The U.S. today is hardly the first country to have trouble in Afghanistan; in fact the land is known as the “graveyard of empires.” The British found that out the hard way, when political tensions with Russia led to a declaration of war on Afghanistan. Britain worried that a Russia-aligned Afghanistan would serve as a springboard for a Russian invasion of India and the capture of the lucrative trade from the East India Company. So when Afghanistan received a Russian diplomatic mission, and then refused to see a British one, Britain got the excuse they needed to secure Afghanistan to themselves.

On this day, May 26, in 1879 Britain and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Gandamak, which made the Afghan ruler a vassal of the British crown. Afghanistan had to surrender some territories and all of its decision-making in foreign relations.

There would soon be another uprising, marking the second phase of the Anglo-Aghanistan war, also seemingly won by the British but that made Afghanistan no less subdued. The fiercest fighters were (and still are) in Afghanistan’s north, in the modern-day Waziristan province. Acquainting himself with the most most important tribes in the region, Olaf Caroe, the British Governor of North West Frontier Province, compared the Mahsud to a wolf and the Wazir to a panther. He wrote “Both are splendid creatures; the panther is slyer, sleeker, and has more grace, the wolf pack is more purposeful, more united, and more dangerous.”