The establishment of the north-west frontier of Afghanistan, 1884-1888

Abstract

The thesis is the story of the formation of a frontier which was needed by three interested parties: the new Amir of Afghanistan, Abdurrahman, who needed it because he felt within himself the power to weld Afghanistan into a united whole: the Russians, who, excluding some of their more chauvinist men of war, needed it to set a limit to their sprawling, huge, under-manned and moneyconsuming empire in Central Asia: and the English, who needed it to set an internationally agreed-upon frontier as a barrier to this same Russian advance, which had been seen by many throughout the century as a potential threat to British India.