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History of India since 1823Part 1The treaty with Russia, referred, to at the close of the last chapter, was concerned almost exclusively, so far as the British were concerned, with the security of India, and it may, therefore, be appropriate at this stage to return to the history of our great Indian Empire. That history has already been sketched till the end of Lord Hastings's rule in 1823, a rule which saw the final extension of our supremacy over the Native States in the interior, and we may now follow the course of events up till recent times. After 1823 the whole peninsula of India, from Cape Comorin in the south up to the Scinde frontier and the Sutlej River on the north, was under British authority. Part of this vast territory was directly governed by the British; pail was under the control of native rulers, subject, however, to the supervision of the British Government. Meantime other rulcrships had been created elsewhere. One dynasty had succeeded in founding the kingdom of Burmah, and was even threatening Eastern Bengal, and another had succeeded in uniting most of the tribes of Afghanistan into one strong state; whilst Ranjit, Singh had established a great state in the Punjab the land of five rivers a territory which stretched from Peshawur and Kashmir in the north to the Sutlej River in the south.Difficulties soon arose between Great Britain and these independent rulers. The first war came in 1824-6 with Burmah, and on its conclusion the British obtained the cession of some territory and an indemnity. In 1839 occurred the First Afghan War. The frontiers of the Russian Empire and the British Empire were, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, some 2000 miles apart; but gradually, as these empires expanded, their frontiers approached one another, till, at the end of the century, they were at one place barely a dozen miles apart. In the north-west, Afghanistan was regarded by the British as a buffer stale between their own empire in India and the Russian Empire; and the good will of its ruler was considered essential for the security of the former. Matters began to look critical in 1837. Kabul, the capital, and Kandahar were captured, and the old ruler restored, whilst Dost Mohammed eventually surrendered himself to the British. |
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