标题: All Europeans But One Died in the 1842 British Retreat from Kabul [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 2-2-2013 13:05 标题: All Europeans But One Died in the 1842 British Retreat from Kabul 本帖最后由 choi 于 2-3-2013 09:01 编辑
The first Anglo-Afghan war | Lessons Unlearned; An unnecessary war, a bloody occupation and an ignominious retreat. Economist, Jan 26, 2013. http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... t-lessons-unlearned
(book review on William Dalrymple. The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42. Bloomsbury (UK) and Knopf (US), 2013)
Quote: "Assuming the [Afghan] conquest was complete, Britain withdrew large portions of the army in preparation for the brewing opium war in China.
Note:
(a) Actually (with the government backing) the British East India Company fought both wars, in Afghanistan and China.
(b) sepoy http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sepoy
(c) Jalalabad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalalabad
(Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River; linked by approximately 95 miles (153 km) of highway with Kabul to the west; In 630 AD Xuan Zang [was here]; In the last decade of the sixteenth century Adinapur was renamed to Jalalabad after the son of Pir Roshan, Jalala who was fighting the Mughals [of India])
(d) The book review featured "Elizabeth Butler’s 1879 painting 'Remnants of an Army.'"
* For Elizabeth Butler, see Elizabeth Thompson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Thompson
(1846-1933; Thompson was her maiden name and she married in 1877 Sir William Francis Butler (1838–1910), a distinguished officer of the British Army)
* For the painting Remnants of an Army, see William Brydon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brydon
(1811-1873; an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War; born in London of Scottish descent)
Quote: "It resulted in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese and the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken by the Japanese in the Malayan Campaign [Dec 8, 1941-Jan 31, 1942].
(g) Shah Shuja Durrani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Shuja_Durrani
(1785-1842; "Shuja was restored to the throne by the British on August 7, 1839, almost 30 years after his deposition, but did not remain in power when the British left. He was assassinated by Shuja ud-Daula, on April 5, 1842")
(h) The Great Game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game
Quote:
"The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.
"The term 'The Great Game' is usually attributed to Arthur Conolly (1807–1842), an intelligence officer of the British East India Company's Sixth Bengal Light Cavalry.
(i) The review said, "It [the book] makes for grim reading."