Peter Hopkirk The great game On secret service i

Authors: Albrecht Rothacher

Publish Date: 2006/05/11

Volume: 4, Issue: 4, Pages: 607-609

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Abstract

The Great Game was a fascinating pastime between British and Russian adventurers officers and diplomats which was played with often disastrous results in the Central Asian glacis from Persia to Tibet between the expanding Czarist Empire and a more defensive British India It began with the Napoleonic wars in 1810 and ended with Russia’s defeat in her war with Japan resulting in the Anglo Russian Convention of 1907 This rich narrative is told extremely well by Peter Hopkirk who has produced one more volume in the lengthy shelves of first rate British historiography which combines solid research and archive work with a gifted penIf there was one invasion route into India from Alexander the Great to Babur the Turkic founder of the Moghul Empire in 1526 it was from the Northwest via Afghanistan Throughout the 19th century after the defeat of Napoleon the Russian empire having dismantled the Swedish empire and swallowed Poland constituted the only strategic rival to British

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