Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/407



CHAPTER XX. FALL OF KHIVA—1873. England has been pursuing a career of conquest in the great Indian peninsula and adjacent countries, Russia has been doing likewise in Northern Asia. Yermak, a Cossack chief, crossed the Ural Mountains, and invaded Siberia in 1580; nineteen years later was formed the East India Company, which laid the foundation of the present British Empire in India. England's course of conquest has carried her arms to the northward, while those of Russia have steadily pushed to the south. Now they confront each other on the plains and among the mountains of Afghanistan, and on more than one occasion in the past few years a hostile encounter has been imminent.

In her southward march over the plains of Central Asia, Russia successfully conquered numerous tribes and khanates of greater or less importance, and in most instances the conquests were bloodless. The Russians are superior to the British in their knowledge of Oriental character and Oriental ways of dealing; and for this reason they are often able to accomplish by diplomacy what the latter can only gain by fighting. Having a good deal of the Asiatic in their composition, they are better fitted than any other European people for dealing with the inhabitants of that part of the world, which has been claimed to be the cradle of the human race. The Russians usually try diplomacy before resorting to arms, but the arms are generally close at hand during the negotiations, and whenever they are needed there is no delay in their use. 365