Three major Anglo-Afghan wars occurred in the span of only 70 years between Afghan tribes and the British-Indian territory. The British were never successful at making Afghanistan a colony but were able to won over the control of Afghan foreign affairs in each competition with Russian Czar empire.  The British had control of the Afghan foreign affairs until August 19, 1919.

This etching, which appeared in a British newspaper shows the British troops' encampment
outside Kabul during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

The 1913 execution in Kabul of a political prisoner strapped to a gun carriage.
(Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

A Tribal leader surrenders to a British general in 1879 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. 
(Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

In April 1842 at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War, retreating British soldiers fought against Afghan troops to exit through Khyber Pass back into British India.

Clothed for a winter campaign, British soldiers gather at their temporary quarters during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1879)

The Bala-e-Hisar fort at Kabul, photographed from the British Residency during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, which accomplished nothing except the defeat of the 'forward school' of British policy in India towards the Russian advance on Central Asia.

Bolan Pass, an anonymous commentary on the extinction of a British-Indian army in the futile disaster of the First Anglo-Afghan War.