History - Central Asia - page 416

The Great Game
What do two expanding empires do when their ill-defined frontiers draw
near each other? They scramble for control of what's between them, us-
ing a mix of secrecy and stealth.
The British called the ensuing struggle for imperial power the 'Great
Game'; in Russia it was the 'Tournament of Shadows'. In essence it was
the first cold war between East and West. All the ingredients were there:
spies and counterspies, demilitarised zones, puppet states and doom-
saying governments whipping up smokescreens for their own shady
business. All that was lacking was the atom bomb and a Russian leader
banging his shoe on the table.
The story of the Great Game would be dull as dishwater except that
its centre arena was some of the world's most exotic and remote terrain.
The history of Central Asia's international relations from the beginning
of the 19th century to the present day can be seen through the prism of
the Great Game.
As the Russians spread into Central Asia, the British turned towards
their northwestern frontier. The disastrous 1842 First Afghan War took
the wind out of the British sails, but only temporarily. By 1848 the British
had defeated the Sikhs and taken control of the Punjab and the Peshawar
valley. With a grip now on the 'Northern Areas' Britain began a kind
of cat-and-mouse game with Russia across the vaguely mapped Pamir
and Hindu Kush ranges. Agents posing as scholars, explorers, hunters,
merchants - and even Muslim preachers and Buddhist pilgrims - criss-
crossed the mountains, mapping the passes, spying on each other and
courting local rulers. In 1882 Russia established a consulate in Kashgar
and in 1877 a British agency at Gilgit (present day Pakistan) was urgently
reopened when the mir (hereditary ruler) of Hunza entertained a party
of Russians.
Imperial tensions continued with the Russian annexation of Bukhara
and Samarkand but it was the Russian occupation of Merv in 1884 that
really sent blood pressures through the roof in Britain and India. Merv
was a crossroads leading to Herat, an easy gateway to Afghanistan,
which in turn offered entry into British India. The British government
finally lost its cool the following year when the Russians went south to
control Pandjeh.
Then in 1890, Francis Younghusband (later to head a British incur-
sion into Tibet) was sent to do some politicking with Chinese officials in
Kashgar. On his way back through the Pamirs he found the range full of
Russian troops, and was told to get out or face arrest.
This electrified the British. They raised hell with the Russian govern-
ment and invaded Hunza the following year; at the same time Russian

From the Mongol
destruction of
irrigation canals
to the Russian
harnessing of
water for cotton
production and
the death of the
Aral Sea, the
control of water
has been central
to the region for
centuries and will
continue to be a
source of future
contention.

The late 19th
century wit-
nessed a golden
age of Russian
exploration in
Central Asia.
Famous figures
such as Semenov,
Przewalski and
Merzbacher are
only today start-
ing to get credit
abroad.

1881
Siege of Goek-Tepe in
modern Turkmenistan
marks the last stand of
the Turkmen against
Russian annexation.
Over 15,000 Tekke are
killed.

1885
Britain and Russia go
to the brink of war after
the Russians annex
the Pandjeh Oasis at
the height of the Great
Game. The British are
convinced the Russians
have their eyes on
Herat and British India
beyond.

1888
The Trans-
Caspian railway from
Krasnovodsk reaches
Samarkand. The
Orenburg-Tashkent
line is completed seven
years later, tying
Central Asia irmly to
the Russian heartland.

1890
Captain Francis
Younghusband is
thrown out of the
Pamirs by his Russian
counterpart, much to
the outrage of British
hawks.