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Title: Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute

Author: Theo. F. Rodenbough

Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7320] [This file was first posted on April 12, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, AFGHANISTAN AND THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN DISPUTE ***

Andrea Ball, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks, Juliet Sutherland, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

AFGHANISTAN AND THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN DISPUTE

by THEO. F. RODENBOUGH

Bvt. Brigadier General, U.S.A

AN ACCOUNT OF RUSSIA’S ADVANCE TOWARD INDIA, BASED UPON THE REPORTS AND EXPERIENCES OF RUSSIAN, GERMAN, AND BRITISH OFFICERS AND TRAVELLERS; WITH A DESCRIPTION OF AFGHANISTAN AND OF THE MILITARY RESOURCES OF THE POWERS CONCERNED

[Illustration: Afghanistan: England versus Russia]

[Illustration: The Ruler of Afghanistan, Abdurrahman Khan, Ameer of Kabul]

*

WITH THREE MAPS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

*

CONTENTS.

I. THROUGH THE GATES OF ASIA

II. ON THE THRESHOLD OF INDIA

III. THE BRITISH FORCES AND ROUTES

IV. THE RUSSIAN FORCES AND APPROACHES

V. REVIEW OF THE MILITARY SITUATION LIST OF AUTHORITIES INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAPS.

Afghanistan and the Surrounding Territories (Drawn for this Work and Corrected by the Latest Military Surveys—end of vol.)

The Asiatic Territories Absorbed by Russia During the Past Two Centuries, with the Dates of the Various Annexations

The Russian Lines of Advance from their Base of Supplies

CUTS.

Abdurrahman Khan, Ameer of Kabul (Frontispiece)

Mahaz Khan (A Tajik), Khan of Pest Bolak Jehandad (Lohanir), from Ghazni

Wullie Mohammed, a Dahzungi Hazara Pozai Khan, a Shinwarri (Musician)

Khan Baz, a Khumbhur Khel Afreedi Tooro Baz, a Kookie Khel Afreedi

Zool Kuddar, an Adam Khel Afreedi Mousa, a Kizilbash, Born in Peshawur

The City of Kandahar, Afghanistan

Castle of Zohak, First March from Bamian, Irak Road to Kabul

An Afghan Post-Chaise; Going to the Front

Gate of the Bazaar at Kabul

Major-General, Sir F. S. Roberts, V.C., K.C.B.

Khelat-i-Ghilzi, between Kandahar and Ghazni

Elephant with Artillery; on the Road to Ali Musjid

Detail of Elephant Saddle

Noah’s Valley, Kunar River

Watch Tower in the Khaiber Pass

Fort of Ali Musjid, from the Heights above Lala Cheena, in the Khaiber Pass

Fort of Dakka, on the Kabul River

The Ishbola Tepe, Khaiber Pass

Entrance to the Bolan Pass, from Dadur

Entrance to the Khojak Pass, from Pishin, on the Road to Kandahar

The Order of March in Central Asia

Gorge in the Tirband-i-Turkestan, through which the Murghab flows

Jelalabad, from Piper’s Hill

[Illustration: MAP Showing the Advances of RUSSIA towards INDIA 1734-1884.]

AFGHANISTAN AND THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN DISPUTE

I.

THROUGH THE GATES OF ASIA.

In universal history there is no more interesting subject for the consideration of the political student than the record of Russian progress through Central Asia.

In one sense this advance is a practical reestablishment or extension of the influence of the Aryan race in countries long dominated by peoples of Turki or Mongolian origin; in another sense it has resulted in a transition from the barbarism or rude forms of Asiatic life to the enlightenment and higher moral development of a European age. In a religious sense it embodies a crusade against Oriental fanaticism; and it is a curious feature of the Anglo-Russian dispute, that upon a question of temporal gain, the greatest Christian nation finds itself allied with the followers of Buddha and Mahomet against Russia under the Banner of the Cross.

The descendants of the great Peter have opened up in Central Asia a new region which, if as yet it has not been “made to blossom as the rose,” has nevertheless profited by the introduction of law, order, and a certain amount of industrial prosperity.

Russia commenced her relations with Central Asia as early as the sixteenth century. Not only through embassies sent, but by military expeditions; these, however, at that time were private ventures by roving Cossacks and other inhabitants of Southern Russia. Authorized government expeditions commenced with Peter the Great, who in 1716-17 sent two exploring parties into the Central Asian deserts— Bekovitch to Khiva, and Likhareff to the Black Irtish. These expeditions were undertaken in search of gold, supposed to exist in those regions, but failed in their object; the detachment under Bekovitch being entirely destroyed after reaching Khiva. Peter next turned his attention to the country bordering upon the southern shores of the Caspian Sea; taking advantage of Persian embarrassments, with the consent of the Shah and of the Sultan he acquired, in 1722-3, the provinces of Gilan, Mazanderan, and Asterabad; but the great expense of maintaining a large garrison so remote from Russia, and the unhealthiness of the locality, induced the Russian Government, in 1732, to restore the districts to Persia. In the same year Abul-Khair, the Khan of the Little Kirghiz Horde, voluntarily submitted to Russia. Twenty years later a small strip of the kingdom of Djungaria, on the Irtish, was absorbed, and toward the commencement of the reign of Catharine II, Russian authority was asserted and maintained over the broad tract from the Altai to the Caspian. This occupation was limited to a line of outposts along the Ural, the Irtish, and in the intervening district. During Catharine’s reign the frontier nomads became reduced in numbers, by the departure from the steppe between the Ural and Volga of the Calmucks, who fled into Djungaria, and were nearly destroyed on the road, by the Kirghiz.

The connection between Russia and Central Asia at this time assumed another character, that of complete tranquillity, in consequence of the development of trade through Orenburg and to some extent through Troitsk and Petropaulovsk. The lines along the Ural and Irtish gradually acquired strength; the robber-raids into European Russia and Western Siberia almost entirely ceasing. The allegiance of the Kirghiz of the Little and Central Hordes was expressed in the fact that their Khans were always selected under Russian influence and from time to time appeared at St. Petersburg to render homage. With the Central Asian khanates there was no connection except that of trade, but as regarded the Turcomans, who, it is said, had frequently asked for Russian protection, intercourse was discouraged, as they could not be trusted “within the lines,” being simply bandits.

The Emperor Paul imagined that the steppes offered a good road to Southern Asia, and desiring to expel the English from India, in the year 1800 he despatched a large number of Don Cossacks, under Orloff, through the districts of the Little Horde. At the time a treaty was concluded with Napoleon, then First Consul, by virtue of which a combined Russo-French army was to disembark at Asterabad and march from thence into India by way of Khorassan and Afghanistan. The death of the Emperor of Russia put an end to this plan.

During the reign of Alexander I, Central Asia was suffered to rest, and even the Chinese made raids into Russian territory without interruption. In the third decade of the present century, however, several advanced military settlements of Cossacks were founded. “Thus,” says M. Veniukoff, “was inaugurated the policy which afterward guided us in the steppe, the foundation of advanced settlements and towns (at first forts, afterwards stanitsas [Footnote: Cossack settlements.]) until the most advanced of them touches some natural barrier.”

About 1840, it was discovered that the system of military colonization was more effectual in preserving order in the Orenburg district than by flying detachments sent, as occasion required, from Southern Russia; and in 1845-6 the Orenburg and Ural (or Targai and Irgiz) forts were established. In 1846 the Great Kirghiz Horde acknowledged its subjection to Russia on the farther side of the Balkash, while at the same time a fort was constructed on the lower Yaxartes.

In 1847 the encroachments of Russia in Central Asia had brought her upon the borders of the important khanates of Khiva and Khokand, and, like some huge boa-constrictor, she prepared to swallow them. In 1852 the inevitable military expedition was followed by the customary permanent post. Another row of forts was planted on the Lower Yaxartes, and in 1854 far to the eastward, in the midst of the Great Horde, was built Fort Vernoye—the foundation of a new line, more or less contiguous to natural boundaries (mountains and rivers), but not a close line. Between Perovsky and Vernoye there were upwards of four hundred and fifty miles of desert open to the incursions of brigands, and between the Aral and Caspian seas there was a gap, two hundred miles in width, favorable for raids into the Orenburg Steppe from the side of Khiva. Finally, under the pretext of closing this gap, a general convergent movement of the Siberian and Orenburg forces commenced, culminating under General Tchernayeff in the capture of Aulieata and Chemkent in 1864, and of Tashkent in

1865.

Here, M. Veniukoff says: “The Government intended to halt in its conquests, and, limiting itself to forming a closed line on the south of the Kirghiz steppes, left it to the sedentary inhabitants of Tashkent to form a separate khanate from the Khokand so hostile to us.” And this historian tells us that the Tashkendees declined the honor of becoming the Czar’s policemen in this way, evidently foreseeing the end, and, to cut the matter short, chose the Russian general, Tchernayeff, as their Khan. The few Central Asian rulers whose necks had so far escaped the Muscovite heel, made an ineffectual resistance, and in 1866 Hodjeni and Jizakh were duly “annexed,” thus separating Bokhara and Khokand.

Here we may glance at the method by which Russia took firmer root on the shores of the Caspian, and established a commercial link with the Khivan region. In 1869 a military post and seaport was planted at Krasnovodsk, on that point of the east shore of the Caspian, which presents the greatest facilities for shipping, and as a base of operations against the Turcomans, who were at that time very troublesome. Several military expeditions set out from this point, and every year detachments of troops were despatched to keep the roads open toward Khiva, the Kepet Dagh, or the banks of the Attrek. Within five years (1870-‘75) the nomads living within the routes named had become “good Turcomans,” carried the Czar’s mails to Khiva, and furnished the Krasnovodsk-Khivan caravans with camels and drivers. But the colonization scheme on the lower Caspian had once more brought the Russians to the Persian boundary. In 1869 the Shah had been rather officiously assured that Russia would not think of going below the line of the Attrek;