Historical Note and Map for Companions of Paradise
For all its remoteness and its high, inaccessible mountains, Afghanistan played an important role in the Great Game, the epic nineteenth-century struggle between Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia.
Afghanistan's value lay in its trade routes, for it stood at the centre of a network of ancient caravan tracks known collectively as the Silk Route. These narrow, treacherous roads connecting Russia and China with India and Rome had been used for thousands of years to transport rock salt, lapis lazuli, tea and silk, but they also served as invasion routes for the armies of Alexander the Great, Ghenghis Khan and other conquerors.
By the late 1830s, the British had established colonies in much of southern and central India, and were now looking north, towards the rich kingdom of the Punjab on the Afghan border. But even as they approached Afghanistan from the southeast, their rivals, the Russians, were moving down from the northwest, and had begun to threaten Persia.
It was not difficult for the British to convince themselves that the Russians would soon take over Afghanistan, invade India and snatch away Britain’s possessions there. Their solution was to pre-empt this threat by deposing the Afghan king, Amir Dost Mohammad, and replacing him with Shah Shuja, his British-leaning rival.
In 1839, the British implemented their plan. Having driven out Amir Dost Mohammad and declared Shah Shuja king, they settled their army and ten thousand camp followers into a cantonment north of Kabul, and sent for their wives and children, expecting a pleasant stay in Central Asia.
Two years later, they paid dearly for this folly.
