The British East India Company concludes treaties with a number of Afghan rulers and with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sikh ruler of the sovereign country of Punjab and the Sikh Empire.

One of the Afghan rulers, Dost Mohammad Khan, is the son of Sardar Payenda Khan, the Barakzay clan chief put to death by Zaman Shah Durrani.

Dost Mohammad had been raised by his elder brother, the chief of the Barakzai, Fatteh Khan, who had played an important role in raising Mahmud Shah Durrani to the sovereignty of Afghanistan in 1800 and in restoring him to the throne in 1809.

Mahmud Shah, a Sadozai Pashtun, had repaid Fatteh Khan's services by having him assassinated in 1818, thus incurring the enmity of his tribe.

After a bloody conflict, Mahmud Shah had been deprived of all his possessions but Herat, the rest of his dominions being divided among Fatteh Khan's brothers.

Of these, Dost Mohammad had received Ghazni, to which in 1826 he had added ...

...Kabul, the richest of the Afghan provinces.

From the commencement of his reign, Dost Mohammad has found himself involved in disputes with Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, who uses the dethroned Sadozai prince, Shuja Shah Durrani, as his instrument.

Shuja Shah strikes a deal in 1833 with Ranjit Singh: he is to be allowed to march his troops through Punjab, and in return he will cede to the Sikhs Peshawar, ruled by Kabul and long considered the second capital of Afghanistan, if they can manage to take it.

Shuja marches on Qandahar in a concerted campaign in 1834, while the Sikhs, commanded by general Hari Singh Nalwa, attack Peshawar.

The Sikhs, for their part, seize Peshawar in July, but ...

The British had become the major power in the Indian subcontinent after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, but had for decades remained relatively unconcerned with the collection of petty princes and warring tribes that make up Afghanistan.

This changes with the Russian push for an advantage in the Afghan region to place pressure on British India.

Dost Mohammad, rejecting overtures from Russia, endeavors to form an alliance with the British, who, fearful that Persia is falling completely under Russian influence, are ever eager to enter into alliances with the rulers of Herat, Kabul, and Qandahar.

Deciding to contact the British directly for help in dealing with the Sikhs, Dost Mohammad writes in the spring of 1836 to the new governor general of India, Lord Auckland, a letter of congratulations and asks his advice on dealing with the Sikhs.

Just as Dost Mohammad's letter formally sets the stage for British intervention in Afghanistan, so also does Lord Auckland's reply foreshadow the duplicitous policy of the British in dealing with the Afghans.

Auckland responds that he will send a commercial mission to Kabul and states, "it is not the practice of the British Government to interfere with the affairs of other independent states."

Dost Mohammad welcomes a British mission to Kabul under Captain Alexander Burnes to Kabul in December 1837.

Burnes, however, is unable to prevail on the governor-general, Lord Auckland, to respond to the amir's advances.

The Emir is enjoined to abandon the attempt to recover Peshawar, and to place his foreign policy under British guidance.

In return, he is only promised protection from the Sikhs.

After a Russian agent, Captain J. P. Witkiewicz, appears in Kabul, the British soon leave for India.

Dost Mohammad begins negotiations with Witkiewicz.

The Persians had made an attempt to storm Herat on June 24, 1838, after conducting a somewhat desultory siege, but were repulsed with a loss of seventeen hundred men.

A tacit armistice exists until September 9, 1838, when the Shah withdraws his army.

The defenders of Herat are estimated to have lost about one thousand of their number, while the Persians have lost about two thousand.

The East India Company, fearing increasing Russian influence in Afghanistan, has resolved to depose Dost Mohammad and restore Shuja Shah as amir.

The Company's actions bring about the First Afghan War, in which the British attempt to subdue the anarchic northwest.

From the British perspective, the Russian Empire's expansion into Central Asia threatens India, the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire.

As the Tsar's troops begin to subdue one Khanate after another, the British fear that Afghanistan will become a staging post for a Russian invasion of India.

With the failure of Burnes's mission, Auckland, sets the British troops in motion against Dost Mohammad, with the object of restoring Shuja Shah to the throne.

The first British advance northward into the Khyber takes place in 1839 when General George Pollock fights against the Afridis during his march to Kabul.

In the opening campaign, the British army, assisted by Sikh allies and after enduring great privations, enters Qandahar (where Shuja is crowned shah, nearly almost thirty years after his deposition), ...

...Ghazni, and ...