First Anglo-Afghan War
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The First Anglo–Afghan War lasted from 1839 to 1842.
Fearing increasing Russian influence in Afghanistan, the British East India Company resolved to depose Dost Muhammad and restore former ruler Shoja Shah. (See also European influence in Afghanistan)
In the opening campaign in 1839 the British captured Kandahar, Ghazni and Kabul, and captured Dost Muhammad, sending him to India. Having restored Shuja to the throne, the British withdrew, leaving two envoys and a garrison in Kabul.
In 1841 the Afghans rose against the British in Kabul, killing both British agents and surrounding the British garrison. In early 1842 the garrison surrendered, and was offered safe conduct to return to India. However, the British army of around 14–16,000 (of whom over 10,000 were civilan camp followers; the military force consisted mostly of Indian units and one British battalion, (the 44th) was harassed down the Kabul River gorge and massacred at the Gandamak pass before reaching the besieged garrison at Jalalabad. The force had been reduced to fewer than forty men by a retreat from Kabul that had become, toward the end, a running battle through two feet of snow. The ground was frozen and the men had no shelter and little food for weeks. Only a dozen of the men had working muskets, the officers their pistols and a few unbroken swords. The only Briton to survive was Dr. William Brydon.
In retaliation, the British reinvaded with their large Indian army, relieving the British Jalalabad garrison, and then pushed on to Kabul. The British destroyed the citadel and central bazaar of Kabul. Shah Shuja had been assassinated by this point. This humiliating episode served to undermine Indian respect for the British rule and it also partly explaines the desperate brutality with which the British treated captured Indians during the Indian mutiny.
In 1878, the British invaded again, which was to become the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
