The North-West Frontier (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west,The Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, p. 2 and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of North-West Frontier Province (renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.
The two main gateways on the North West Frontier are the Khyber and Bolan Passes. Since ancient times, the Indian subcontinent has been repeatedly invaded through these northwestern routes. With the expansion of the Russian Empire into Central Asia in the twentieth century, stability of the Frontier and control of Afghanistan became cornerstones of defensive strategy for British India.
Much of the Frontier was occupied by Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century, and then taken over by the East India Company when it annexed the Punjab in 1849.The Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, p. 10
Between 1849 and 1947 the military history of the frontier was a succession of punitive expeditions against offending Pashtun (or Pathan) tribes, punctuated by three wars against Afghanistan. Many British officers who went on to distinguished command in the First and Second World Wars learnt their soldiering on the North-West Frontier, which they called the Grim.Wilkinson-Latham, pp. 3 & 38
Contestants
Afghanistan In 1747 when Ahmad Khān Abdālī seized control of Kandahar, Kabul, and Peshawar, and, as Ahmad Shah Durrani, was proclaimed Shah of the Afghans.The Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, p. 8 He went on to conquer Herat and Khorassan, and established an empire from the Oxus to the Indus.Barthorp 2002, p. 14 On his death in 1773, the Afghan domain included Baluchistan, Sindh, the Punjab, and Kashmir. Ahmad Shah was succeeded by his son Timur Shah Durrani, whose rule of twenty years saw the Afghan tide begin to ebb. Timur left many sons but no heir, and the resultant internecine struggles for the throne lasted more than thirty years. During this period the Punjab was effectively ceded to its erstwhile governor Ranjit Singh, Iran recovered Khorassan, and Sindh broke away. In 1813 Sikh forces from the Punjab crossed the Indus and seized the old Mughal fort at Attock. In 1819 Kashmir was lost, and west of the Indus Derajat also. Four years later the winter capital at Peshawar came under attack.Barthorp 2002, pp. 15-18
In 1826 Dost Mohammad Khan emerged as undisputed ruler in Kabul, and was there proclaimed Emir.Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, p. 9 He defeated a further attempt to oust him by his exiled rival Shuja Shah Durrani in 1833; however the Sikhs seized all of Peshawar the following year. In 1837 Dost Mohammad launched a counter-attack through the Khyber, but the Afghan force was halted at Jamrud Fort.Barthorp 2002, p. 18 Dost Mohammad had sought assistance from the East India Company against the resurgent Punjab, but was rebuffed. So Dost Mohammad turned to Imperial Russia for help.
Sikh Empire
Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a Sikh ruler of the sovereign country of Punjab and the Sikh Empire. His Samadhi is located in Lahore, Pakistan.
He then spent the following years fighting the Afghans, driving them out of western Punjab, taking opportunity of the Afghans being embroiled in civil war. The deposed Afghan king Shah Shuja rallied a significant number of tribes and received British backing in the form of the Sikh army against the Barakzai king Dost Muhammad. The civil war in Afghanistan coupled with a British backed assault meant that the Sikhs could virtually walk into Peshawar. They managed to capture some Pashtun territory including Peshawar which was under direct British supervision and control.
British East India Company
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the East India Company controlled southern India, Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa (modern Odisha). Dominance was gained at the expense of its successive French equivalents. Britain and France were at war, and the Franco-Persian alliance of 1807, followed the same year by the Franco-Russian Treaty of Tilsit, alerted the HEIC to the external threat posed from the north-west.Barthorp 2002, p. 19
By 1819 only Sindh and the Punjab remained outside the company's control. Napoleon was vanquished, but the Russian Empire had begun to expand south and east. Russian influence grew likewise, and by the early 1830s Qajar Irān was within the Tsar's sphere. Attempts by Irān to recover Herat in 1834, and again in 1837, raised the spectre of Russian armies on the road to Kandahar, whence direct access to India through the Khojak and Bolan passes.Barthorp 2002, p. 29
Meanwhile, the conflict between Afghanistan and the Punjab focused on the Khyber route. Dost Mohammad appealed to the HEIC for aid in recovering Peshawar, but the company could not help him without alienating its treaty ally Ranjit Singh. When Dost Mohammad redirected his appeal to Russia, the Governor-General Lord Auckland resolved to depose Dost Mohammad, and replace him with Shuja Shah Durrani. Restored to his throne in Kabul, the exiled former ruler would accept the Sikh gains west of the Indus, and the Company controlling his foreign policy. The agreement was formalised with the Treaty of Simla signed in June 1838 between Shah Shuja, the HEIC, and Ranjit Singh.Barthorp 2002, pp. 30-31
British Indian Empire
Chronology
1526–1757 (Mughal Afghan Wars)
Battle of Malandari Pass Battle of Sampagha Pass Battle of Ali masjid Battle of Nowshera Doaba Campaign Battle of Karrapa Pass (1674) Battle of Jagdalak (1675) Battle of Khapush (1675) Battle of Langarkot Battle of Dodah
1800–1837 (Afghan-Sikh Wars) Battle of Hasan Abdal (1813) Battle of Kashmir (1814) Battle of Gandgarh (1820) Battle of Nara (1824) Battle of Nowshera (1823) Battle of Akora Khattak Battle of Jamrud (1837)
1838–48 (First Afghan War to Second Sikh War) First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842) Sindh Campaign (1843) First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46) Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49)
1849–58 (Second Sikh War to Sepoy Revolt)
In the period following the annexation of the Punjab in 1849 until the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, several expeditions were undertaken against almost every tribe along the whole of the North-West Frontier, most notably under Sir Charles Napier and Sir Colin Campbell, under orders from the governor-general, Lord Dalhousie. Disgusted at being instructed to burn Pathan villages, first Napier and then Campbell resigned and returned to England. Campbell had already decided that the best method of dealing with the tribesmen on the frontier was through bribery.Greenwood, ch.6
When the Sepoy Rebellion broke out Amir Dost Mohammad Khan came under internal pressure to seize the advantage and attack India. However he stood by his treaty obligations. This allowed Indian troops on the frontier to deploy to Delhi and deal with the revolt centered there. Operations against the Swati and Uthmankhel in Baizai (1849) Insurrections By Khattaks Against The British 1850-52 Operations in the Kohat Pass (1850) Mohmand Expeditions (1851–2) Ranizai Expedition (1852) First Black Mountain Expedition (1852) Expedition against the Sayyids of Khagan(1852) Shirani Expedition (1853) Afridi Expedition (1853) Expedition against the Hindustani Fanatics (1854) Aka Khel Expedition (1855) Operations against the Orakzais (1855) Miranzai Valley Expeditions (1855–6) Bozdar Expedition (1857) Expedition against the Hindustani Fanatics (1857–8). Sepoy Rebellion (1857–8) (Indian Mutiny)
1859–1878 (Sepoy Revolt to Second Afghan War) Kabul Khel Expedition (1859) Mahsud Expedition (1860) Ambela Campaign war (1863) Operations against the Jadoon (1864) Operations at Shabkadar (1863–4) Second Black Mountain Expedition (1868) Bazotee Expedition (1868) Operations in the Tochi Valley (1872) Jowaki Expedition (1877–8) Operations against the Utman Khel (1878)
1878–1898 (Second Afghan War to Frontier Rebellion)
In 1877, Amir Sher Ali received a Russian mission in Kabul, but refused to accept one from the British. The following year Sher Ali signed a treaty with Russia. The British sent a mission anyway, but the mission and its armed escort were denied passage through the Khyber Pass. The British threatened to invade, and when no apology was forthcoming, did so. Sher Ali died while fleeing to Russian territory, and his son Yakub succeeded him. On May 26, 1879, Amir Yakub signed the Treaty of Gandamak, whereby Afghanistan surrendered its foreign policy to the British Empire, which in turn promised protection from aggression. Afghanistan ceded some territory and accepted a British Resident in Kabul until 1894.Wilkinson-Latham, p. 14-15
In September 1879, some six weeks after establishing his residency, Sir Louis Cavagnari and his escort were murdered. Hostilities promptly resumed. Yakub's army was defeated in September 1880, and his throne was offered to, and accepted by, Abdur Rahman, who agreed to surrender all claims on the Khyber, the Kurram, Sibi, and Pishin.The Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, p. 11 Second Afghan War (1878–1880) Zakka Khel Expeditions (1878–9) Operations against the Mohmands (1878–80)Includes the Expedition to Kam Dakka. Operations against the Zaimukht (1878–9) Operations against the Marris (1880) Mahsud-Waziri Expedition (1881) Expedition to the Takht-i-Suliman (1883) Third Black Mountain Expedition (1888) Operations in the Zhob Valley (1890–1) Fourth Black Mountain Expedition (1891) Miranzai Expeditions (1891) Hunza-Nagar Expedition (1891) Mahsud Expedition (1894–5) Chitral expedition (1895) Tochi Valley Expedition (1897) Siege of Malakand (1897) Operations of the Buner Field Force (1897–1898)Includes the action at Laudakai and the capture of the Tanga Pass Tirah Campaign (1897) First Mohmand campaign (1897–1898)
1898–1914 (Frontier Revolt to Great War) Mahsud Waziri blockade (1900–1902) Kabul Khel Expedition (1902) Bazar Valley campaign (1908) Mohmand Expedition of 1908
1914–1918 (First World War)
In support of the British war effort, the Indian Army deployed expeditionary forces to the Western Front, East Africa, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Sinai and Palestine.Sumner, p. 6 India was thus vulnerable to hostile attention from Afghanistan. A Turco-German mission arrived in Kabul in October 1915 with obvious strategic purpose. However, Amir Habibulla abided by his treaty obligations and maintained Afghanistan's neutrality, in the face of internal opposition from factions keen to side with the Ottoman Sultan. Hostilities on the frontier remained local. Operations in the Tochi (1914–15) Operations against the Mohmands, Bunerwals and Swatis (1915) Kalat Operations (1915–16) Mohmand Blockade (1916–17) Operations against the Mahsuds (1917) Operations against the Marri and Khetran tribes (1918)BaluchistanReport of the Battles Nomenclature Committee
1919–39 (between the wars)
Having upheld Afghan neutrality while India was engaged in the Great War, Habibulla sought full independence for Afghanistan in February 1919.Robson, Crisis on the Frontier p. 8 Such a reward might have consolidated his rule, but later that month he was murdered.Robson, Crisis on the Frontier p. 9