The second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-79) had stopped Russian influence in Afghanistan, but Russian activity renewed around 1900. An Anglo-Afghan agreement on 21 Mar. 1905 re-affirmed earlier settlements. An Anglo-Russian entente on 31 Aug. 1907 established a compromise on British and Russian interests in Persia, and included Russia's recognition of Britain's predominant role in Afghanistan. Russia agreed once again to refrain from interference in Afghan affairs. The First World War interrupted this "Great Game". Despite German and Turkish agitation, Afghanistan remained neutral during the war, thanks in large part to British subsidies (instituted as a settlement of the second Afghan war). The end of the war brought renewed Russian interest in Afghan affairs. After the assassination of Amir Habibullah Khan (19 Feb. 1919), the army and Young Afghan Party installed his third son Amanullah as Amir. Amanullah, suspected of having plotted his father's death, diverted attention from local problems by proclaiming a jihad against Britain on 3 May 1919, capitalising on existing anti-British nationalist feeling in India. Rioting had broken out in the principal towns of the Punjab in March, including Amritsar, where on 13 Apr. 1919 Brig-Gen. Dyer had ordered Gurkha troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd. That massacre horrified not only India but much of the British public. (Dyer was dismissed after the Afghan war.) Taking advantage of the paucity of British troops, Amanullah also sought to regain the North West Frontier Province lost to Sikh expansionism in 1820-34.

     British regular forces in India consisted of only two cavalry regiments and eight infantry battalions. The rest of the British garrison were Territorial Army battalions which had been sent during the First World War to relieve regulars for the fighting on the Western Front. With the end of the war these were eager to return to civilian life, and the Commander-in-Chief India had to intervene directly to forestall the threat of mutiny.

     By the Treaty of Rawalpindi (8 Aug. 1919, amended 22 Nov. 1921) Britain recognised Afghan independence, assured that British Indian empire would never extend beyond Khyber Pass, and ceased British subsidies to Afghanistan. Afghanistan almost immediately signed a treaty of friendship with the new Bolshevik government in Russia (28 Feb. 1921), and upgraded this on 31 Aug. 1926 to a neutrality and nonaggression pact. This pact was renewed in 1931 and 1955, but Afghanistan did not again engage in war with British India and its independent successor states. Unrest in the frontier tribes sputtered in the form of guerrilla warfare until the outbreak of the Second World War. Afghanistan remained netural during that war, but expelled Axis citizens in 1941 at British and Soviet request. An Afghan claim in 1947 for a Pathan state along the North West Frontier provoked tension with newly independent Pakistan, but was peacefully resolved. Amanullah proclaimed himself Shah in 1927, but his westernisation programme provoked the Muslim imams and he was forced to flee in 1929. After a chaotic interlude, the British installed Gen. Nadir Khan as the new king, but he too alienated the clergy and he was assassinated in 1933. British interest in Afghanistan largely ended with Indian independence in 1947, and the United States assumed the role of containing Soviet expansionism.

     Continued...

1. 50,000 in Afghan theatre of operations
2. 50,000 regulars, 75,000 tribal laskars

Note: the population of Aghanistan was 11,000,000; of India 251,000,000.

• Death Tolls, by Matthew White (Historical Atlas of the 20th Century)

• [no external sites have been found]

• India General Service Medal 1908-1935 (British Military Medals)
• India General Service Medal 1908-1935 (Hall of Medals)

• [no external sites have been found]

• All India War Memorial, Delhi

Ali, Mohammed. Afghanistan : the War of Independence, 1919. Kabul : [s.n.], 1960.

Molesworth, George Noble. Afghanistan 1919 : an account of operations in the Third Afghan War. London ; Bombay : Asia Publishing House, 1962. [also published in New York : Asia Publishing House, 1963]

The third Afghan war, 1919 : official account. Calcutta : Government of India, Central Publications Branch, 1926. [reprinted 1970]

• General History
  • The Third Afghan War: an Introduction, by Paul Hinson.
  • Assassination of Habibullah Khan 1919, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
  • Third Anglo-Afghan War, by Ralph Zuljan (OnWar.Com)
• Chronology
  • Jahreschronik 1919-1941, by Bernd Marek (Chronologische Kriegsgeschichte)
  • League of Nations Timeline, 1918-1946 (League of Nations Photo Archive)