The history of Afghanistan

                                           afghanistan

a nation of 37 million people has one of

the fastest growing population

s on the

planet and will soon be more populous

than either canada

or poland it is bordered by iran

turkmenistan

uzbekistan tajikistan china

and pakistan afghanistan is located at

the strategic crossroads as connected

iranian

central and east asian civilizations to

india it is one of the most mountainous

countries in the world

however it is also home to a vast

network of rivers and fertile valleys

carved out by the massive snow melt

flowing from the hindu kush

and other mountain ranges which envelop

the country more than 4 000 years ago

the farmers of this region began to

urbanize

little is known about these first

ancient city-states other than that

those in the north

in the land that became known as bactria

were culturally connected to central

asian peoples

while those in the southeast were

heavily influenced by the indus valley

civilization

with some of the cities there likely

being founded by colonists from the

south however

until more archaeological work is done

afghanistan's ancient past

will remain largely mysterious even

kabul

the current capital of afghanistan is

likely to have been near continuously

inhabited for more than 3500 years

with the exact origin and people who

built it unknown

sometime during the 7th century bc the

medes a northern iranian people

were the first to conquer and unite this

land under their rule

which lasted approximately a little over

a century they were overthrown by the

closely related augmented persians

who divided the empire up into satrapis

or provinces

by the time of the conquests of

alexander the great persian people

language culture and religion were

prevalent in what is now afghanistan

with

sizable buddhist and greek minorities so

the persians had resettled from their

western provinces in the preceding

centuries

alexander faced some of the most

formidable resistance of his conquests

in bactria which is likely the primary

reason he married the bactrian princess

roxanna

with whom he had a son also named

alexander which secured the allegiance

of much of the bacteria in nobility in

people

and access to india through the

strategically important kyber pass

alexander also founded several greek

colonies in the region

that later became important political

commercial and military centers

the macedonian generals hilucas and his

descendants ruled over much of the

eastern portion of alexander's empire

in the years following his death at the

age of 32 control over bactria in the

indus river valley was tenuous at best

before 300 bc much of this territory had

been lost to the indian mauryan empire

of chandragupta

in the peace that followed the war

between the two empires chandragupta

married seleucus's daughter

and gifted his father-in-law 500 trained

war elephants

which he used to great effect in his

wars in the west not long after the

greek cities of bactria

overthrew seleucid rule establishing a

wealthy kingdom that controlled much of

the land trade to and from

china and india they were able to

withstand a major cellucid invasion

and a nearly three year long siege of

their capital city of bulk

causing the exhausted cellucids to sue

for peace over the next two decades the

seleucid empire was also

greatly weakened by the rise of another

one of their former vassals

darsacid parthians in the southeast the

mauryan empire collapsed the

greco-bactrians were then able to

effectively fill much of the power

vacuum left by these two empires but

their success was halted by internal

division

as much of the army was in india

expanding greco-bactrian territory

the king was overthrown by a usurper

splitting the empire into two kingdoms

which both experienced several decades

of relative stability and prosperity

and the flourishing of a culture that

was a unique amalgamation of greek

iranian indian and other central asian

cultures

after the greco-bactrian suffered a

series of severe military defeats by the

parthians they were overrun by

successive waves of nomadic invaders

the most powerful of these tribal

confederations were the uz

and the saka or scythians who

established control over the lower indus

valley the uz

settled in bactria and largely

assimilated with the local people over

time

after the waves of nomadic invasions

calmed down to some extent

the parthians then conquered much of the

east up until the indus river the

parthian arsacid dynasty was very

hands-off in their style of governance

and were content as long as taxes were

paid and men supplied to the army when

needed and as they became increasingly

focused on halting roman expansion

into mesopotamia the parthian noble

family that had defeated the scythians

and had seized control over the indus

river

seceded from the empire establishing the

serene kingdom

or more commonly called the

indo-parthian kingdom and although they

ceased to pay taxes

and their king claimed equal status to

the parthian great king

the two states appear to have been

allies and deeply involved in each

other's politics

in the north the greco-bactrian people

and uz tribes

formed the khushan kingdom and became an

empire at the expense of the parthians

and then expanded deep into central asia

and the indian subcontinent

the kushans worshiped greek as well as

hindu gods

but gradually over time buddhism became

more prevalent and was widely promoted

within the empire's borders

and even without with buddhist merchants

and missionaries traveling to han china

which many believe were the first to

introduce buddhism to china the kushan

empire was the crossroads of the world

manufactured goods from as far away as

china rome

and oximite ethiopia would have been

common sites in the great cities of the

kushan empire in

the west the parthians succumbed to

internal infighting which allowed the

sassanid persians to overthrow them

viewing themselves as the

re-establishment of the ancient acamet

persian empire that alexander had

toppled the reinvigorated persians

successfully campaigned to the north

south east and west

quickly overrunning the kushan empire

and established the kushan shahs

as vassal kings of a greatly diminished

territory and were gradually stripped of

their military and administrative power

during the intermediate period of

sasanian decline

the nomadic keturites and then heft the

lights gained control over the eastern

portion of the empire and like the uzi

before them

they largely adopted much of the local

culture before being reconquered by the

sasanians

it was during sassanian rule that the

first recorded instance of the term

afghan was made in reference to the

people inhabiting the mountainous

eastern provinces of the empire

and is likely derived from the pashtun

ethnic group which is the largest in

afghanistan by the time of this region's

conquest by the arab caliphates

buddhism and the persian zoroastrian

faith were the dominant religions in the

land

that proved difficult to control

whenever a large arab army left

the locals would rebel and revert to

their ancient customs

and self-rule in the east kabul managed

to remain an

independent wealthy city-state

controlling trade through the khyber

pass to india ruled over by buddhists

and hindus it was not until the late 9th

century

that the safarid dynasty founded by a

persian coppersmith born in southwestern

afghanistan

successfully rebelled against the

abbasid caliphate and firmly established

local rule that afghans began to convert

to islam

which the dynasty widely promoted the

safarids were overthrown by the salmonid

empire whose rulers claimed descent from

the sasanian persians

and extensively promoted persian culture

and islam throughout the empire

they made the mistake of utilizing

turkic's life soldiers which in time

overthrew them and established the

ghaznavid dynasty based out of the city

of ghazna

in eastern afghanistan they continued

the policies of promoting

islam and persian culture particularly

among the nomadic turkic

tribes that were settled within the

empire the ghaznivids were greatly

weakened by conflict with the seljuk

turk empire which allowed for their

overthrow by the native gurud dynasty

which had recently converted from

buddhism to islam

and were possibly of pashtun descent

during the reign of sultan gyathal din

muhammad the gurud sultanate became a

major world power

stretching from the iranian plateau to

bengal in the east

however after guiathaldin's death the

empire fell into infighting

and was rapidly conquered by both the

delhi sultanate in india

and the empire of tourism both of turkic

mamlik origin

only 15 years after their conquest of

the gerd sultanate

khorazim was overrun by the mongol

empire of genghis khan who frequently

massacred the populations of cities that

did not immediately surrender

the mongol empire split into several

successor states not long after their

conquest of the region

the ill khanate as the name

coincidentally implies

fell ill and was ravaged by the plague

wiping out much of the mongol royal

family

and army and as the ill khanate

fragmented into many small states

the tajik vassal princes of herat

established a sizable kingdom for a

short time

all of these small states were conquered

by the turko mongol warlord tamerlane

who inflicted even greater slaughter and

destruction throughout the near east

than the mongols had done a few

generations before

timor frequently used afghanistan as his

base of operations

and his descendants moved the capital

from samarkand

to herat the century following timor's

death began with peace and prosperity

and ended with internal strife and civil

war with its territory being lost to the

uzbeks in the north

the safavid persians in the west and in

the southeast the emergent mogul empire

which would go on to conquer most of

india

claiming descent from timor and genghis

khan throughout the 17th century

afghanistan became a largely autonomous

buffer zone

between the powerful safavid and mogul

empires in 1709 the pashtun hotec

dynasty successfully rebelled and

established a short-lived empire

by conquering a great deal of iranian

territory the safavid empire was

overthrown by the soldier of fortune

nattershah he was the son of a common

herdsmen

and one of the most brilliant military

strategists ever to have lived he

reconquered afghanistan

and defeated ottoman and mogul armies

but his reign was brought short when he

was assassinated at the age of 48 one of

his cavalry commanders

amid shah durrani was a pashtun and

returned to his homeland

where a pashtun tribal confederation

selected him as their leader he used his

military experience to great effect

conquering those cities that did not

join his cause in afghanistan and during

his

long 25-year reign he successfully

campaigned in india three times

against the marathas and moguls and even

sacked their capital city of delhi in

1757

the tehrani empire is considered the

foundation of the modern state of

afghanistan

and amit durrani as the father of the

nation the empire declined after they

were defeated by the sikhs

and driven out of the indian

subcontinent however the greatest factor

influencing their decline may have been

economic as trade was cut off to china

due to poor diplomatic relations

and the traffic along the ancient land

trade routes connecting

india iran and central asia all but

disappeared this was due to the

expansion of the russian empire into

central asia

and the dominance of the british east

india company over maritime trade

leaving afghanistan in a more isolated

state than it had been in in over two

thousand years

but also a more unified one with the

majority of the country practicing the

same religion

sunni islam and the concept of a

national afghan identity became

prevalent

regardless of tribal or ethnic

affiliation the tehrani were overthrown

by dost mohammed khan

who established the emirate of

afghanistan the british who had largely

gained control over

india and its revenue feared that the

russians would take afghanistan and use

it as a staging ground to take india

from them so to preempt the russians

they invaded instead and reinstalled the

deposed irani king on the throne who was

widely disliked

after encountering minimal resistance to

their conquest and occupation

of the country the british withdrew most

of their troops back to india

the remaining british occupying force

was then ambushed

and was almost completely slaughtered as

they attempted to retreat from the

country in a event that shocked great

britain

and the western world the afghans then

reinstated dost muhammad khan on the

throne of the country

nearly four decades after the first

invasion the british invaded again

a peace was concluded after both sides

suffered heavy casualties

afghanistan became a british

protectorate with the afghans

maintaining complete self-rule

and the british handling their foreign

affairs which they didn't do too much of

anyways

namely no cadoodling with the russkies

40 years later

in a third anglo-afghan war 120 000

afghans

invaded india after a few brief clashes

with the british

a treaty was made where afghanistan

would be internationally recognized

as a fully independent state a few years

later in 1926

the country was reformed into the

kingdom of afghanistan and began the

process of modernization

and increased contacts with the outside

world in 1973 the monarchy was

overthrown in a bloodless coup d'etat by

the king's cousin

mohammed dawud khan who became the

president of a single party republic

who further sought to modernize the

country and received aid from the soviet

union

and the united states who both tried to

curry influence over the country in 1978

daoud and many of his family members

were assassinated during a communist

coup d'etat

establishing the democratic republic of

afghanistan this soviet-backed

government

pushed wide-ranging reforms that sought

to modernize and abolish most

traditional and religious societal

structures

this caused widespread insurrection and

soviet involvement

in a long war of attrition that nearly

lasted 10 years

and caused millions of refugees to leave

the country a few years after the soviet

union withdrew their forces

the islamic state of afghanistan

overthrew the government and took over

the cities

which was largely overthrown by the

islamic emirate of afghanistan in 1996

which established a totalitarian rule

they were removed from power five years

later

by u.s coalition forces and the northern

alliance

and established the islamic republic of

afghanistan in 2004.

let me know in the comments of what you

believe the future holds for afghanistan

also let me know in the comments of what

you found most interesting about

afghan history this has been epimetheus

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