A Brief History of Afghanistan (Part 1)

Afghanistan is one of the most impoverished, most war-torn nations in the world.

It is a nation that has been beset by invasion, external interference and internal upheaval since before the time of Alexander the Great (c. 330 B.C.)

Afghanistan is the link between Central Asia, the Middle East and India. It is a nation made up of at least a dozen contentious major ethnic groups – Baluch, Chahar Aimak, Turkmen, Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Nuristani, Arab, Kirghiz, Pashai and Persian.

Historically the Pashtun nationality has been the most dominant and today the Pashtuns represent about 50% of the total population. The vast majority of the Afghan people are Muslims – and many of them consider Islam to be one of the defining aspects of their ethnic identity.

Islam was brought to Afghanistan during the eight and ninth century by the Arabs. Following a break down in Arab rule, semi-independent states formed, but these local dynasties and states were overwhelmed and crushed during the Mongolian invasions of the 1200's. Mongols remain in control of part or all of the country until the 1500's, despite much internal resistance and strife.

Following the collapse of Mongol rule, Afghanistan found itself caught between the vice of two great powers. For nearly 200 years the Mughals of northern India and the Safavids of Iran that fought over Afghanistan.

In 1747, Afghanistan was freed from the external invasions by a Pashtun named Ahmed Shah. Ahmad's clan was to rule Afghanistan, in one form or another, for the next 200 years, years that saw very little peace.

Ahmad was able to unify the different Afghan tribes. His successors proved unable to hold his vast empire together, however and within 50 years much of it had been seized by rival regional powers. Within Afghanistan, there were numerous bloody civil wars. For many Afghanis it meant that their lives were now being uprooted and destroyed by ethnic kin, as opposed to foreign invaders.

Beginning in the 1800's Afghanistan’s internal affairs were further disturbed by two new imperialist powers – the British Empire and Czarist Russia. The British were expanding their colonial holdings in India, and looked at the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan as a natural barrier to prevent invasion by rival imperialists.

The Russians, for their part, were expanding south and east. The two great powers essentially engaged in a race for Afghanistan, and their seizures of land, overthrows of indigenous nations and reckless interference into the affairs of the remaining independent states in the region became known as "the Great Game."

During this time, on two separate occasions, British armies from India invaded Afghanistan in attempts to install puppet governments amenable to British economic interests, and that would oppose those of Czarist Russia.

The first occassion, known as the First Anglo-Afghan War, took place in 1838. Outraged by the presence of a single Russian diplomat in Kabul, the British demanded that Afghanistan avoid any contact with Russia or Iran, and that it hand over vast tracts of Pashtun inhabited land (regions that are today part of Pakistan) to British India. Dost Mohammad, the Afghan ruler, agreed to these demands, but the British invaded the country anyway. The British seized most of the major cities in Afghanistan, but their heavy-handed rule soon resulted in a popular uprising by the people which resulted in the massacre of the entire British army of 15,000, save one.

British outrage over the uninvited arrival of a Russian diplomatic envoy in Kabul in 1878 resulted in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Again, the British were able to occupy all of the major cities, brutally crushing a rebellion before withdrawing after they had set up a puppet government.

Afghanistan would remain a British protectorate until 1919. Then, following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the wave of popular rebellions that rippled through Asia, the King of Afghanistan, Amanullah, declared his country’s full independence, signed a treaty of aid and friendship with communist Russia's Lenin, and declared war on Britain.

After a period of border skirmishes, and the bombing of Kabul by the Royal Air Force, Britain conceded Afghanistan’s independence. Britain however, conspired with conservative religious and land owning elements within the country who were unhappy with Amanullah’s attempts to secularize and reform the country. The outbreak of yet another civil war forced King Amanullah to abdicate in 1929.

Different "warlords" contended for power until a new king, Muhammad Nadir Shah took power. He was assassinated just four years later by the son of a state execution victim, and was succeeded by Muhammad Zahir Shah, who was to be Afghanistan’s last king. He ruled with autocratic power for the next 40 years.

In 1973, King Zahir was overthrown by a prominent member of his own family, Daoud, who titled himself president instead of king and declared Afghanistan a republic.

...more to come...