Although the British were experts at conquering lands across the globe to build up their empire, they did falter in their efforts every once in a while. At the heart of the first failure under Queen Victoria’s rule, the retreat from Kabul in Afghanistan circa 1842, was a sense of complacency the British may have felt due to the regularity of their dominance, but more costly to their efforts in seizing Kabul was the indecision amongst officers and their lack of understanding the lands and mentality of the Afghan people. According to Byron Farwell, the British troops were “not entirely forgetful of the pleasures of the mess table…and the solacing pipe. Clean linen too is a luxury…which [he] may in moderation desire to enjoy” (6). In addition…show more content… While not the most effective method of communication, mainly because of fear of upsetting the ruling class amongst the lower ranking citizens, it did provide British troops with some important information. However, when British forces were entering Afghanistan, they did not have this luxury at their disposal, and it showed in the actions they took regarding the Afghan people’s opinions. For instance, the primary reason for invading Kabul was to replace the leader, Dost Mohammad, with one who was more pro-British because of the rapidly expanding Russian empire encroaching on their borders. It’s not that Dost Mohammad was opposed to the British, but he did not want to make any sort of empty loyalty vows to Britain, so they had to find another man for the job (Dupree 508). The man selected for this role, Shah Sujah, was not the best received by the Afghans, and more importantly, the troops which they hired to aid in their invasion of the land were Sikhs. How could the natives seriously respect an effort to “be saved” if those leading the charge were the group of people they despised most (Farwell 5)? Furthermore, this language barrier caused an even greater issue when Burnes did not realize he had insulted the leading conspirator of the region, Abdulla Khan. Having no fear that their lies were in any danger despite being surrounded by a mob, Burnes told his sepoy troops not to shoot, thinking he could get the mob to calm down and disperse. However, what he didn’t know was these people were angry at his introduction of the bayonets into the region, and by the time he realized they could not be calmed, he was already under attack, land being set ablaze and shots fired throughout. Burnes tried to fight his way out of the mess, but was eventually “sliced to pieces” (David,