History of Afghansitan :
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a land-locked coutry at the crossroads of Cental Asia. It has cultural, ethnic language and geographic links with most of its neighbours. It is bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and China.
Modern Afghanistan became an independent country in 1919, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War. It was destroyed by the Soviet invasion and the Taliban before being rescued by the United States in 2001. Afghanistan is now in the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction, after 30 years of wars, with a government that seeks to unite and rebuild the country.
Afghanistan means Land of the Afghans. The word Afghan first appears in the Hudud-al-Alam in 982 AD. The word "stan" comes from the ¨Persian meaning country or land. He was after that adapted b Afghans and became Afghanistan. From 2000 to 1200 BC, Indo-European-speaking Aryans set up a nation on land which became Afghanistan. They called it Land of the Aryans.
Alexander the Great invaded in 303 BC and following his brief occupation, the Hellenistic successor states of the Seleucids and Bactrians controlled the area, while the Indian Mauryas controlled the southeast and introduced Buddhism...
The Arab Empire controlled much of western Afghanistan in 652 and conquered most of the rest of Afghanistan between 706-709 AD, ruling the religion as Khorasan, and converting the local population to Islam. Afghanistan became the center of important empires, including the Ghaznavi Empire between 962-1151 and the Ghorid Empire between 1151-1219 founded bu Tajik ruler Ghori, who built the foundations of the Delhi Sultanate in India. In 1219, the region was captured and destroyed by Mongol leader Genghis Khan. Mongol rule continued with the Ilkhanates and Timor Lang from Central Asia.
The First Anglo-Afghan War
To justify his plan, Auckland ordered a manifesto issued on October 1, 1838, at Simla that set forth the reasons for British intervention in Afghanistan. The Simla Manifesto stated that the welfare of India required that the British have on their western frontier a trustworthy ally. The British pretense that their troops were merely supporting the tiny force of Shuja in retaking what was once his throne fooled no one. Although the Simla Manifesto asserted that British troops would be withdrawn as soon as Shuja was installed in Kabul, Shuja's rule depended entirely on British arms to suppress rebellion and on British funds to pay tribal chiefs for their support. Like other interventions in modern times, the British denied that they were invading Afghanistan but claimed they were merely supporting its legitimate government (Shuja) "against foreign interference and factious opposition."
From the point of the view of the British, the First AngloAfghan War (often called "Auckland's Folly") was an unmitigated disaster, although it proved surprisingly easy to depose Dost Mohammad and enthrone Shuja. An army of British and Indian troops set out from the Punjab in December 1838 and by late March 1839 had reached Quetta. By the end of April the British had taken Qandahar without a battle. In July, after a two-month delay in Qandahar, the British attacked the fortress of Ghazni, overlooking a plain that leads to India, and achieved a decisive victory over the troops of Dost Mohammad, which were led by one of his sons. The Afghans were amazed at the taking of fortified Ghazni, and Dost Mohammad found his support melting away. The Afghan ruler took his few loyal followers and fled across the passes to Bamian, and ultimately to Bukhara, and in August 1839 Shuja was enthroned again in Kabul after a hiatus of almost 30 years. Some British troops returned to India, but it soon became clear that Shuja's rule could only be maintained by the presence of British forces. Garrisons were established in Jalalabad, Ghazni, Kalat-iGhilzai (Qalat), Qandahar, and at the passes to Bamian. After a winter in temporary quarters, the British thought to move their Kabul garrison to the great fort, Bala Hissar, overlooking the city, but Shuja, either on his own or under pressure, refused to sanction the move.
The Second Anglo-Afghan War
After months of chaos in Kabul, Mohammad Akbar secured local control, and in April 1843 his father, Dost Mohammad, returned to the throne of Afghanistan. In the following decade, Dost Mohammad concentrated his efforts on reconquering Mazar-e-Sharif, Konduz, Badakhshan, and Qandahar. During the Second Anglo-Sikh War, in 1848-49, Dost Mohammad's last effort to take Peshawar failed.
In 1854 the British were interested in resuming relations with Dost Mohammad, whom they had more or less ignored since 1842. In the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the Crimean War, British officials in India, though they had no immediate concerns. for Russian involvement, thought to make Afghanistan a barrier to Russian penetration across the Amu Darya. Dost Mohammad agreed, apparently perceiving the utility of British backing against the Russians and even the Iranians, to whom the independent rulers of Herat always turned for support against re-absorption into the Afghan kingdom. In 1855 the Treaty of Peshawar reopened diplomatic relations, proclaimed respect for each sides' territorial integrity, and committed each to be the friends of each other's friends and the enemies of each other's enemies.
In October 1856 the Iranians siezed Herat, and the British, whose policy it was to maintain the independence of this city, declared war against Iran. After three months the Iranians withdrew from Herat and committed themselves never again to interfere there or elsewhere in Afghanistan. This brief war convinced the British that they should bolster the strength of Dost Mohammad in an attempt to enable him to meet future challenges by the Iranians. In 1857 an addendum was signed to the 1855 treaty that permitted a British military mission to go to Qandahar (but not to Kabul) and to provide a subsidy during conflict with the Iranians. Fraser-Tytler notes that as Dost Mohammad signed the document he proclaimed, "I have now made an alliance with the British Government and come what may I will keep it till death." Even during the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion in India, when British forces in the Punjab were thinned dramatically, Dost Mohammad refused to take advantage of British vulnerability to retake the Pashtun areas under British control.
The British governor general of India at the time of the 1857 agreement with Afghanistan stated in a memorandum that the British would never again intervene in Afghan internal affairs or send an army across its borders unless Herat was besieged, and then only with Afghan consent. He went so far as to argue in favor of the Afghan absorption of Herat. In 1863 Dost Mohammad retook Herat with British acquiescence. A few months later Dost Mohammad died and, although his third son, Sher Ali, was his proclaimed successor, he did not succeed in taking Kabul from his brother, Muhammad Afzal (whose troops were led by his son, Abdur Rahman) until 1868. Abdur Rahman retreated across the Amu Darya and bided his time.
Last Afghan Empire
The Hotakis:
Mirwais Khan governed Qandahar until his death in 1715. In 1716 the Abdalis of Herat, encouraged by his example, took up arms against the Persians and under their leader, Asadullah Khan, succeeded in liberating their province. Mahmud, Mirwais's young son and successor, was not content with holding Qandahar, and in 1722 he led some 20,000 men against Isfahan; the Safavid government surrendered after a six-month siege.
Mahmud died in 1725 and was succeeded by Ashraf, who had to contend with Russian pressure from the north and Ottoman Turk advances from the west. Shah Ashraf halted both the Russian and Turkish onslaughts, but a brigand chief, Nader Qoli Beg, defeated the Afghans at Damghan in October 1729 and drove them from Persia. During the retreat Ashraf was murdered, probably on orders from his cousin, who was then holding Qandahar.
Nader Shah:
Nader Qoli Beg took Herat in 1732 after a desperate siege. Impressed by their courage, Nader recruited many Heratis to serve in his army. He was elected shah of Persia, with the name Nader Shah, in 1736.
In 1738, after a year's siege, the city of Qandahar fell to Nader Shah's army of 80,000 men. Nader Shah seized Ghazna and Kabul and occupied the Mughal capital at Delhi in 1739. His booty included the Koh-i-noor diamond and the Peacock Throne. He was assassinated at Khabushan in 1747, which led to the disintegration of his empire and the rise of the last great Afghan empire.
The first Republic of Afghanistan
During Daud Khan's second tenure as prime minister, he attempted to introduce socioeconomic reforms, to write a new constitution, and to effect a gradual movement away from the socialist ideals his regime initially espoused. Afghanistan broadened and intensified its relationships with other Muslim countries, trying to move away from its dependency on the Soviet Union and the United States. In addition, Daud Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the prime minister of Pakistan, reached tentative agreement on a solution to the Pashtunistan problem.
Daud Khan received approval in 1977 of his new constitution from the National Assembly, which wrote in several new articles and amended others. In March 1977 Daud Khan, then president of Afghanistan, appointed a new Cabinet composed of sycophants, friends, sons of friends, and even collateral members of the royal family. The two major leftist organizations, the People's (Khalq) and Banner parties, then reunited against Daud Khan after a 10-year separation. There followed a series of political assassinations, massive antigovernment demonstrations, and arrests of major leftist leaders. Before his arrest Hafizullah Amin, a U.S.-educated People's Party leader, contacted party members in the armed forces and devised a makeshift but successful coup. Daud Khan and most of his family were killed, and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was born on April 27, 1978.
Afghanistan has a rich cultural heritage covering more than 5,000 years. Afghanistan lies across ancient trade and invasion routes from Central Asia intoIndia. This position has been the greatest influence on its history because the invaders often settled there. It is also called the land ofKhyber Pass.
In about 2000 to 1500 B.C the Aryans were inAfghanistan and it is in this period that the Rig Veda or the basis of Indian Philosophy was establihed in theHimalyan Ranges. The City ofKabul, is thought to have been established during this time. After this time the Zorastrian religion was introduced by Zoroaster. In 300 B.C Alexander the Great conquered Afghanistan, but failed to really subdue its people. Then in 50 A.D.King Kanishka ofIndia established his rule and introduced Buddhisim in the land. In 400 A.D. the White Huns invadedAfghanistan and destroyed the Buddhist culture and left most of the country in ruins. In 600 A.D. the Arabs introduced Islam into Afghanistan. In 1200 A.D,Afghanistan was invaded by Genghis Khan of Mongolia. He destroyed its great irrigation systems, which turned fertile soil into deserts. In 1736 Nadir Shah (head of Persia) occupied Afghanistan. In mid 1700 Nadir Shah is assassinated, and the Afghans rose once again and established modern Afghanistan. In the 1800’s and after there were continuous struggles betweenBritain and Afghanistan. In 1934 the United States of America
formally recognizedAfghanistan.
