Tibet at the end of the nineteenth century was one of the last great unexplored regions of the world. European and North American gentlemen explorers, government agents, missionaries and adventurers had managed to penetrate nearly every other corner of Africa and Asia. Yet Tibet remained as a tantalizing fruit ready to fall into the hand of the first person to pluck it. Naturally, therefore, many British military and civil servants thought to pluck it on behalf of Queen Victoria and the British Empire. That they themselves might benefit materially or in terms of career was, it goes without saying, of only secondary concern.
Yet the British government, far from falling for romantic tales of derring-do and exploration, was a far more pragmatic enterprise, as befits as the founder and sustainer of such a huge commercial and imperial creation. Various attempts to persuade the government to outfit large-scale missions to Tibet and the capital Lhasa were generally refused. The difficulties and complications attendant upon becoming embroiled on a new front with the Chinese and Russians was considered to be a step too far. To try to overcome this pragmatism, officials talked up the possible presence of Russian firearms - the weapons of mass destruction of their day - although in reality the only weapons production in Tibet was the frantic cottage industry of two migrant Indian workers. Tibetan troops mostly relied on spears and knives and other obsolete methods. Partly as a result of these claims, the government sanctioned a mission that has become known as the Younghusband Mission, in honour of its most charismatic member, although not its leader. The mission was to be strictly circumscribed in terms of time and space and only limited negotiations with the Tibetan government - the representatives of the Dalai Lama - could be conducted.
Tibet itself had fallen into desuetude. Governed as a theocracy, the Tibetan peasantry struggled under the burden not only of the harsh conditions that made agriculture and animal husbandry difficult but also with the need to accumulate a surplus sufficient to support an ever-growing class of monks and priests. The Tibetan monkhood had increasingly eschewed the outside world and its focus resolutely turned inwards, on personal faith and salvation and away from any sense of a social contract with the peasants whose efforts continued to support it. Yet the peasantry and other non-religious took comfort and a sense of validation in their ability to continue to sustain the large religious class. In these circumstances, it was likely that the Tibetan state would implode of its own accord anyway. Foreign interference helped to hasten that fall. A vibrant and healthy Tibetan polity might more successfully have been able to resist occupation and subsequent hegemony by the Han Chinese, although that is far from certain in any case.
Yet the British government, far from falling for romantic tales of derring-do and exploration, was a far more pragmatic enterprise, as befits as the founder and sustainer of such a huge commercial and imperial creation. Various attempts to persuade the government to outfit large-scale missions to Tibet and the capital Lhasa were generally refused. The difficulties and complications attendant upon becoming embroiled on a new front with the Chinese and Russians was considered to be a step too far. To try to overcome this pragmatism, officials talked up the possible presence of Russian firearms - the weapons of mass destruction of their day - although in reality the only weapons production in Tibet was the frantic cottage industry of two migrant Indian workers. Tibetan troops mostly relied on spears and knives and other obsolete methods. Partly as a result of these claims, the government sanctioned a mission that has become known as the Younghusband Mission, in honour of its most charismatic member, although not its leader. The mission was to be strictly circumscribed in terms of time and space and only limited negotiations with the Tibetan government - the representatives of the Dalai Lama - could be conducted.
Tibet itself had fallen into desuetude. Governed as a theocracy, the Tibetan peasantry struggled under the burden not only of the harsh conditions that made agriculture and animal husbandry difficult but also with the need to accumulate a surplus sufficient to support an ever-growing class of monks and priests. The Tibetan monkhood had increasingly eschewed the outside world and its focus resolutely turned inwards, on personal faith and salvation and away from any sense of a social contract with the peasants whose efforts continued to support it. Yet the peasantry and other non-religious took comfort and a sense of validation in their ability to continue to sustain the large religious class. In these circumstances, it was likely that the Tibetan state would implode of its own accord anyway. Foreign interference helped to hasten that fall. A vibrant and healthy Tibetan polity might more successfully have been able to resist occupation and subsequent hegemony by the Han Chinese, although that is far from certain in any case.
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