The Afghan Wars 1839-1919 - Tapa dura

The Afghan people on India's North-West frontier proved to be the rock of independence on which the wave of British imperial conquest broke three times and from which it eventually receded. This book covers all three Afghan wars using material only recently made available. It looks at the British Army's dramatic invasion and humiliating defeat of the first war; it examines the second war in the light of growth of rivalry between the two most powerful states in Europe in the nineteenth century - Russia, the totalitarian land power, England, the sea power and bastion of liberty - and gives an account of Britain's attempt to secure the North-West Frontier against Russian influence. The author also describes the third war, one of the last imperial wars and the first Indian war in which air-power played an important role. The concluding chapter compares and contrasts the British wars in Afghanistan with current events in that part of the world.

(Location: Hawley, Surrey) read South Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He joined the staff of the National Army Museum, transferring to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he became Curator. He is now retired.