 In order to achieve this goal, both Abdur Rahman Khan and his successors utilized the confiscation of land, Pashtun nationalist ideology, pro-Pashtun forced resettlement, and taxation policies that were discriminatory.The British government supported the Pashtun colonization of northern Afghanistan due to Britain's desire to reduce Russian influence in Afghanistan (see the Great Game).In 1893, British Major Charles Yate wrote that only the non-Pashtun tribes have any contact and interactions with the Russians, and that surrounding these tribes with Pashtuns would end these tribes' interactions with the Russians.