CHAPTER 2 History Afghanistan has been described by one historian as the hub of the ancient world Its geographical location at the crossroads of central west and south Asia has played a major part in shaping its history because settlers travelers and armies have all passed through The earliest settlements in the region have been dated back to between 3000 and 2000 BCE on the Plateau of Iran Between 2000 and 1500 BCE Aryan peoples migrated into the region Some of them settled with their flocks of sheep and goats on the northern plains while others established settlements in the region that is modern-day Kabul Ancient empires During the reign of the Persian king Darius the Great ruled 522 486 BCE large parts of Afghanistan came under the control of the Persian Empire However Persian rule was constantly challenged by local peoples and in 330 BCE the Macedonian king Alexander the Great defeated the Persians Alexander encountered somewhat more resistance as he tried to subdue the fierce peoples of Afghanistan After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE his vast empire was divided up and much of Afghanistan came under the control of one of Alexander’s generals Seleucus He established the Seleucid state in the north but lost territories in the south 10 to the Indian Mauryan Empire In 250 BCE the Greek ruler of Bactria a region in northern Afghanistan declared independence from Seleucid rule Greek influence in this area was to last until the arrival of the Parthians and the Kushans and the Tajiks of northern Afghanistan trace part of their ancestry back to the Greco Bactrians Muslims and Mongols In 625 CE armies from the Arabian Peninsula arrived in the region carrying with them news of a new religion Islam The Muslims conquered the Persian Sassanians who held power at that time but the Afghan peoples were not so easily subdued or converted to the new faith It was not until the tenth century that the first Islamic empire the Ghaznavid dynasty with its base at Ghazni near Kabul was established in the region The arrival in 1219 of the Mongols led by their ruler Genghis Khan was catastrophic for the population of the region The Mongols slaughtered thousands of people destroyed cities including Herat and Ghazni and turned fertile land into desert by wrecking irrigation systems The Mongol empire fell apart after Genghis Khan’s death in 1227 was revived in the fourteenth century by Timur and was finally defeated by the Mughals in 1526
Afghanistan emerges As part of the vast Mughal empire Afghanistan was constantly being invaded and fought over by the Mughals the Safavids to the west and the Uzbeks to the north In the eighteenth century the Afghans Pashtuns rose against the Persian Safavids In 1747 a Pashtun called Ahmad sought to unite the Afghan peoples against further invasion Ahmad was elected shah king and throughout his reign 1747 72 he fought to create a kingdom that eventually covered much the same territory as modern-day Afghanistan This oval portrait shows Ahmad Shah Durrani c 1722 1772 wearing a green fur trimmed coat and holding an ax Ahmad Shah had 23 sons but on his death failed to say which one should succeed him Over the following years the princes plotted against each other while Ahmad’s Afghan empire fell apart HISTORY FOCUS PEARL OF PEARLS Ahmad Shah came from the Abdali tribe of the Pashtuns When he was elected king he adopted the title Durrani pearl of pearls From that time on the Abdali tribe were known as the Durrani 11
AFGHANISTAN The Great Game In the nineteenth century Afghanistan became caught between two world powers in what became known as the Great Game Britain was extending its influence across the Indian subcontinent and Russia was seeking to establish control over central Asia Tensions between the two countries led to two wars in Afghanistan 1839 42 and 1878 80 when the British invaded the country In the 1890s Britain and Russia between them drew up the boundaries of Afghanistan which included a thin finger of land in the east called the Wakhan Corridor to act as a buffer zone neutral area between their two rival empires Independence A third Anglo-Afghan war in 1919 finally brought Afghanistan independence from British interference in its affairs King Amanullah 12
CASE STUDY THE DURAND LINE The Durand Line is the eastern border of Afghanistan that divides it from Pakistan It is named after British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand who in 1893 negotiated the agreement for the border However the Durand Line runs directly through Pashtun territories and has never been accepted by any Afghan government After the British created Pakistan in 1947 Afghanistan called unsuccessfully for the Pashtuns to have the right to set up an independent state Pashtunistan to reunite the territories divided by the Durand Line The issue of the Durand Line continues to cause tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan to this day HISTORY ruled 1919 29 was the first king of the new nation He and his successors Nadir Khan ruled 1929 33 and Zahir Shah ruled 1933 73 concentrated on modernizing the country Yet many of their reforms met with great resistance from Islamic religious leaders Increased tensions with neighboring Pakistan over the Durand Line also attracted the attention of two world superpowers once again This time Afghanistan turned to the Communist government of Soviet Russia USSR for support while the United States backed Pakistan In 1973 a coup overthrew Zahir Shah The new leader Mohammed Daoud abolished the monarchy rule by a royal family and declared a republic He tried to reduce Afghanistan’s dependence on the USSR but pro-Communist groups within Afghanistan resisted In 1978 Daoud was assassinated murdered and the new Communist government once more strengthened ties with the USSR The government also tried to introduce radical reforms for example banning forced marriages and giving women the right to vote These moves led to revolts across the country It was from this time that the anti-Communist armed fighters mujahideen holy warriors emerged In response to the political upheaval the USSR decided to invade Afghanistan In December 1979 it organized a huge airlift of thousands of Soviet soldiers into Kabul Delighted Afghan mujahideen stand on a Soviet helicopter they have destroyed in 1979 The mujahideen movement developed in response to the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and the Soviet invasion of 1979 13
