Download or read book Afghan Wars and the North-West Frontier, 1839-1947 written by Michael Barthorp and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2002 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 1830s to Indian independence in 1947, British soldiers fought constant wars with the most implacable guerrilla-fighters in history. The Afghan mountain tribes were fiercely independent. For generations they had plundered the north Indian plain, until the British took charge and alternated between paying them subsidies (bribes to cease their raiding) and launching punitive military expeditions to teach them manners. It was a strange war fought to its own rules. Neither side took prisoners. Yet a grudging respect for the enemy and a concern to stick by unwritten codes of conduct governed this 100-year war. Immortalized by Kipling, the British Army in India fought along the frontier until the withdrawal from the sub-continent in 1947. Michael Barthorp tells the story in a vivid style.