The Pashtuns battled and conquered the Uzbeks and forced them into the status of ruled people who were discriminated against.[2] Out of anti-Russian strategic interests, the British assisted the Afghan conquest of the Uzbek Khanates, giving weapons to the Afghans and backing the Pashtun colonization of northern Afghanistan, which involved sending massive amounts of Pashtun colonists onto Uzbek land; British literature from the period demonized the Uzbeks.[3]