Editing Great Game (section)

===Exchange of Notes Between Great Britain and Russia 1895===
[[File:Thomas Edward Gordon Lake Victoria, Great Pamir, May 2nd, 1874.png|thumb|A [[Watercolor painting|watercolor]] of [[Lake Zorkul]], Pamirs, by British Army officer [[Thomas Edward Gordon]] (1874).]]

On 11 March 1895, there was an Exchange of Notes Between Great Britain and Russia. The notes defined British and Russian spheres of influence east of Lake Sari-Qul by defining the northern boundary of the Wakhan Corridor east of the lake. This boundary was subsequently demarcated by a mixed commission.<ref name=geographer1983/> The Great Game is proposed to have ended on 10 September 1895 with the signing of the [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]] Boundary Commission protocols,<ref name=gerard1897/> when the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire was defined.<ref name=rowe2010/><ref name=gebb1983/>{{sfn|Morgan|1981|p=231}}<ref name=middleton2005/>{{rp|p14}} The Pamir Boundary Commission was conducted by Major-General Gerard who met with a Russian deputation under General Povalo-Shveikovsky in the remote Pamir region in 1895, who were charged with demarcating the boundary between Russian and British spheres of interest from Lake Victoria eastwards to the Chinese border.<ref>Gerard, Maj.-Gen. M. G. Report on the Proceedings of the Pamir Boundary Commission. Calcutta, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1897, 1st ed., Foolscap Folio (33 x 21cm), iv, 99pp</ref> The report of the Commission proved the absolute impracticality of any Russian invasion of India through the Pamir mountains.<ref name=davies1932/> The result was that Afghanistan became a buffer state between the two powers.

It was agreed that the [[Amu Darya]] river would form the border between Afghanistan and the Russian Empire. The agreements also resulted in the Russian Empire losing control of most Afghan territory it conquered, with the exception of [[Panjdeh]].<ref>[http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS026.pdf International Boundary Study of the Afghanistan-USSR Boundary (1983)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140817020033/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS026.pdf |date=17 August 2014|access-date=2019-09-27 }} by the US [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]]</ref> The [[Pamir Mountains]] were demarcated as a border line between the Russian Empire and Afghanistan as well.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Knowledge for Sustainable Development in the Tajik Pamir Mountains |last1=Breu |first1=Thomas |last2=Maselli |first2=Daniel |last3=Hurni |first3=Hans |date=2005 |journal=Mountain Research and Development |volume=25 |issue=2 |page=139 |doi=10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025[0139:KFSDIT]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=131608320 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The [[Taghdumbash Pamir|Taghdumbash]] would be the subject of a later Afghan-China agreement. To conclude their agreement, one peak was named Mount Concord.{{sfn|Morgan|1981|p=231}} In exchange for a British agreement to use the term ''[[Nicholas Range (Pamir Mountains)|Nicholas Range]]'' in honor of the Emperor [[Nicholas II of Russia]] on official maps, the Russians agreed to refer to [[Lake Zorkul]] as ''Lake Victoria'' in honour of [[Queen Victoria]] of the United Kingdom.<ref name=archive1>Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Kashmir, Chitral, Gilgit, Pamirs and North-West Frontier: Summary of Diary for August 1895. p.4. Public Record Office. Russia.Proceedings in Central Asia 1873–1898. F.O. 65/1507.</ref><ref name=gerard>"Enclosure No. 8. No. 179, dated Lake Victoria, the 28th July 1895 (Confidential). From Major-General M. G. Gerard, C. B. To the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department." Record Office. Russia. Proceedings in Central Asia 1873–1898. PRO/FO 65/1506. pp. 336–337.</ref>

The Russians had gained all of the lands north of the Amu Darya which included the land claimed by the Khanate of Khiva, including the approaches to Herat, and all of the land claimed by the Khanate of Khoqand, including the Pamir plateau. To ensure a complete separation, this new Afghan state was given an odd eastern appendage known as the Wakhan Corridor. "In setting these boundaries, the final act of the tense game played out by the British and Russian governments came to a close."<ref name=rowe2010/>