The Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the last major independent state to fall to British expansion in South Asia — a formidable military power that secured the Punjab and controlled access to Central Asia through the Khyber Pass.
The Sikh Empire was annexed by the British East India Company in 1849 CE following the British victory in the Second Anglo-Sikh War; the last Maharaja Duleep Singh was deposed, the Punjab was annexed, and the Koh-i-Noor diamond was ceded to Queen Victoria.
The standard history of Sikhism and the Sikh political tradition, covering the Empire's rise and fall.
Standard scholarly survey of Punjab and Sikh history that covers the rise of Ranjit Singh's Sikh Empire and its fall to the British, complementing the existing narrative history.