THE GREAT GAME

The Rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia in the late 19th
century.
WHAT WAS THE GREAT GAME?
• The Great Game — also known as War of Shadows — Term used to describe
the intense rivalry and strategic conflict between the Victorian British Empire
and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia and South Asia,
beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing through 1907 wherein
Britain sought to influence or control much of Central Asia to buffer the
"crown jewel" of its empire: British India.

• The Great Game was a defensive cold war for control of Central Asia and
Afghanistan, and their wealth and access to British colonies in South Asia.
Lasting roughly from 1830 to 1900, it pitted imperial Russia, which was
expanding to the south, against Britain, which was intent on protecting
India and spreading its sphere of influence into Central Asia and
Afghanistan.
 GEOGRAPHICAL ARENA OF THE
GREAT GAME

Central Asia
MAP OF BRITISH INDIA
 BACKGROUND
• Throughout the nineteenth century, Great Britain was obsessed by the fear that one of the other European
powers would take advantage of the political decay of Islamic Asia.

• At first it was France. Then it was Russia that moved along the caravan routes of the old conquerors and
threatened to establish a new world monarchy on the ruins of the ancient ones. British governments were
worried by the implications of the continuing march southward by the Russian empire in Asia. In the early part of
the century, the focus of strategic concern was Constantinople (Istanbul). Later, as czarist armies overran
Central Asia, attention shifted to Persia, to Afghanistan and to the mountain passes of the Himalayas. By the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, it was a common assumption in Europe that the next great war-the inevitable
war-was going to be the final showdown between Britain and Russia.

• The history of Russia's attempt to move into Afghanistan, Iran and other neighboring countries; of how Britain tried
to stop Russia from doing so; and of how the war between the two of them did not take place, gains interest
and possible significance from the American decision in our own time to contest Russian expansion on much the
same battlefield.
 ETYMOLOGY: ORIGIN OF THE WORD
• The term 'the Great Game' traces its history back prior the 19th century mainly referring to risk
games such as dice and cards. Le Grand jeu which is the French equivalent of the term, traces
back to 1585 and is affiliated with risk, deception, and chance. Sir William Hay Macnaghten who
was the leading British agent in Afghanistan wrote a letter in the summer of 1840, arguing the
British's accession of Herat in the Western region of Afghanistan. In the letter, he wrote ‘We have
a beautiful game on our hands.’ Captain Author Connolly who was a newly appointed officer is
also accredited for the term especially in his July 1840, correspondence to Major Henry
Rawlinson, Connolly where he stated ‘You have a great game, a noble game before you.’
However, the Great Game in regards to the Anglo-Russian conflict in Central Asia came to be
more popular after World War II.
 LIKE A MIGHTY CHESS GAME
• The Empires British and Tsarist Russian, play an indirect game of exploration,
espionage and imperialistic diplomacy.

• Conflict always threatened but never broke out into direct warfare between the
sides.

• The Pawns? Persia, the Khanates, Afghanistan.

• It was a geostrategic and political struggle. But it was also a duel between the
intelligence agencies of two powerful empires and took very many interesting turns.
 ORIGINS OF CONFLICT
• The British Lord Ellenborough started "The Great Game" on January 12, 1830, with an edict establishing a new

trade route from India to Bukhara, using Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan as a buffer against Russia to prevent it

from controlling any ports on the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, Russia wanted to establish a neutral zone in

Afghanistan allowing for their use of crucial trade routes.

• This resulted in a series of unsuccessful wars for the British to control Afghanistan, Bukhara, and Turkey. The British

lost at all four wars — the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838), the First Anglo-Sikh War (1843), the Second Anglo-Sikh

War (1848) and the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878) — resulting in Russia taking control of several Khanates

including Bukhara.

• Although Britain's attempts to conquer Afghanistan ended in humiliation, the independent nation held as a

buffer between Russia and India.

 ANGLO-AFGHAN WARS
The First Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War
• Fear that the Tsar’s • The Russian took Tashkent,
Troops were moving Samarkand, and moving
close to India, led British ever closer to Afghanistan.
to invade Afghanistan in
• British invade Afghanistan
1838.
second time in 1878 with
• Brits attempted to 40,000 men from India.
impose a puppet regime
• Overthrew Sher Ali and put
under Shuja Shah but
puppet on the throne. He
failed.
suppresses internal rebellions A political cartoon depicting
• In Kabul, mobs attacked and fosters official pro-British the Afghan Amir Sher Ali, with
British troops and civilians policy. his friends Britain and Russia.
during evacuation.
Thousands Killed…
 RUSSIA AND THE GREAT GAME IN
CENTRAL ASIA
• Russia viewed Central Asia as territory in its own backyard vital for security and necessary as a buffer zone
and a stepping stone to the coveted warm water port on the Arabian Sea. The British, who had been
established in India and South Asia for some time were looking to expand their empire and protect it from
Russian advances. At the beginning of the 19th century, Central Asia was largely in the hands of local
khans, emirs and warlords.

• In the 1860s, after seizing present-day Uzbekistan, Russian tsarist armies. Russians slowly advanced towards
Afghanistan and India with military forces. The British tried to slow the Russian advances by persuading the
local leaders to do as they wished. There were no direct military battles between the Russians and British.

• Russian diplomatic and military interests later returned to Central Asia, where Russia had quelled a series
of uprisings in the 1870s, and Russia incorporated hitherto independent emirates into the empire.
 BRITAIN AND THE GREAT GAME IN
CENTRAL ASIA
• The presence of the British in Central Asia was limited and rather ineffectual but given more attention

than perhaps it deserved because of the mysterious, unexplored nature of Central Asia, the romanticized

stories about the places and people that lived there and the riveting accounts of some of the players,

whose books became bestsellers back in Britain.

• These players included Alexander Burns, the author of Travels to Bokhara and the man credited with

coining the term “the Great Game”. He was among the first Europeans to visit Bukhara.

• Captain James Abbott was sent to Khiva in 1839 to convince the khan there to release all the Russian

slaves there so that Russia would not have an excuse to attack and annex the khanate. Captain

Richmond Shakespear achieved the objective of winning the release of 418 Russian slaves in Khiva in

1840. Theses tactics delayed the Russian capture of Khiva, a stepping stone to Afghanistan, by 33 years.
 END OF THE GAME
• The Great Game officially ended with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which divided Persia into a
Russian-controlled northern zone, a nominally independent central zone, and a British-controlled southern
zone. The Convention also specified a borderline between the two empires running from the eastern point
of Persia to Afghanistan and declared Afghanistan an official protectorate of Britain.

• Relations between the two European powers continued to be strained until they allied against the Central
Powers in World War I, though there still now exists hostility toward the two powerful nations — especially in
the wake of Britain's exit from the European Union in 2017.

• The term "Great Game" is attributed to British intelligence officer Arthur Conolly and was popularized by
Rudyard Kipling in his book "Kim" from 1904, wherein he plays up the idea of power struggles between
great nations as a game of sorts.
 PROS AND CONS OF THE GAME
• Mail communications between London and Calcutta could take as long as three months either way. Long distance telegraph

lines were built across Russia in the 1850s. In 1870, the Indo-European Telegraph Line was completed and it provided a

communication link between London and Calcutta after passing through Russia.

• Geographical Mapping of the Central Asia and South Asia.

• Invention of Intelligence Equipment. Especially geographical intelligence.

• Leads to the Establishment and Demarcation of Durand Line (Boarder between Afghanistan and Pakistan).

• The Afghanistan plays a vital role in the new Great Game as it is a landlocked country located within South and Central Asia.

• The Struggle for Afghanistan lies in an even Greater Game for control over the Eurasian Landmass.

• Nicholas John Spykman (1893 –1943) was an American political scientist said, “Who controls the Rimland (he strip of coastal land

that encircles Eurasia) rules Eurasia; Who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.”