SOCIO-POLITICAL ASSESSMENT OF ANGLOAFGHAN TREATIES IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY: AGE OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM

The paper provides a brief introduction to a few important Agreements negotiated between British Rulers in India and Afghan Dynasties, and discusses the British imperialists' motives behind these agreements. The nature of analysis is descriptive and data used is based on re-analyzing the literature and archives available on the topic. Library method is used with desk research pattern. The period is known as Age of British Imperialism. Afghanistan has experienced on its soil the presence of all of the super powers of the world, albeit directly or indirectly, in the last three centuries ranging from Iran, France, Germany, Russia and Great Britain to present day America. Writings on Imperialism, either Russian or British, could not be summed up unless and until they include the historical events that happened in or about Afghanistan. This paper, which will cover an important aspect of British imperialism, assesses its treaties with Afghanistan. The history of Afghanistan, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is full of such agreements with world powers including the many treaties they entered into with the British royal powers of India. This paper will focus on a few strategically important and historically trend-setting treaties of Afghanistan and British India signed from 1803 to 1921 A.D.