"Blood on the Sand — Seven Little-Known Facts..." Topic

… About Britain's Second Afghan War.

"THE LIST OF POWERS that have invaded Afghanistan reads like a who's who of history's mighty empires. It includes Macedonians, Indians, Mongols, Mughals, Persians, Sikhs, Soviets and most recently the United States and its allies. For its part, Britain has deployed troops to Afghanistan no fewer than four times in the past 180 years. In fact, for much of the 19th Century, the remote Central Asian territory was at the epicenter of a turf war between England and Russia. Both empires sought to dominate the region, which was situated between the Tsars' realm and British India, through equal parts political intrigue and military posturing. Today, the conflict would be called a "Cold War" – during the Victorian era, it was known as "the Great Game" – a term first popularized by Rudyard Kipling.

Britain's bloody Afghan adventure serves as the backdrop to a new historical novel by American author, journalist and historian David Smethurst entitled The Road to Kandahar: A Novel of the Second Afghan War, 1878-80.

"I've always been fascinated with the rivalry between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia," the San Francisco-based writer told MilitaryHistoryNow.com. "When I set down to write about this period I chose the Second Afghan War as a backdrop since it was a largely forgotten though fascinating war."

Fascinating indeed. And to illustrate the point, Smethurst is offering MHN readers this list of seven amazing facts about the little-known conflict…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Since when have the Sikhs or the Americans had an empire?

There is a school of thought that says the US has had an Empire since the Spanish-American War

I would agree that it would be hard to say the Sikhs ever had anything that would be close to an Empire

Since when have the Sikhs … had an empire?

I suppose you could call the Sikh conquest of Kashmir and Ladakh the establishment of an empire – albeit a fairly small one. Certainly the "New Cambridge History of India" volume on the Sikhs calls one chapter "The Sikh empire (1799-1849)".

1799-1849 is a good, if rather broad brush, time frame.

1818 to 1846 would be a better window, since Mooltan Province became a "semi-autonomous collective" with its fall, which shocked the hell out of Ranjit. With Kashmir, Peshawar and Bunnoo added later…in a rough sense, the Kingdom of Lahore was something of an empire, especially since they were eyeing Gwalior at the time too.

"Since when have the Sikhs or the Americans had an empire?"

The Americans probably have currently the biggest overseas empire in the world.

Hey, Andrew, when are Helion releasing your book on the Sikh Wars?