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Video Summary

Data

Name: Afghanistan (British Protectorate)

Type: Polity

Start: 1839 AD

End: 1919 AD

Nation: afghanistan

Parent: great britain

Statistics

All Statistics: All Statistics

Afghanistan (British Protectorate)

This article is about the specific polity Afghanistan (British Protectorate) and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

After the First Anglo-Afghan War, the British made Afghanistan a protectorate. It was a largely nominal protectorate which was interrupted by the British withdrawal in 1842 a first time and ended completely in 1919 after the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

Establishment

August 1839: In 1838 British viceroy Lord Auckland, restored Shah Shojāʿ to the Afghan throne in Kabul on August 1839 and made Afghanistan a British protectorate.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. Anglo-Indian Wars

Were a series of wars fought by the British East India Company in the Indian Subcontinent that resulted in the British conquest and colonial rule of the region.

1.1.Anglo-Afghan Wars

Were three wars in which the British Empire tried to extend its influence in modern-day Afghanistan.

1.1.1.First Anglo-Afghan War

Was a war between the British Empire and the Emirate of Afghanistan. As the British wanted to extend their influence to Afghanistan, they invaded and occupied the country. An uprising in Kabul led the British to the decision of leaving the country. The whole British army but one man was slaughtered during its retreat.

1.1.1.1.British Invasion (First Anglo-Afghan War)

Was the British invasion of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

1.1.1.2.1842 retreat from Kabul

After an uprising in Kabul, the british-indian army was allowed to leave Afghanistan but was then massacrated during the retreat.

January 1842: After an uprising in Kabul, the British-Indian army was allowed to leave Afghanistan but in reality the British forces were massacrated at Gandamak (January 13 1842).

1.1.2.Second Anglo-Afghan War

Was a war between Afghanistan and the British Empire. At the end of the war, Afghanistan became a British protectorate.

1.1.2.1.First British Invasion

Was the British invasion of Afghanistan at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

1.1.2.1.1.Treaty of Gandamak

Was signed on 26 May 1879 to officially end the first phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Under the treaty, the Afghan Emir, Mohammad Yaqub Khan, ceded various frontier areas to the British Raj and the country became a British protectorate.

May 1879: With British forces occupying Kabul, Afghan Amir Yaqub Khan, signed the Treaty of Gandamak on 26 May 1879. 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.

1.1.2.2.Afghan Revolt

Was an uprising in Kabul, agains the British forces that had occupied Afghanistan at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

September 1879: An uprising in Kabul led to the slaughter of Sir Louis Cavagnari, the British representative, along with his guards.

1.1.2.3.Second British Invasion (Second Anglo-Afghan War)

Was the second invasion of Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, after a revolt in Kabul had forced the British to leave the country.

October 1880: After the British victory against Afghan forces in the Battle of Kandahar (1880), the British appointed Abdur Rahman as the ruler and left the occupied territories in Afghanistan. Afghanistan became a protectorate with British control over the country's foreign policy.

1.1.3.Third Anglo-Afghan War

Was a conflict that began in 1919 when the Emirate of Afghanistan invaded British India.

May 1919: The British commander in Quetta decided to attack the Afghan fortress at Spin Baldak, capturing it.

June 1919: The Afghan camp at Yusef Khel was seized by British force.

2. Conquests of Ranjit Singh

Expansion during the rule of Ranjit Singh in the Sikh Empire.

January 1840: Expansion of the Sikh Empire by 1839.

3. Durand Line

The Durand Line was established in 1893 as the international border between India and the Emirate of Afghanistan by Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat of the Indian Civil Service, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan Emir.

November 1893: The British in 1893 forced Afghanistan to consent to the Durand Line and annexed a third of Afghanistan.

4. Further events (Unrelated to Any War)

January 1885: Nomadic tribes of the Turkmens were brought into Russian citizenship.

January 1886: The entire region that now forms the Chitral District was a fully independent monarchy until 1885, when the British negotiated a subsidiary alliance with its hereditary ruler.

January 1892: The Goldsmid boundary between persia and Afghanistan proved to be inadequate, especially given the shifting of the course of the Helmand, and thus a more precise boundary was drawn up in three sections over the following decades: the northern section by General C.S. MacLean, British consul general for Khorasan and Sīstān, in 1888-91, the southern section by Colonel Sir Henry McMahon.

January 1895: Expansion of the Sultanate of Aceh by 1630.

January 1895: Expansion of the Russian Empire by 1894 (based on maps).

January 1896: The easternmost section of the Afghan border (now forming part of the Afghan-Tajik boundary) was not finally delimited until 1893-95, with the Afghans agreeing to waive any claims to lands north the Amu Darya.

January 1896: Tribal unions of Tajiks in modern-day Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug of Tajikistan are annexed by the Russian Empire.

January 1906: The southern section of the Afghan border was drawn by Colonel Sir Henry McMahon in 1903-05.

August 1919: With the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, the Afghans were able to resume the right to conduct their own foreign affairs as a fully independent state.

Disestablishment

May 1919: The British commander in Quetta decided to attack the Afghan fortress at Spin Baldak, capturing it.

June 1919: The Afghan camp at Yusef Khel was seized by British force.

August 1919: With the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, the Afghans were able to resume the right to conduct their own foreign affairs as a fully independent state.