Spying for Empire: The Great Game in Central and South Asia, 1757-1947'The Great Game' was the struggle between Russia and Britain for imperial influence over southern and central Asia, immortalized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim. For the British, the threat to India's frontiers compelled them to dispatch diplomats, or more clandestine agents, to survey, map and monitor the approaches to the Indian subcontinent. Anxieties about Russian ambitions in central Asia were magnified by the discovery of military plans and the arrival of 'shooting parties' and 'scientific explorers' on the mountains adjacent to India's northern border. The British faced major problems compounded by the unresolved status of Afghanistan, the interception of agents, and the division of opinion in British military and political circles about the real or imagined nature of the Russian threat to India. The situation was further complicated by the instability of the Indian border area, a region through which British and Indian troops would need to operate in wartime, but which was inhabited by bellicose tribesmen who fought the imposition of British rule every step of the way. Spying for Empire gives a fascinating insight into how the British intelligence network worked in the 1800s. It also examines how the intractability of Afghanistan plagued imperial defense planners, and how the threat of conflict with Russia colored Britain's dealings with the peoples of south-west Asia. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 25
Page 161
... railway building materials and extra troops . Plans were created for the strengthening of the port defences of India ... railways were being laid at a rate of one mile a day . All this , and information on improvements to the supply of ...
... railway building materials and extra troops . Plans were created for the strengthening of the port defences of India ... railways were being laid at a rate of one mile a day . All this , and information on improvements to the supply of ...
Page 183
... railway construction might offer the chance for Persia to develop and be less susceptible to the commercial temptations offered by Russia . A railway link from Teheran down to the Persian Gulf would , it was reasoned , tie Persia more ...
... railway construction might offer the chance for Persia to develop and be less susceptible to the commercial temptations offered by Russia . A railway link from Teheran down to the Persian Gulf would , it was reasoned , tie Persia more ...
Page 203
... railway . Some information arrived quite unexpectedly , as in the case of a Japanese colonel who had crossed Siberia . The colonel informed Elias that the railway at Charharjui on the Oxus was in poor repair since all Russia's railway ...
... railway . Some information arrived quite unexpectedly , as in the case of a Japanese colonel who had crossed Siberia . The colonel informed Elias that the railway at Charharjui on the Oxus was in poor repair since all Russia's railway ...
Common terms and phrases
Add Mss Afghan Afghanistan Amir Asian Asian agents Bokhara Bolsheviks border Brackenbury Britain British intelligence British officers Captain Caucasus central Asia Chinese Chitral Colonel Communist Connolly consul Curzon despatched diplomatic disguise Durand East Elias Empire envoy espionage exploration force Foreign Department Foreign Office Game German Gilgit Government of India Havildar Herat Hindu Kush Hopkirk Hunza Imperial India Office Indian Army Indian Intelligence Intelligence Branch Intelligence Department Intelligence Division intercepted Kabul Kandahar Kashgar Khan Khiva London Lord March Memorandum Merv Meshed Mirza mission Mohammed Moorcroft mountains Muslim Mutiny Nevertheless newswriters North-West Frontier northern OIOC operations Oxus Pamirs passes Penjdeh Persia Peshawar political Pottinger Pundits Punjab railway region reports revolutionaries Roberts route Royal Geographical Society Russian Russian troops Salisbury Secret Service sent shah Sikh Simla Singh Soviet St Petersburg subcontinent Survey of India Teheran territory threat Tibet travelled tribesmen tsar's Turkestan viceroy whilst Younghusband
References to this book
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British ... James Onley No preview available - 2007 |