First Anglo-Afghan War
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The First Anglo-Afghan War lasted from 1839 to 1842.
Fearing increasing Russian influence in Afghanistan, the British East India Company resolved to depose Dost Muhammad and restore former ruler Shoja Shah. See European influence in Afghanistan.
In the opening campaign in 1839 the British captured Kandahar, Ghazni and Kabul, and captured Dost Muhammad, sending him to India. Having restored Shuja to the throne, the British withdrew, leaving two envoys and a garrison in Kabul.
In 1841 the Afghans rose against the British in Kabul, killing both British agents and surrounding the British garrison. In early 1842 the garrison surrendered, and was offered safe conduct to return to India. However, the British force (made up mostly of the 44th East Essex regiment) was harassed down the Kabul River gorge and massacred at the Gandamak pass before reaching the besieged garrison at Jalalabad. The force reduced to fewer than forty men by the retreat from Kabul that had became towards the end a running battle through two feet of snow. The ground was frozen and icy the men had no shelter and little food for weeks. Only a dozen of the men had working muskets, the officers their pistols and a few unbroken swords. When the Afghans surrounded them on the morning of the 13th they announced that a surrender could be arranged. "Not bloody likely" was the bellowed answer of one British sergeant. Only a single British man survived to tell the tale.
In retaliation, the British reinvaded with their large Indian army, relieving the British Jalalabad garrison, and then pushed on to Kabul. Ninety-five prisoners from the earlier massacre were rescued, and the British destroyed the citadel and central bazaar of Kabul. However, as Shah Shuja had been assassinated by this point, the British East India Company decided it was unprofitable to occupy the country and withdrew, only after wiping out virtually all Afghan resistance in Kabul.
In 1878, the British invaded again, which was to become the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
See also
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