ABSTRACT
It is customary to look at events in Kashgaria and Ili from about 1865 onwards through the Indian end of a telescope, but in fact the Russian and Chinese Empires, because of their common frontier, were far more deeply involved. The physical barriers of the Himalaya and the Karakoram ranges effectively limited both Britain and India to diplomatic activity. These barriers, and the reluctance of Viceroys such as Northbrook to allow British explorers to go beyond them, also meant that India had far too little knowledge of the peoples, politics and the terrain of Eastern Turkestan. Until Robert Shaw and George Hayward defied the official veto and went to Kashgar in 1868, the latest information was based on the reports of the three German Schlagintweit brothers who travelled there in the 1850s, but since then there had been momentous political events.
