Panjdeh Incident

The Panjdeh incident of 1885 was a diplomatic crisis between Britain and Russia caused by the Russian Empire's expansion southeast toward Afghanistan and India. After nearly completing their conquest of central Asia the Russians captured an Afghan border fort. Seeing a threat to India, Britain came close to threatening war. Both sides backed down and the matter was settled by diplomacy. The effect was to stop further Russian expansion in Asia, except for the Pamirs, and to define the northwest border of Afghanistan.

After the bloody Battle of Geok Tepe in January 1881 and the annexation of Merv in March 1884 Russia held most of what is now Turkmenistan. South of Merv towards Herat in Afghanistan the border was not clearly defined. The British were concerned because the line Merv-Herat-Kandahar-Quetta was a natural invasion route to India. Further, the Russians were beginning to build a railroad from the Caspian which would allow them to bring men and supplies to Merv and beyond.

Most of Turkmenistan is desert, but irrigation supports a fairly dense population on the north slope of the Kopet Dag (Geok Tepe and Ashgabat). East of this are the oases of Tejend and Merv. Merv was always one of the great cities of central Asia, while Tejend was much smaller. South of Tejend and Merv is a grassy region sometimes called Badghis which is bounded by the Hari-Rud river on the west and the Murghab River on the east. The Hari-Rud flows north along the current Iranian border, enters Turkmenistan and spreads out forming the Tejend oasis before drying up in the desert. The Murghab flows north through what is now Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, reaches Yoloten and spreads out forming the Merv oasis. Where the Murghab crosses the current border was the irrigated area of Panjdeh or ‘Five Villages’. Badghis was about 100 miles across and somewhere between 75 and 150 miles north-south, depending on where the boundaries are set. South of Badghis is the important Afghan city and border fort of Herat.

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