Aware of the importance of India to the British, Russian efforts in the region often had the aim of extorting concessions from them in Europe, but after 1801, they had no serious intention of directly attacking India. As a result, Britain made it a high priority to protect all approaches to India, while Russia continued its military conquest of Central Asia. The Russian and British Empires also cooperated numerous times during the Great Game, including many treaties and the Afghan Boundary Commission.īritain feared Russia's southward expansion would threaten India, while Russia feared the expansion of British interests into Central Asia. However, the two nations battled in the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856, which affected the Great Game. Though the Great Game was marked by distrust, diplomatic intrigue, and regional wars, it never erupted into a full-scale war directly between Russian and British colonial forces. By the early 20th century, a line of independent states, tribes, and monarchies from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Himalayas were made into protectorates and territories of the two empires. Russia conquered Turkestan, and Britain expanded and set the borders of British colonial India. The two colonial empires used military interventions and diplomatic negotiations to acquire and redefine territories in Central and South Asia. The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British and Russian Empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Afghanistan, Persia, and later Tibet.
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