In 1839 the British invaded Afghanistan for the first time in an attempt to return a leader of their liking, Shah Shuja, to the throne. With almost 20,000 troops, they established control of the country, attempting to sure up the interests of the East India Company. Within two years, the first British occupation foundered and Britain suffered it’s greatest humiliation of the nineteenth century. The British were forced to withdraw at the beginning of an Afghani winter in October 1841. Of the approx 16,500 that left Kabul for India, only one man would make it down through the pass (see famous painting above).
The 16,500 retreating party included 4,500 military personnel and 12,000 camp followers - sepoys, servants, wives, children - many died as a result of the unceasing military ambushes by Afghan tribal groups seeking retribution and plunder. The rest of the party starved or froze. ‘Lord Auckland’s folly’, the name by which this disastrous campaign is often referred, not only cost lives and reputations, but almost bankrupted the East India Company, weakening Britain’s position in the Great Game.This First Anglo-Afghan War spectacularly imploded through hubris, greed and ‘intelligence failures’. And, as Dalrymple elegantly demonstrates, the parallels with the West’s current mis-adventures in Afghanistan are sobering. Where, despite more ‘intelligence’, this campaign looks set to also result in little gain.
Dalrymple’s Return of the King is a breath-taking history, brilliantly told by a historian with long experience in this region, and using many Afghani and Indian historical sources not previously known in English.