John KeaneDecember 1838
An army of 21,000 British and Indian troops under the command of Sir John Keane (subsequently replaced by Sir Willoughby Cotton and then by William Elphinstone) set out from Punjab in December 1838
Great Britain · Warfare / Anglo-Afghan War, 1st. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
An army of 21,000 British and Indian troops under the command of Sir John Keane (subsequently replaced by Sir Willoughby Cotton and then by William Elphinstone) set out from Punjab in December 1838
By late March 1839, the British forces had reached Quetta, crossed the Bolan Pass and begun their march to Kabul
Kandahar is captured
The official British position that their troops were merely supporting Shah Shujas small army in retaking what was once his throne was generally seen (at the time, as well as now) as pretext for incorporating Afghanistan into the British empire
The official British position that their troops were merely supporting Shah Shujas small army in retaking what was once his throne was generally seen (at the time, as well as now) as pretext for incorporating Afghanistan into the British empire. The British denied that they were invading Afghanistan, instead claiming they were merely supporting its legitimate Shuja Government "against foreign interference and factious opposition"
With Persia ruled by a pron, it may well have been the case that Britain was trying to install a pro-British leader in Afghanistan to prevent Russia from becoming the dominant power and threatening the North-West Frontier. The British denied that they were invading Afghanistan, instead claiming they were merely supporting its legitimate Shuja Government "against foreign interference and factious opposition"
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