Russia soon had ready three columns, which were to converge on Khiva:
one was stationed on the River Ural, a second at the rising port of
Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea, and a third, under General Kaufmann, at
Tashkend. So well were their operations timed that, though the distances
to be traversed varied from 480 to 840 miles, in parts over a waterless
desert, yet the three chief forces arrived almost simultaneously at
Khiva and met with the merest show of resistance (June 1873). Setting
the young Khan on the throne of his father, they took from him his
ancestral lands of the right bank of the Amu Daria (Oxus) and imposed
on him a crushing war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles, which assured his
entire dependence on his new creditors. They further secured their hold
on these diminished territories by erecting two forts on the river[291].
The Czar's Government was content with assuring its hold upon Khiva,
without annexing the Khanate outright, seeing that it had disclaimed any
such intention[292]. All the same, Russia was now mistress of nearly the
whole of Central Asia; and the advance of roads and railways portended
further conquests at the expense of Persia and the few remaining
Turkoman tribes.

[Footnote 291: J. Popowski, _The Rival Powers in Central Asia_, p. 47
(Eng. edit).; A. Vambery, _The Coming Struggle for India_, p. 21; A.R.
Colquhoun, _Russia against India_, pp. 24-26; Lavisse and Rambaud,
_Histoire Generale_, vol. xii. pp. 793-794.]

[Footnote 292: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.]

In order to estimate the importance of these facts, it must be
remembered that the teachings of Geography and History concur in showing
the practicability of an invasion of India from Central Asia. Touching
first the geographical facts, we may point out that India and
Afghanistan stand in somewhat the same relation to the Asiatic continent
that Italy and Switzerland hold to that of Europe. The rich lands and
soft climate of both Peninsulas have always been an irresistible
attraction to the dwellers among the more barren mountains and plains of
the North; and the lie of the land on the borders of both of these
seeming Eldorados favours the advance of more virile peoples in their
search for more genial conditions of life. Nature, which enervates the
defenders in their sultry plains, by her rigorous training imparts a
touch of the wolf to the mountaineers or plain-dwellers of the North;
and her guides (rivers and