ABSTRACT
The British may be said to have lost the Great Game, but Russian capacity to exploit their defeat had been very limited. Since the 1860s the Russians had gradually undermined the ascendancy in western and central Asia established by the British during the previous three decades. By the end of the nineteenth century Russia was arguably the greatest single Asian power. Twenty years after the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Russians and the British were once more allies with America against a renewed German bid for ascendancy in Eurasia. The role of war in the Great Game suggests that it was a normal but unnecessary accompaniment of the imperialist rivalry. In Europe, a series of wars was fought between 1859 and 1871 through failure to agree how much diplomatic weight should be allowed to the revived power of France and Prussia.
