“You have a great game, a noble game, before you.”

–Captain Arthur Conolly

-British Intelligence Officer

Captain Arthur Conolly is known to coin the term of the great term in his letter to Major Henry Rawlinson, an appointee in Kandahar. In short, the term of ‘The Great Game’ can be referred to as the rivalry of Britain and the Russian Empire over the control over the territory of Afghanistan and Central Asia. British Crown wanted to keep the Russians at bay from ‘the jewel in the crown,’ India so that Russia cannot disrupt the trade routes in the Indian Ocean and gain access to the Persian Gulf. The only way to secure what the Britains wanted was to contain the Russian influence by forming a buffer zone around the Russian Empire. And to make Afghanistan a buffer zone, Britain could either become the protectorate of Afghanistan or occupy Afghanistan. However, the Russians wanted Afghanistan a neutral zone. After several failed attempts of Britain to occupy the Afghan land, Britain decided to sign peace treaties with Afghanistan and Russian in which the border between India and Afghanistan, and the border between Russia and Afghanistan was decided.