ABSTRACT
The Great Game was a British invention, played in Asia with Turks, Persians, Afghans, and Sikhs, against the Russians. The game was played only once, because the British needed 120 years to lose. At times they played superbly and they lost, as they were bound to do, though as the British often do, with grace. The British had realized during the Napoleonic Wars that Persia, however useful as an ally against France, would be incapable of defending India against Russia. The East India Company decided that if Bonaparte were to invade India, he would travel by sea from Suez. The routes to India were of political, not military, significance. A European army might try to invade India, but the British had no doubt that they would eventually defeat it. The government of India reasoned like Prince Metternich when advocating the Holy Alliance: that upheaval, like liberalism and nationalism, was contagious.
