From invasion to destruction-a British military disaster. Following over a century of the gradual assumption of sovereignty of the Indian Sub-Continent, the British Empire, in the form of the Honourable East India Company, supported by troops of the new Queen Victorias army, found itself inevitably at the natural boundaries that surround Afghanistan. There it set in motion a series of disastrous events-the first of which was to march into the country at all. After an initially successful campaign and the placement of a ruler more acceptable to the British-if totally unacceptable to the...

In 1878 Russia turned its attention to Asia and sent an uninvited mission to Afghanistan. Britain demanded the same privilege, were refused and the seeds of war were sown once more. Partial occupation soon followed, but the British discovered again-as they would in the future-that there was much difference between occupation and effective control of a country where one could only be sure of the ground upon which one stood. This was a country almost impossible to dominate, made for defence and populated by a fierce mountain people who knew its ground and tolerated no invaders. Another British...