Arms and Armour

First Anglo-Afghan War

The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between the Durranis backed by the British Empire and the Sikh Empire, and the Barakzais of Kabul and Kandahar, alongside their regional allies, from 1838 to 1842. The British intervened in a succession dispute stemming from the Durrani succession struggle and backed former king Shuja Shah Durrani, whom they restored to the throne after occupying Kabul in August 1839. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Britain and Russia. The British-led force and its camp followers were later almost completely destroyed during the 1842 retreat from Kabul, which was later avenged by a widely termed "Army of Retribution." The British forces left Afghanistan after recovering prisoners. Shuja Shah Durrani was succeeded by his son Fateh Jang Durrani following his assassination. Fateh Jang later abdicated and passed the throne to his younger brother Shahpur Mirza Durrani, whose brief reign supervised by Mohammad Akbar Khan, ended with the return of Dost Mohammad Khan from exile in India.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Bristol Castle
• ▸Abbasid art
• ▸Big Bertha (howitzer)

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.