A highly illustrated study of the First Afghan War, a bitter setback for British forces in the Great Game played out in the 19th century.
In 1839 forces of the British East India Company crossed the Indus to invade Afghanistan on the pretext of reinstating a former king Shah Soojah to his rightful throne. The reality was that this was another step in Britain's Great Game - Afghanistan would create a buffer to any potential Russian expansion towards India.
This history traces the initial, campaign which would see the British easily occupy Kabul and the rebellion that two years later would see the British army humbled. Forced to negotiate a surrender the British fled Kabul en masse in the harsh Afghan winter. Decimated by Afghan guerilla attacks and by the harsh cold and a lack of food and supplies just one European - Dr Brydon would make it to the safety of Jalalabad five days later.
Richard Macrory goes on to trace the retribution attack on Kabul the following year, which destroyed the symbolic Mogul Bazaar before rapidly withdrawing and leaving Afghanistan in peace for nearly a generation.
Autorentext
Richard Macrory Hon KC is Emeritus Professor of environmental law at University College London where he set up and was first director of the Centre for Law and the Environment.
Professor Macrory served as a board member of the Environment Agency England and Wales between 1999 and 2004, and was a long-standing member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Environmental Law.
In 2006 Professor Macrory led the Cabinet Office Review on Regulatory Sanctions and his recommendations were reflected in Part 3 Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 which established the framework for civil sanctions in the regulatory field.
Professor Macrory was the first chair of the UK Environmental Law Association, and in 2016-2018 was co-chair of the UKELA's Brexit Task Force. He is a bencher of Grays Inn, and was appointed an Hon. KC in 2008.
Inhalt
Introduction
Chronology
Opposing commanders
Opposing armies
Opposing plans
The campaign
Aftermath
The battlefield today
Further reading
Index