Second Anglo-Afghan War

In November 1875 British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli appointed Lord Lytton governor-general of India. Lytton during his service there was concerned primarily with India’s relations with Afghanistan. At the time of his appointment, Russian influence was growing in Afghanistan, and Lytton had…

Russia’s glacial advance into Turkistan sufficiently alarmed Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and his secretary of state for India, Robert Salisbury, that by 1874, when they came to power in London, they pressed the government of India to pursue a more vigorous interventionist…

…unintentionally, that developed into the Second Afghan War (1878–80). The British executed a well-planned three-pronged drive into Afghanistan. Shīr ʿAlī tried to rally the tribes to his support with little success. He then placed his son Yaʿqūb Khān on the throne and fled toward Turkistan; he died during the journey.