HONR 269 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: The Great Game, Helmand River, Family Values
5 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
General themes of presentations: low literacy, high mortality, medical care + clean water issues. Silk road trade route between europe & asia; afghanistan in middle: takes name from silk exported from china, began in the second century lasted several 100 years. The great game rivalry between two superpowers (britain+russia) for control of central asia: each empire vying for influence, 1800s-1900s (roughly a century, britain wanted land-route to india. Wanted zone between their empire in india and russia. Needed afgha(cid:374)ista(cid:374) to (cid:271)e at least (cid:374)eutral if (cid:374)ot theirs & defi(cid:374)itel(cid:455) (cid:374)ot russia"s, which would threaten their security. Afghanistan at this time had a king; was not british or russian-controlled: young country, inward-looking (not yet occupied) Essential for britain to protect india (monetary interests) people, agriculture, resources that not many other regions in the area had. In comparison, afghanistan was much poorer without as much to offer as india. Did(cid:374)"t (cid:449)a(cid:374)t afgha(cid:374)ista(cid:374) to fracture b/c that meant more issues for britain.
