The Great Game - Chronology

Chronology

1582-1639: Russians occupy the forest zone north of Central Asia. 1717:Russians fail to take Khiva 1735: Baskir War blocks plan to invade Central Asia 1743: Orenburg founded. 1757: British begin conquest of India. 1801 Russian invasion called back.

About this time most of central Asia was divided between the Khanate of Khiva (south of the Aral Sea), the Emirate of Bukhara (center) and the Khanate of Kokand (east). 1810: Henry Pottinger and Charles Christie reach Isfahan from Nushki, Balochistan, Christie via Herat. 1819: Nikolay Muravyov visits Khiva. 1820(circa): Aga Mehdi or Mehkti Rafailov, Russian agent in Kashgar or Yarkand. 1821: Russians visit Bukhara. 1825: William Moorcroft (explorer) visits Bukhara. 1830: Arthur Conolly fails to reach Khiva, then travels from the Caspian to India. 1831: Alexander Burnes charts the Indus, then reaches Kabul and Bukhara. 1838: British force Persia to abandon Siege of Herat (1838). 1839: British occupy Kabul. 1840: Russian attack on Khiva fails ; Abbott and Shakespear at Khiva. 1842: British expelled from Kabul with great loss, retake Kabul and withdraw (First Anglo-Afghan War); Arthur Connolly and Charles Stoddart executed at Bukhara.

1843:British annex Sindh 1849: British annex Punjab. 1853: Russians found Kazala on the Aral Sea and Ak-Mechet to the east. 1853-56: Crimean War. 1856:British again keep Persians from Herat. 1857: Indian Mutiny. 1858: Ignatyev visits Khiva and Bukhara. 1860s and later: British agents explore north of India. 1863: Afghans annex Herat. 1864: Chernyayev takes Chimkent from Bukhara; Turkestan (city) taken from Kokand. 1865: Chernyayev takes Tashkent which becomes the capital of Russian Turkistan. 1868: Kaufman takes Samarkand; Bukhara a protectorate; part of Zarafshan River valley annexed. 1868: George W. Hayward, Robert Shaw and a Russian at Kashgar. 1869: Krasnovodsk founded on the east side of the Caspian. 1871: Russians occupy upper Ili River. 1873: Kaufman makes Khiva a Russian protectorate. 1875: Kaufman conquers Kokand. 1877: China regains Xinjiang from Yakub Beg. 1878: Second Anglo-Afghan War. 1879: Russian defeat at Geok Tepe. 1881: Russians take Geok Tepe; Ili valley returned to China 1884: Russians take Merv. 1885: Russians take Pandjeh south of Merv on the road to Herat. 1888: Trans-Caspian railway from Krasnovodsk reaches Samarkand; Russians in Hunza. 1891: British take Hunza. 1895:British take Chitral. 1904: Younghusband reaches Tibet. 1906: Tashkent Railway: direct rail connection to European Russia.