But the retreating army of British officers, Indian soldiers and a multitude of camp followers was slaughtered almost to a man as it struggled back through the Khyber Pass in January 1842. After they failed to quell an uprising in Kabul and their envoy was murdered, they agreed to withdraw. But they underestimated the resentment that their presence would arouse, and inflamed Afghan hostility by their overbearing behavior. The British expected Shah Shuja to be a more pliable king, a client of their Indian Raj, and a more reliable ally against the intrigues of the Russians. He was replaced by Shah Shuja, who had been living in exile since his overthrow by Dost Mohammad and his brother some 30 years earlier. A British Army entered the country in April 1839, captured Kabul and ejected the ruler Dost Mohammad Khan. The story of the British invasion of Afghanistan in 1839-42 (what was later called the First Afghan War) can be briefly told.
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