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The Battle of Kabul was part of a punitive campaign undertaken by the British against the Afghans following the disastrous retreat from Kabul. Two British and East India Company armies advanced on the Afghan capital from Kandahar and Jalalabad to avenge the complete annihilation of its military column in January 1842. Having recovered prisoners captured during the retreat, the British demolished parts of Kabul before withdrawing to India. The action was the concluding engagement to the First Anglo-Afghan War. ==Background== In the late 1830s, the British government and the British East India Company became obsessed with the idea that Emir Dost Mohammed of Afghanistan was courting Imperial Russia. They arranged passage through Sindh for an army which invaded Afghanistan and restored the former ruler Shuja Shah Durrani, who had been deposed by Dost Mohammed thirty years earlier and who had been living as a pensioner in India. They also agreed safe passage for supplies and reinforcements with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire, in return for inducing Shah Shuja to formally cede the disputed region of Peshawar to him.〔Hopkirk (1990), p.189〕 The British captured Kabul, and Dost Mohammed surrendered himself into British custody in November 1840. Over the next year, complacent British commanders withdrew some of their forces even as popular resistance grew. They also ceased paying subsidies to the Ghilzais, who controlled the routes between Kabul and Peshawar. A brigade commanded by Brigadier Robert Sale was sent in October 1841 from Kabul to clear the route to India via the Khyber Pass, but faced opposition from Ghilzai tribesmen all the way, and was blockaded in Jalalabad, halfway to the Khyber Pass. In November 1841, there was a popular uprising in Kabul, in which the Resident Political Agent Alexander Burnes was murdered. The ineffectual commander of the Kabul garrison, General William George Keith Elphinstone, failed to react to the uprising. Dost Mohammed's son Akbar Khan, arrived to lead the insurrection. Elphinstone asked for reinforcements from Major General William Nott, commanding at Kandahar. Nott unwillingly dispatched a brigade under Brigadier MacLaren but it was turned back by heavy snowfalls. William Hay Macnaghten, the Minister to Shah Shujah's court, attempted to sow dissension within the insurgent ranks and even arrange for Akbar Khan to be assassinated, but Akbar Khan was informed of his planned treachery and murdered Macnaghten at a meeting on 23 December.〔Dalrymple (2013), pp. 348–353〕 Finally, with his troops blockaded in an indefensible encampment outside Kabul, Elphinstone signed a convention with Akbar Khan by which his army was to evacuate Kabul, and was guaranteed safe passage to Jalalabad. The result was the slaughter of Elphinstone's army of 4,500 British and Indian soldiers and 12,000 camp followers by tribesmen in January 1842. Only one British surgeon and a handful of Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad. Elphinstone and several officers and their families surrendered themselves as hostages and were taken prisoner. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Kabul (1842)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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