1851 Tallis / Rapkin Map of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and the Punjab

This is a rare 1851 John Tallis map of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan drawn and engraved by John Rapkin for Tallis's Illustrated Atlas and Modern History of the World. A contemporary audience, particularly a British audience, would have viewed this map through the prism of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 - 1842), an abject disaster for the British, and the wider context of 'Great Game' imperial competition with Russia.

Features of the Map and Illustrations

This map covers an area consistent with most of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Much of this territory would eventually come under direct or indirect British control. At the same time, while the British exerted a strong influence over Afghan foreign policy in the late 19th century, the Barakzai Dynasty retained its autonomy.

Among the illustrations surrounding the map is one of Ghazni (Ghuznee), showing fortifications and towers built there by Sultan Mahmud, founder of the Ghaznavids Dynasty in the late 10th century. Though little known today, Sultan Mahmud transformed Ghazni (his hometown) into a military and cultural center that arguably rivaled Baghdad. More directly relevant for this map, Ghazni was also the site of the first battle of the First Anglo-Afghan War, which was a major British victory. This oblique allusion to one of the high points of the war for the British was likely meant to put a positive spin on an otherwise catastrophic imperial adventure. Ironically, after the battle, the British destroyed some of the ancient fortifications at Ghazni referred to here.

The First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 - 1842)

Fought between the British East India Company and the Emirate of Afghanistan, the First Anglo-Afghan War was part of 'The Great Game,' a larger diplomatic confrontation between the British and Russian Empires. While Russia probably never seriously considered invading India, it was actively expanding into Central Asia. The British East India Company, and by extension the British Empire, nonetheless feared that the Russians would move through Central Asia, then through Afghanistan, into India, undermining British hegemony in South Asia.

To secure the Afghan frontier, the British sent an embassy to the Emir of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan, with whom they hoped to confirm an anti-Russian alliance. Although Dost Mohammad was interested in a British-Afghan alliance, the two sides had conflicting interests. Afghanistan had recently lost Peshawar, its second capital, to the powerful the Sikh Empire, with whom the British were allied. Thus, the British had to choose to ally with either Dost Mohammad or the Sikhs. They believed the Sikh Empire, which maintained a powerful French-trained standing army, the Dal Khalsa, to be the greater threat, and so took a third path.

Unable to forge an alliance with Dost Mohammad (Barakzai Dynasty), the British instead turned to the exiled former Emir Shah Shujah (Durrani Dynasty). Unlike Dost Mohammad, who was fierce, wily, and dogged, Shah Shujah had a reputation for indolence and cruelty, reportedly having a penchant for removing the noses, ears, tongues, penises, and testicles of his courtiers and slaves when they displeased him in the slightest. Nonetheless, the British considered him, for his very indolence, to be malleable and thus preferable to Dost Mohammad.

The British mustered the massive 'Grand Army of the Indus', consisting of some 21,000 British, Indian, and Sikh troops and marched into Afghanistan from Punjab under the command of Baron John Keane. By March of 1839 they crossed the 4000-meter-high Bolan Pass and seized Kandahar on April 25, 1839. Cognizant of the harsh conditions of the region, they waited until the crops ripened in mid-June to begin further conquests. Often at great cost, the British Grand Army won most major engagements, but the dogged Dost Mohammad simply retreated further into the countryside and continued to wage a persistent guerilla war against the British.

Eventually the British decided they had achieved their objective and most of the Army returned to India, leaving just 8000 troops to support the Shah Shuja puppet regime based in Kabul. When Dost Mohammed escaped from prison in Bokhara and returned to Afghanistan, the fighting again commenced. Eventually, the main British Indian and Sikh force occupying Kabul along with their camp followers was almost completely annihilated while retreating in January 1842. The defeat left a deep impression on the British public and was commemorated several decades later in several well-known paintings, including Elizabeth Thompson's Remnants of an Army.

The British sent an 'Army of Retribution' to Kabul but it achieved little and, by the end of the year, Dost Mohammad resumed his rule. The British called this war 'The Disaster in Afghanistan' and Dost Mohammad is reported to have said:

I have been struck by the magnitude of your resources, your ships, your arsenals, but what I cannot understand is why the rulers of so vast and flourishing an empire should have gone across the Indus to deprive me of my poor and barren country.

'The Great Game'

'The Great Game' was a diplomatic confrontation between the British and Russian Empires over Afghanistan and other territories in Central and Southern Asia. The conflict, rooted in long-standing animosity between Russia and Britain, revolved around Afghanistan, which, while lacking significant resources of its own, was strategically situated. For its part, Russia feared Britain was making commercial and military inroads into Central Asia, an area long within the sphere of influence of St. Petersburg. Britain, conversely, feared Russia making gains in India, 'the jewel in the crown' of British Asia. The escalating tensions led to several wars and proxy wars: The First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 - 1842), the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845 - 1846), the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848 - 1849), and the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 - 1880), along with the Russian annexations of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand. Then as now, Afghanistan proved a grinding stone upon which the world's great empires diminished themselves, none achieving definitive victory despite committing staggering resources.

Publication History and Census

This map was part of the well-known Tallis's Illustrated Atlas and Modern History of the World published in 1851. It was drawn and engraved by John Rapkin and the vignette illustrations were drawn by A. Fussell and engraved by J.B. Allen. It is held by several libraries in North America, Great Britain, and in former territories of the British Empire.