The First Anglo-Afghan War - Part Three: The Kabul Uprising That Turned Occupation into Disaster
For two years, British leaders had tried to convince themselves that Kabul was under control.
Date: 1842
Artist: Vincent Eyre
Then, on the 2nd of November 1841, a crowd gathered outside the home of one British officer.
Within hours, he was dead.
And the British occupation of Kabul was beginning to fall apart.
In Part Two, we saw how British and East India Company forces had captured Kabul and restored Shah Shuja to the Afghan throne. At first, the invasion seemed to have been a success. But beneath the surface, resentment was growing.
Date: 1843
Collection: British Museum
Shah Shuja was still deeply unpopular with many Afghans, while the continuing presence of foreign troops was causing increasing hostility. British officials had also been paying subsidies to tribal leaders to maintain their support and help keep important routes open. When some of those payments were reduced, an already dangerous situation became even more unstable.
General William Elphinstone
Date: 1836 - 1839
Artist: William Salter
There was another serious problem.
Instead of remaining inside the formidable Bala Hissar fortress, much of the British force was based in a poorly positioned cantonment outside Kabul. Thousands of British and Indian troops, servants and camp followers were living in a position that would be extremely difficult to defend if the city rose against them.
On the morning of the 2nd of November 1841, that danger became very real.
A crowd gathered outside the Kabul home of Sir Alexander Burnes, the Scottish explorer and political officer who had played an important part in British involvement in Afghanistan.
The situation rapidly turned violent.
Burnes, his brother Charles and others with them were killed, and the house was looted.
But what happened next was just as important.
The British response was hesitant.
Major-General William Elphinstone, who commanded the garrison, was in poor health and increasingly unable to provide the decisive leadership the crisis demanded. While British commanders debated what to do, the uprising spread and resistance gathered strength.
What might once have been contained was becoming something much larger.
On the 5th of November, Afghan fighters captured the main commissariat fort, containing much of the British garrison’s food and other essential supplies.
Food and other vital supplies were lost.
Winter was approaching.
And the British position was becoming weaker by the day.
The uprising soon got an important leader in Muhammad Akbar Khan, the son of the deposed ruler Dost Mohammad. Opposition to the occupation was now developing into a wider insurrection, and the British found themselves increasingly trapped.
Sir William Macnaghten, the senior British political representative in Kabul, attempted to negotiate a way out.
But on the 23rd of December 1841, during negotiations with Akbar Khan, Macnaghten was killed.
By then, the situation had changed completely.
The force that had marched triumphantly into Kabul in 1839 was no longer in control.
Its supplies were dwindling. Its leadership was divided. Armed resistance surrounded it. And the freezing Afghan winter was closing in.
The British now faced a terrible decision.
Remain in Kabul and try to recover the situation...
Or leave.
In January 1842, they were forced into agreeing to withdraw.
And what happened next would turn a failing occupation into one of the most infamous disasters in British military history.
Part Four: The Retreat from Kabul – When an Army Disappeared into the Snow
Had you heard about the Kabul uprising before, or only about the disastrous retreat that followed?
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