Queen Victoria's Enemies (3)

By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, India - some 1,600,000 square miles, ranging from soaring mountains to deserts and jungle swamps, populated by 400,000,000 people with a kaleidoscope of different cultures and religions - was firmly in the grip of a handful of British East India Company administrators, either ruling directly or through Indian nominees. However, the Company's search for a policy in western India embroiled it in a string of military campaigns, including one of the worst disasters ever to befall a British army. Ian Knight's fascinating text examines the absorbing, dramatic and brutal history of the Company's exploits against Victoria's Indian enemies.

Introduction · Afghanistan 1839-42 · Sind and Gwalior 1843-45 · The Sikh Wars 1845-49 · The Indian Mutiny 1857-59 · The North-West Frontier 1849-78 · Afghanistan 1878-81 · The Plates