Second Sikh War
The Second Sikh War was a military conflict between the last sovereign Indian state of Punjab and the British East India Company . The war lasted from April 1848 to March 1849 and ended in the defeat of Punjab. As a result, the Sikh Empire of Punjab was annexed to the British Empire .
Initial situation and outbreak of war
After the defeat in the First Sikh War , there was unrest in the Punjab. The defeated Sikh army was unwilling to accept the increase in British power and believed itself in a position to defeat the British. When the British-dominated court in Lahore wanted to depose the governor Diwan Mulraj in the Sikh fiefdom of Multan , two British officers accompanying his successor, Vans Agnew and William Anderson, were killed in April 1848. The assassination sparked an uprising against British influence in the Punjab.
Course of war
The Siege of Multan
Since Sir Henry Lawrence , the British resident in Punjab, was in Europe at the time, Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes , one of his assistants, organized a force made up of locals and moved with her to Multan.
On June 18, 1848, he defeated the rebels at Kineri . On July 1, he defeated them again, this time at Tibi , and the insurgents withdrew to Multan. Edwardes began the siege of the city and was reinforced by Sikh troops, whose loyalty was very dubious. He asked Lieutenant General Hugh Gough , the British Commander in Chief, for regular British troops and siege artillery. He was of the opinion that the weather was still too hot for campaigns. On July 26, 1848, two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade as well as engineers and siege artillery under the command of General William Whish left Lahore in the direction of Multan.
On August 18, 1848, Whish's column reached Multan and preparations began for an attack, which on September 12 was led by four battalions . The attackers lost 250 men, but were able to capture the enemy positions in the suburbs. However, the Sikh units deserted under Sher Singh and went over to the insurgents in Multan. Whish was forced to lift the siege and withdraw a few miles south. On October 9th, Sher Singh marched north with his men to unite with the rebelling Sikh garrisons.
Whish was waiting for reinforcements from the Bombay Army , which did not arrive until December 22 in the form of six battalions and two regiments of cavalry. Meanwhile, the uprising had spread to all of northern Punjab and the entire regular Sikh army. With the reinforcements, Whish succeeded on December 27, to retake the suburbs and, after previous bombing, to storm the city wall on January 2, 1849. The defenders withdrew to the citadel . After another bombing, this fell to the British on January 22nd and Multan was captured. Mul Raj was captured and those responsible for the murder of Agnew and Anderson were hanged.
Gough's campaign
British forces had already crossed the Sutlej on November 9, 1848 . A day later Gough marched with his main army consisting of 21 battalions of infantry, 12 regiments of cavalry and 11 batteries from Lahore. On November 22nd, the Battle of Ramnagar broke out when the British met Sher Singh's army, which was retreating across the Chanab .
The battle ended without a clear winner. General CR Cureton was killed and the Sikhs fortified the opposite bank of the Chanab. The British found a ford and bypassed the Sikhs with part of their troops. Since these now saw their flank threatened, they conducted a battle of retreat on December 3rd and marched to the Jhelam near Chilianwala . Gough followed them and took up camp some distance away. A period of inactivity ensued as both sides hoped for reinforcements to arrive. But when Gough learned that the Sikhs would shortly receive some, he decided to attack on October 13, 1848.
The battle of Chilianwala was costly and ended without a clear winner. Both armies withdrew to their camps. Reinforcements reached the Sikhs four days later. However, neither side could decide to attack again.
Meanwhile, General Whish had stormed Multan and was planning to join Gough's forces. On February 14, 1849, Sher Singh Lahore decided to attack and marched off. Whish and Gough united their forces on February 18th. Gough caught up with Sher Sing's army, which in contrast to his could not march directly to Lahore, and so it came to the battle of Gujrat on February 20, 1849 . The battle ended in the complete defeat of Sher Singh. The remnants of his troops surrendered on March 14, 1849.
The management of the British East India Company had decided after Chilianwala to withdraw command from Gough and transfer it to General Charles James Napier . Before Napier could take it over, Gough had successfully ended the war with the Battle of Gujrat.
consequences
If the sovereignty of the Punjab was restricted and territory annexed after the First Sikh War, the state was now completely incorporated into British India and Maharaja Duleep Singh was forced to abdicate, although Governor General James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie , the government in Lahore could not fault the rebellion.
The last warlike and well organized Indian state had been eliminated. Instead, the border now ran along Afghan territory, which offered no incentive for trade and at the other end of which Russian territory already began. The British decided against further expansion and retained Afghanistan as a buffer state . The ruthless annexation of the Punjab and later Avadh fueled the distrust of the Indian population and contributed to the Indian uprising of 1857 .
Individual evidence
- ^ ER Crawford: The Sikh Wars, 1845-49 , In: Brian Bond (ed.): Victorian Military Campaigns . New York 1967. page 65.
literature
- ER Crawford: The Sikh Wars, 1845-49 , In: Brian Bond (Ed.): Victorian Military Campaigns . New York 1967.
- Byron Farwell: Queen Victoria's Little Wars , Wordsworth Editions Limited, Hertfordshire 1999. ISBN 1-84022-215-8
- MS Naravene: Battles of the Honorable East India Company . Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi 2006.
