinstone (POW) Shah Shujah †
Casualties and losses
~1500+ soldiers 1,500 captured	4,700 soldiers + 12,000 camp followers

Afghan victory

 British Empire

~1500+ soldiers

The First Anglo-Afghan War (also known as Disaster in Afghanistan) was fought between British imperial India and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. The war is famous for the loss of 4,500 British and Indian soldiers, plus 12,000 of their camp followers, to Afghan tribal fighters, but the British defeated the Afghans in the concluding engagement. Initially, the British successfully intervened in a succession dispute between emir Dost Mohammad (Barakzai) and former emir Shah Shujah (Durrani), whom they installed upon conquering Kabul in August 1839. However, in 1841 the Army of the Indus, numbering between 24,000 and 28,000 including families of soldiers, military and political pundits, suffered a series of defeats at the hands of rebel Afghan tribesmen. The main British Indian and Sikh force occupying Kabul, having endured harsh winters as well, was almost completely annihilated while retreating in January 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Britain and Russia.

The 19th century was a period of diplomatic competition between the British and Russian empires for spheres of influence in Asia known as the "Great Game". With the exception of the insane Emperor Paul who ordered an invasion of India in 1800 (which was cancelled after his assassination in 1801), no Russian tsar ever seriously considered invading India, but for most of the 19th century, Russia was viewed as "the enemy" in Britain, and any Russian advance into Central Asia was always assumed in London to be directed towards the conquest of India as the American historian David Fromkin observed "no matter how far-fetched" such an interpretation might be. In 1832, the First Reform Bill lowering the franchise requirements to vote and hold office in the United Kingdom was passed, which the ultra-conservative Emperor Nicholas I of Russia openly disapproved of, settling the stage for an Anglo-Russian "cold war", with many believing that Russian autocracy and British democracy were bound to clash. In 1837, Lord Palmerston and John Hobhouse, fearing the instability of Afghanistan, the Sindh, and the increasing power of the Sikh kingdom to the northwest, raised the spectre of a possible Russian invasion of British India through Afghanistan. The Russian Empire was slowly extending its domain into Central Asia, and this was seen by the East India Company as a possible threat to their interests in India. In 19th century Russia, there was the ideology of Russia's "special mission in the East", namely Russia had the "duty" to conquer much of Asia, through this was more directed against the nations of Central Asia and the alleged "Yellow Peril" of China than India. The British tended to misunderstand the foreign policy of the Emperor Nicholas I as anti-British and intent upon an expansionary policy in Asia; whereas in fact though Nicholas disliked Britain as a liberal democratic state that he considered to be rather "strange", he always believed it was possible to reach an understanding with Britain on spheres of influence in Asia, believing that the essentially conservative nature of British society would retard the advent of liberalism. The main goal of Nicholas's foreign policy was not the conquest of Asia, but rather upholding the status quo in Europe, especially by co-operating with Prussia and Austria, and in isolating France, as Louis Philippe I, the King of the French was a man who Nicholas hated as an "usurper". The duc d'Orleans had once been Nicholas's friend, but when he assumed the throne of France after the revolution of 1830, Nicholas was consumed with hatred for his former friend whom as he saw it had gone over to the dark side of liberalism.

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