| History of South Asia | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
_without_national_boundaries.svg) | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Chalcolithic (3500–1500 BC)
|
||||||||||||||
|
Bronze Age (3300–1300 BC)
|
||||||||||||||
|
Macedonian Empire | (330–323 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Maurya Empire | (321–184 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Seleucid India | (312–303 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Sangam period | (c. 600 BC – c. 300 AD) | |||||||||||||
| Pandya Empire | (c. 300 BC – AD 1345) | |||||||||||||
| Chera Kingdom | (c. 300 BC – AD 1102) | |||||||||||||
| Chola Empire | (c. 300 BC – AD 1279) | |||||||||||||
| Pallava Empire | (c. 250 AD – AD 800) | |||||||||||||
| Maha-Megha-Vahana Empire | (c. 250 BC – c. AD 500) | |||||||||||||
| Parthian Empire | (247 BC – AD 224) |
| Ghaznavid Dynasty | (977–1186) |
| Ghurid Dynasty | (1170–1206) |
| Delhi Sultanate | (1206–1526) |
| – Mamluk Sultanate | (1206–1290) |
| – Khalji Sultanate | (1290–1320) |
| – Tughlaq Sultanate | (1320–1414) |
| – Sayyid Sultanate | (1414–1451) |
| – Lodi Sultanate | (1451–1526) |
| Ahom Kingdom | (1228–1826) |
| Chitradurga Kingdom | (1300–1779) |
| Reddy Kingdom | (1325–1448) |
| Vijayanagara Empire | (1336–1646) |
| Bengal Sultanate | (1352–1576) |
| Garhwal Kingdom | (1358–1803) |
| Mysore Kingdom | (1399–1947) |
| Gajapati Empire | (1434–1541) |
| Ladakh Kingdom | (1470–1842) |
| Deccan Sultanates | (1490–1596) |
| – Ahmadnagar Sultanate | (1490–1636) |
| – Berar Sultanate | (1490–1574) |
| – Bidar Sultanate | (1492–1619) |
| – Bijapur Sultanate | (1492–1686) |
| – Golkonda Sultanate | (1518–1687) |
| Keladi Kingdom | (1499–1763) |
| Koch Kingdom | (1515–1947) |
| Portuguese India | (1510–1961) |
| Dutch India | (1605–1825) |
| Danish India | (1620–1869) |
| French India | (1759–1954) |
| Company Raj | (1757–1858) |
| British Raj | (1858–1947) |
The Afghan–Sikh wars spanned from 1748 to 1837 in the
The
On 12 January 1748,
The Sikhs used
In October 1762, Ahmad Shah Durrani attacked Amritsar but was defeated by the Sikhs.[12] In December 1762, he fought a skirmish with Sikh forces at the Battle of the Ravi Ford in December 1762. In November 1763, Sikh forces had forced Durrani armies to advance upon them, which led to the Battle of Sialkot, where the Afghans were defeated, and were forced to leave their Punjab campaign in the wake of this defeat.[13][14] At Gujranwala, Jahan Khan was heavily defeated by the Sikhs, who then continued their victory by sacking the towns of Malerkotla and Morinda,[12] followed with the defeat of the commander of Rohtas Fortress, Sarbaland Khan Saddozai, who was captured and imprisoned but later released after consenting to the Sikh sovereignty.[12] The reports of catastrophe enraged Ahmad Shah and wrote to Nasir Khan, beglar begi of Khalat, to join him in jihad (holy war) against the Sikhs, to destroy them and to enslave their women and children, but Ahmad Shah's march to Punjab in 1764, resulted in failure of Jihad with the defeat, ambush and ousting of advance guards by the Sikhs outside of Lahore.[12] In 1765, Ahmad Shah marched again to Punjab with Qazi Mur Muhammad but his authority was only restricted within his camp as he remained on the defensive side with Sikhs swarming around the camp, which eventually resulted in Ahmad Shah's return to Kabul without pursuing even a single battle, where the Qazi noticed with disappointment that the country from Sirhind to Derajat was divided amongst the Sikhs with their sovereignty[10] The Sikh sovereignty was further acknowledged in Lahore by striking a coin which pierced the same inscription that fifty five years ago was used by Banda Singh Bahadur on his seal, followed with re-establishment of 13 Sikh rule.[10]
The Sikhs would also capture Multan in 1772.[15][16] The period after this would be known as the "Sikh Interlude Period", from 1772 to 1780.[17]
Timur Shah ascended to the throne of the
This phase ended with the death of Timur Shah on 20 May 1793, leading his successor, Zaman Shah Durrani to ascend to the Durrani throne.[27]
Zaman Shah Durrani ascended to the Durrani throne after his father, Timur Shah died on 20 May 1793. Zaman Shah lead multiple campaigns of Punjab against the Sikhs. His first campaign was in November 1796.[28]
Zaman Shah's campaign of Punjab in 1796 against the Sikhs, led to capture of Lahore in January 1797,[29] without any opposition as the Sikh chiefs retired to Amritsar to protect the holy city.[30] Zaman Shah progressed towards Amritsar on January 13, 1797, where he was defeated by the Sikhs, 10 km away from the city.[31] As intelligence from Kabul had warned of a possible Persian invasion of main Afghanistan, Zaman Shah was forced to abandon his first Punjab campaign and return home to mobilize an army to combat this threat, headed by his own brother, Mahmud Shah Durrani. The Sikhs recaptured Lahore as he left.[29] After retreat, he left his deputy general, Ahmad Khan Shahanchi-bashi in charge, along with Afghan soldiers but he too was defeated and killed by the Sikhs.[32]
Having dealt with Mahmud Shah Durrani for the time being, Zaman Shah returned to Punjab and resumed his campaign once again, occupying Lahore[33] in autumn of 1798, without opposition, as it was strategy of Ranjit Singh to drive them into Lahore and then lay siege to the city.[34] Zaman Shah intended to march on Delhi but the Sikhs laid waste around 150 km of his camp to stop supplies and engaged in skirmishes. Facing determined foe who could cut of his communication with Kabul, Shah Zaman exercised discretion and returned to Afghanistan with his troops on 4 January 1799.[30] Bhangi Sikh Misl recaptured Lahore.[35] Zaman Shah then appointed 19 yr old Ranjit Singh as governor of Lahore to try to divide the Sikhs and returned to Peshawar where Sikhs all along harried the Afghans to river Jhelum. While crossing the river, Zaman Shah lost most men, supplies and heavy artillery due to upsurge. Eventually, Shah Zaman and his remaining army reached Kandahar in late 1799, exhausted from the campaign.[33]
Zaman Shah set out his third campaign of Punjab in the spring of 1800, plotted to deal with a rebellious Ranjit Singh. However, having civil strife in Afghanistan, he was forced to cut his campaign short, having to deal with his brother, Mahmud Shah Durrani once again. Shah Zaman would not return to Punjab, and he would be deposed by Mahmud Shah.[36]
In 1813, after demanding the return of the fort at Attock, the Durrani prime minister Wazir Fateh Khan besieged Attock.[37] A Punjabi relief force arrived and for three months the two armies faced each other, neither side moving.[37] As the heat from summer started to affect the armies, Dewan Mokham Chand marched his army to block the Afghans from getting water from the river.[37] Without water the Afghan troops began to suffer dehydration, so they launched attack after attack towards the river, but were unable to break through.[37] Chand, realizing the Afghans were weakened, charged his cavalry at the Afghans who broke and ran, losing two thousand men.[37]
Accusing Ranjit Singh of treachery, Fateh Khan set off from Kashmir at the head of 15,000
Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar encamped 8 miles (13 km) from the Afghan camp,[41] unwilling to risk a decisive engagement, although both sides engaged in numerous skirmishes and took losses. On 12 July 1813, the Afghans' supplies were exhausted and Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar marched 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Attock to Haidaru, on the banks of the Indus River, to offer battle. On 13 July 1813, Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar split the cavalry into four divisions, giving command of one division to Hari Singh Nalwa and taking command of one division himself. The lone battalion of infantry formed an infantry square protecting the artillery, with Gouse Khan commanding the artillery.[40] The Afghans took up positions opposite the Sikhs, with a portion of their cavalry under the command of Dost Mohammad Khan.
Fateh Khan opened the battle by sending his
Two months after the victory at Attock, Ranjit Singh decided to capitalize on instability in the Durrani Kingdom, and launched a campaign to take Kashmir from the Durrani Empire. [44] A late Autumn start postponed the campaign until the next spring.[44] By June, an army of 30,000 men under the command of Ram Dyal, grandson of Dewan Mokham Chand, marched toward Baramulla, with a pincer attack of 20,000 men led by Ranjit Singh marching to Poonch.[44]
Ranjit's force was delayed by torrential rains, while Ram Dyal's army took the fortress of Baramulla on 20 July 1814.[44] When Dyal's army reached Shupaiyan, the governor of Kashmir, Azim Khan blocked his advance.[45] Fighting a delaying action, Dyal waited on a reinforcement of 5,000 men from Ranjit.[46] These reinforcements were forced to a standstill by Afghan snipers.[46]
Ranjit Singh's force made little progress.[46] Faced with a scorched earth from the fleeing populace, food supplies became a major issue for his army, followed by a cholera outbreak.[46] Meanwhile, Ram Dyal, who was entrenched near Srinagar, received a proposal from Azim Khan for a negotiated peace and was able to extricate himself from a difficult situation.[46] Ranjit Singh's campaign ended in failure.[46]
In early January the Sikh force began their campaign with the capture of Nawab Muzaffar Khan's forts at Muzaffargarh and Khangarh. In February, the Sikh force under Kharak Singh reached Multan and ordered Muzaffar to pay the large tribute he owed and to surrender the fort, but Muzaffar refused. The Sikh forces won an engagement near the city but were unable to capture Muzaffar before he retreated into the fort. The Sikh army asked for more artillery and Ranjit Singh sent them the Zamzama and other large artillery pieces, which commenced fire on the walls of the fort. In early June, Sadhu Singh and a small band of other Akalis attacked the fort walls and discovered a breach in the wall. As they ran in to battle the unaware garrison the larger Sikh army was alerted and entered the fort through the breach. Muzaffar and his sons attempted a sortie to defend the fort but were killed in the battle.
The siege of Multan ended significant Afghan influence in the Peshawar region and led to multiple Sikh attempts at capturing and the final capture of Peshawar.[49]
The battle took place in the Shopian region in the Kashmir region. This battle included the 1819 Kashmir expedition, which led to Kashmir being annexed to the Sikh Empire.[50]
When the Sikh army entered the city of
After taking Srinagar, the Sikh army faced no major opposition in conquering Kashmir. However, when Ranjit Singh installed Moti Ram, the son of Dewan Mokham Chand, as the new governor of Kashmir, he also sent a "large body of troops" with him to ensure tribute from strongholds within Kashmir that might attempt to resist Sikh rule.[52] The capture of Kashmir set the boundaries and borders of the Sikh Empire with Tibet. The conquest of Kashmir marked an "extensive addition" to the Sikh Empire and "significantly" increased the empire's revenue and landmass.[51]
took place on 14 March 1823, in the bloody battle of Nowshera, Ranjit Singh led Sikh force's defeated Yusufzai Afghan supported by the Peshawar sardars. Azim Khan Barakzai felt so much heart broken that he died of grief and disgrace after one month and a half in the beginning of May.[53]
The Battle of Jamrud was the fifth and foremost battle within the third Afghan–Sikh war. The result of the battle is disputed amongst historians. Some contend the failure of the Afghans to take the fort and the city of Peshawar or town of Jamrud as a victory for the Sikhs. On the other hand, some state that the killing of Hari Singh Nalwa resulted in an Afghan victory. James Norris, Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, states that the battle's outcome was inconclusive.[54][55]
During the life time of Ahmad Shāh Abdali, the Sikhs under Jhanda Singh and Lahna Singh succeeded in capturing Multan on 5th January 1772
| Rulers | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Military conflicts |
| ||||||||||
| Military forces | |||||||||||
| Adversaries | |||||||||||
| Forts |
| ||||||||||
| Officials and warriors |
| ||||||||||
| Influential families | |||||||||||
| Treaties | |||||||||||
