afghanistandeclared his loathing of being subordinated to an infidel power: ‘I prefer the
fury of the King of Kings,’ he wrote, ‘to the kindness of a million English.’ 19
In January 1841 Todd’s patience ran out. He had advanced Yar
Muhammad Khan a substantial sum to reconquer the Persian-held fron-
tier town of Ghuriyan, only for the wazir to keep the money and agree to
accept Persian suzerainty in return for the peaceful surrender of Ghuriyan.
Todd demanded Yar Muhammad abrogate the agreement and cease all
communications with Persia. When he equivocated, Todd presented him
with an ultimatum to either admit a British garrison or face outright annex-
ation and removal from power. Yar Muhammad called Todd’s bluff and
rejected his demand, so Todd broke off diplomatic relations, informed the
wazir to prepare for war with Britain and left for Kandahar. Todd’s actions,
though, had not been authorized and when Macnaghten heard that Todd
had abandoned his post, his political career was abruptly terminated and
he was ordered to rejoin his regiment. Later in the year Lord Melbourne’s
government approved the annexation of Herat, but nothing ever came of
it for Auckland and his council vetoed the decision on the grounds of cost.
Yar Muhammad went unpunished. As for Todd, he was killed four years
later leading his regiment of Horse Artillery into battle against the Sikhs.
After the Persian siege was lifted, British interests shifted to the threat
of a Russian occupation of the Turkman Khanate of Khiva. A few months
after the British occupation of Kabul, General Perovsky, the governor of
Orenburg, had marched out with 5,000 troops to attack Khiva, intent
on suppressing the slave trade and freeing the Russians held captive in
the Khanate. The expedition ended in disaster when much of the army
perished as it attempted to cross the desert in the middle of the bitter
Central Asian winter. Even so, Perovsky’s campaign raised fears in London
that Russia was using the suppression of the slave trade as an excuse to
annex this strategic Khanate.
A few months before Perovsky’s expedition McNeill sent Colonel
Stoddard to Khiva to report on the situation and he eventually made his
way to Bukhara, only to be imprisoned. The ostensible reason for his incar-
ceration was that he refused to conform to the humiliating protocols that
Nasr Allah Khan demanded every foreign envoy perform when granted an
audience with the Khan. In fact, his imprisonment was due to the failure
of Britain to recognize Bukhara’s historic claim to sovereignty over the
wilayat of Balkh. Todd and Lord, among others, had convinced Auckland
that this region was historically an integral part of the Durrani kingdom,
based on Bukhara’s treaties with Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah and Timur
Shah, as well as European sources such as Elphinstone and his unreliable