nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47The Treaty of Gandamak and Siege of the Kabul ResidencyThe collapse of the Afghan army meant the only serious opposition to
the British columns as they advanced on Jalalabad, Khost and Kandahar
came from local tribesmen. Within a matter of weeks most of southern
Afghanistan had fallen and Amir Ya‘qub Khan had little choice but to offer
to negotiate what was in effect his surrender, in the hope that his submis-
sion would prevent the partition of Afghanistan. In May 1879 Cavagnari
and Ya‘qub met at Gandamak, a venue chosen deliberately by Cavagnari
because of its emotive link with the last stand of Shelton’s regiment in
January 1842. With British forces victorious, Cavagnari was in no mood
to compromise and Amir Ya‘qub was presented with a series of demands
that he had no choice but to accept in order to remain as head of state.
They included the installation of a permanent British Resident in Kabul
backed up by a substantial body of troops and the right of British troops
to enter Afghanistan without the Amir’s prior permission. British sur -
veyors would also demarcate Afghanistan’s northern frontier, Kabul was
to be linked to the Indian telegraphic system, and Kurram, Sibi and Pishin
became ‘assigned districts’ under British rule, a temporary arrangement
that ended up as de facto annexation. The Amir also ceded the key fortress
of Jamrud in the Khyber Pass and renounced any right to interfere in
‘“Fixing the Negative”. The End of the Afghan War – Photographing the Ameer Yakoob
Khan at Gandamak’, The Graphic, 12 July 1879. The photographer John Burke, depicted here
holding the plate, volunteered for the post of official war photographer and made a series
of historic photographs of Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.