Editing History of Asia (section)

===Central Asia: The Great Game, Russia vs Great Britain===
[[File:Great Game cartoon from 1878.jpg|thumb|250px|Political cartoon depicting the Afghan [[Sher Ali Khan|Emir Sher Ali]] with the rival "friends" the [[Russian Bear]] and British Lion (1878)]]

[[The Great Game]] was a political and diplomatic confrontation between Great Britain and Russia over [[History of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] and neighbouring territories in [[Central Asia|Central]] and [[South Asia]]. It lasted from 1828 to 1907. There was no war, but there were many threats. Russia was fearful of British commercial and military inroads into [[Central Asia]], and Britain was fearful of Russia threatening its largest and most important possession, India. This resulted in an atmosphere of distrust and the constant threat of war between the two empires. Britain made it a high priority to protect all the approaches to India, and the "great game" is primarily how the British did this in terms of a possible Russian threat. Historians with access to the archives have concluded that Russia had no plans involving India, as the Russians repeatedly stated.<ref>Barbara Jelavich, ''St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974'' (1974) p 200</ref>

The Great Game began in 1838 when Britain decided to gain control over the [[Emirate of Afghanistan]] and make it a protectorate, and to use the [[Ottoman Empire]], the [[Qajar dynasty|Persian Empire]], the [[Khanate of Khiva]], and the Emirate of Bukhara as buffer states between both empires. This would protect India and also key British sea trade routes by stopping Russia from gaining a port on the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean. Russia proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone, and the final result was diving up Afghanistan with a neutral zone in the middle between Russian areas in the north and British in the South. Important episodes included the failed [[First Anglo-Afghan War]] of 1838, the [[First Anglo-Sikh War]] of 1845, the [[Second Anglo-Sikh War]] of 1848, the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] of 1878, and the annexation of [[Khanate of Kokand|Kokand]] by Russia.<ref>* {{cite journal |jstor = 40105749|title = Great Britain's Great Game: An Introduction|journal = The International History Review|volume = 2|issue = 2|pages = 160–171|last1 = Ingram|first1 = Edward|year = 1980|doi = 10.1080/07075332.1980.9640210}}
</ref> The 1901 novel [[Kim (novel)|''Kim'']] by [[Rudyard Kipling]] made the term popular and introduced the new implication of great power rivalry. It became even more popular after the 1979 advent of the [[Soviet–Afghan War]].<ref name="Seymour Becker 2012">Seymour Becker, "The ‘great game’: The history of an evocative phrase." ''Asian Affairs'' 43.1 (2012): 61-80.</ref>