Central Asia 1914

Central Asia 1850 to 1914: The Great Game intensifies

In 1854 the Crimean War broke out over hostilities between the Turks and the Russians which were exacerbated by French interference in Turkey. The British joined the French and Turks in fighting the Russians on the Crimean, Caucasian and Balkan fronts. One key ally in this fight was the Islamic leader Shamil who lead an ongoing anti-Russian guerilla campaign in the Caucasus. British agents were dispatched make contact with his army of Chechnians and assist them with arms, supplies and provisions to resist the Russians. By 1856 however the war was over along with British support for Shamil’s campaign in the Caucasus. He was finally defeated in 1859 and sent into exile in Russia.

Then, in May 1857 the Indian Mutiny began. Incensed by rumors that the new cartridges being issued were greased with pig and beef tallow, the native Indian sepoys that the British East India Company relied upon turned on their colonial masters. After a series of rebellions in and around Delhi, much of northern India joined the rebellion. Although the rebels were successful on a local level, they failed to unite into a cohesive whole, the main split occurring between the Hindu and the Muslim factions. The British fought back with severe brutality in recovering the rebellious provinces. Following the rebellion the British East India Company was dissolved and its territorial assets turned over to the British government. The mutiny proved that the greatest threat to British India came from within.

In 1854 the Tzar Nicholas I of Russia said, “Where the imperial flag has flown, it must never be lowered.” Under this policy the Russian generals acting under their own compulsion annexed the Amur region of China in 1858 and the Ussuri region in 1860. The Chinese were too busy fighting the Taiping Rebellion to interfere with Russian expansion.

Then in 1861 the outbreak of the American Civil War brought severe disruptions to the world’s cotton supply. Overnight the prime cotton growing areas of the world such as Egypt, India and Central Asia became more valuable than ever before.

In light of this the Russian foreign minister Gorchakov issued a memorandum in December 1864 justifying conquest of the region.

“The position of Russia in Central Asia is that of all civilized states which are brought into contact with half-savage nomad populations possessing no fixed social organization. In such cases, the more civilized state is forced in the interests of the security of its frontier, and its commercial relations, to exercise a certain ascendancy over their turbulent and undesirable neighbors. Raids and acts of pillage must be put down. To do this, the tribes on the frontier must be reduced to a state of submission. This result once attained, these tribes take to more peaceful habits, but are in turn exposed to the attacks of the more distant tribes against whom the state is bound to protect them. Hence the necessity of distant, costly, and periodically recurring expeditions against an enemy whom his social organization makes it impossible to seize. If, the robbers once punished, the expedition is withdrawn, the lesson is soon forgotten; its withdrawal is put down to weakness. It is a peculiarity of Asiatics to respect nothing but visible and palpable force. The moral force of reasoning has no hold on them.
In order to put a stop to this state of permanent disorder, fortified posts are established in the midst of these hostile tribes, and an influence is brought to bear upon them which reduces them by degrees to a state of submission. But other more distant tribes beyond this outer line come in turn to threaten the same dangers, and necessitate the same measures of repression. The state is thus forced to choose between two alternatives-either to give up this endless labor, and to abandon its frontier to perpetual disturbance, or to plunge deeper and deeper into barbarous countries, when the difficulties and expenses increase with every step in advance.
Such has been the fate of every country which has found itself in a similar position. The United States in America, France in Algeria, Holland in her colonies, England in India; all have been forced by imperious necessity into this onward march, where the greatest difficulty is to know where to stop.”

In 1865 this philosophy was put into practice when Major General Mikhail Grigorievich Chernyayev besieged the city of Tashkent. Defended by 30,000 men arranged along 16 miles of walls which enclosed some 70,000 civilians, Tashkent was the largest city in Central Asia. By contrast Chernyayev had only a mere 1,900 men and 12 cannons. He reasoned however that the defenders would be spread out along the wall; by attacking concentrated the Russians would have the upper hand. On June 15th at dawn the attack began. A diversionary force was used to create a commotion elsewhere while an attack group moved in with scaling ladders. By luck the Russians found a sleeping guard and a hidden passage through the wall. Lead by a Russian Orthodox priest armed only with a cross, the Russians stormed the city. By afternoon they had secured half the city, but resistance remained strong. The Russians resorted to unleashing their artillery on the city itself until the enemy capitulated. In all only 29 Russians died in the attack. The elders of the city subsequently gave to Chernyayev the title Lion of Tashkent.

From Tashkent, the Russians took the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand in 1868. One year later, Krasnovodsk was founded on the Caspian Sea.

Over in Chinese Turkestan, a rebel leader named Yakub Beg began a rebellion against the Chinese in January 1865. Suddenly the region was thrown open to Russian and British interference. By 1877 however the Chinese recaptured Turkestan and stamped out the rebellion.

In 1872 the Russians assembled an army of 13,000 men under Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman to take the city of Khiva by advancing simultaneously from Tashkent, Orenberg and Krasnovodsk. In May 1873 the Russians finally took the city of Khiva, avenging the slaughter of Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky in 1717.

In 1875 the British annexed Baluchistan and proclaimed Queen Victoria as Empress of India the following year.

Then in 1877 war erupted between Russia and Ottoman Turkey. The British responded by sending a fleet to the Bosphorus in 1878. In preparation for war with the British, General Kaufman assembled a force of 30,000 men in Russian Turkestan. The Russians then sent diplomats to Kabul, pressuring ruler to sign a treaty of friendship. To compel them to sign, the diplomats promised military support should the Afghans be attacked. The British responded by sending their own diplomats, but the Emir refused to meet with them.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War began as 35,000 British troops poured over the passes into Afghanistan. The Russians then reneged on their vague promises of support; the Afghans were on their own. But then, the Emir died and his son made peace with the British under the Treaty of Gandamak. On the 24th of July 1879 a British army arrived in Kabul for occupation. They occupied the Residency of the Bala Hissar, the main fortress in Kabul.

On the 3rd of September 1879 the Residency was attacked by an angry Afghan mob of demobilized soldiers demanding pay. The mob killed everyone in the Residency including its commander Sir Louis Cavagnari. The British quickly sent an army to Kabul under General Roberts, arriving in October. The Emir surrendered and went into exile in India. The British then organized a mass hanging of those responsible for the attack. Then, news came of a massive Afghan army marching on Kabul from all directions. The British stood 6,500 strong with 2 gatling guns, 12 9-pounders and 8 7-pounders against roughly Afghan 60,000 tribesmen. On December 23, 1879 the Afghans reached Kabul where they were soundly defeated. Then, Abdur Rahman, a claimant to the throne of Afghanistan entered the country from exile in Russian Turkestan. By July 1880 British negotiated withdrawal from Afghanistan and Abdur Rahman’s crowing as Emir of Afghanistan. But just as Abdur took the throne a rival claimant in Heart, Ayub Khan, was raising his own army of 8,000 men to march on Kabul. The British dispatched 2,500 men to intercept. But as they marched, tribesmen began to join Ayub’s ranks bringing his army to 20,000 men. The British were shockingly defeated at the Battle of Maiwand. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was halted as the British prepared for a siege at Kandahar. But at the mere threat that General Roberts was marching to face him, Ayub retreated from his positions at Khandahar. The British struck, victoriously restoring British military prestige. After the British withdrew the Emir Abdur Rahman defeated his rivals, capturing Kandahar and Heart. For the first time in centuries Afghanistan was unified under one ruler.

In September of 1879 the Russians attacked the Turcoman fortress of Geok Tepe, but were humiliatingly defeated. Subsequently a large force was assembled at Krasnovodsk under General Mikhail Skobelev. Nicknamed ‘the White General’ by his own troops and ‘Bloody Eyes’ by his Turcoman enemies, he was a hardened veteran commander. With 7,000 men and 60 guns Skobelev lay siege to the fort. His troops tunneled under the citys defenses, mined it and exploded the charge on January 24, 1881 allowing the city to fall to the Russians. The troops were especially merciless, plundering, raping and slaughtering at will for three days. Skobelev justified this affirming, “I hold it as a principle that the duration of peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them, the longer they remain quiet.” Skobelev was subsequently redeployed to Minsk where he died one year later at age 38.

Then in Febuary 1884 the city of Merv was persuaded to join the Russian empire. The Russians then pushed their border closer and closer toward Herat. A minor skirmish at Pandjeh, Afghanistan in March 1885 ended with the town’s seizure by the Russians. Expectations of war between Britain and Russia were rumored, but the Emir of Afghanistan refused to use the incident as a pretext for war. The British and the Russians together established the Joint Afghan Boundary Commission in 1885 to map the region and draw a line in the sand for where Russia ends and Afghanistan begins. Interest now shifted to the Pamirs, the mountain range where the Russian, British and Chinese Empires met. A thin strip of land was given to the Afghans to prevent the Russians from having a direct border with British India.


Central Asia series

1780 [link]
1850 [link]
1914

2/19/12 EDIT:
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