Correspondence Respecting the Relations between the British Government and that of Afghanistan

£4,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

A collection of fifteen works of government correspondence and dispatches charting the British relationship with Afghanistan, and by extension Russia, from 1863 to 1881, culminating in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The 'Central Asian Question', the Great Game, saw its denouement play out in the Second Second Anglo-Afghan War and following boundary negotiations in the 1880s and 90s. The letters and despatches contained in these works contain an enormous amount of detail about the politics, economics, and diplomacy of Britain and Afghanistan in this period, in particular the war years of 1879-1881. Important figures such as James Bruce, Sir Henry Rawlinson, John Lawrence, Henry Marion Durand, Lord Mayo, Robert Napier, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Granville Leveson-Gower, and Spencer Cavendish all penned or put their name to the letters and despatches in these volumes and reveal the attitudes of the British government at the time. What perhaps stands out the most is the fragility of the British temperament in regards to either real or imagined Russian influence in Afghanistan and the constant shuffling of Amirs in a vain attempt to turn Afghanistan into a puppet state. Although the military actions of the Second Anglo-Afghan War were considered successful by the British Government, deposing Yaqub Khan and his brother Ayub Khan from the throne, it was also vastly expensive, to the tune of nearly 20 million pounds, and did not result in any territorial gains or subjugation of the region.

• Binding: Hardcover

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