Afghanistan

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History

Afghanistan was the main crossroads of the ancient Asian migration paths, and its history of early invasions and conquests. Afghanistan has been occupy ever since prehistory, although the first identified settlers were Aryans, went to Afghanistan around 1500B.C. while traveling their way to India.

Around 500’s B.C., Afghanistan was known as Aryana, it was part of the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great controlled the country in 328 B.C. and soon after Alexander’s death, it was separated between the Seleucid Empire of Persian Empire and Bactria kingdom at the north. However, around 100 B.C. all of these kingdoms fell to the nomadic tribes in the north from central Asia. Toward the end of the 600 A.D. and near the beginning of 700 A.D., the Arab armies occupied the country and converted the people to Islam. A few centuries later, many other small kingdoms developed in throughout Afghanistan and many were in power by Muslims. The Turkic tribes were the most dominated in these small kingdoms during the 900 A.D.

During the 1200 A.D. the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan destroyed the Turkic kingdoms. The new conqueror was Tamerlane (Timur), half-Turkic and half-Mongol made Afghanistan part of his empire in the 1300’s. About two centuries later Tamerlane’s successor Babur created the Indian Mughal (Mogul) empire.

By the 1600’s, the Mughals lost most of Afghanistan to the Persia Empire ruled by Safavid. However, Afghanistan asserted its independence then cast away the Persians in the early 1700’s. Then during 1747 the Afghan tribes selected Ahmad Shah Durrani, from the Sadozay region of the Abdali tribe to be the new ruler. Numerous tribes were disagree, nevertheless, by the start of the 1800’s. The rebellions toppled Ahmad Shah Durrani and following that were several civil wars fighting over the control of the country, which lead to the country defenseless to foreign power.

During the 1800’s, Afghanistan was long sought by Russia, Great Britain and Persia. In 1839, Dost Muhammad, a Barakzay tribal leader strongly reject to foreign control. The Britain wanted to place a friendly control in power to protect its interests in India. That developed into the Anglo-Afghan war in 1839 to 1842.

Dost Muhammad was captured by the British, but did not stop the rebellion in the country and the British withdrew. Following that for the next 36 years, Afghanistan’s was manifest by civil war, Russian invasions, Persian invasions, and, in 1878, a renewed war with Britain. Britain won the war in 1879 and made Afghanistan a buffer state between British and Russian.

In 1880 a new ruler Abd-ar-Rahman, came to power and work with the British to it benefited Afghanistan. Throughout his time in power, rebellious were reduce and new restrictions were place between Afghanistan, Russia, and British India.

In World War I Afghanistan remained neutral, except anti-British sentiment increase, nationalism strengthens and in 1919, nationalists led a war against Britain. Both sides won the war, except the British allowed the country to carry out its own foreign affairs. Afghanistan now was the power to domestic self-rule promised in an Anglo-Russian agreement in 1907.

The land

Afghanistan is a country high in attitude measuring of about 6000 feet above sea level. A central mountain system dominates the landscape. Located in the east, are the Hindu Kush ranges measuring more than 20,000 feet in height. The Koh-i-Baba and Paropamisus mountain ranges are between 10,000 to 15,000 feet tall, and stretches outward to the west.

Close to the western region is Seistan, a infertile plateau with an elevation of 1500 feet. To the east of Seistan are two deserts named the Registan and Dasht-i-Margo.

There are four main rivers, which flow from the central mountains and through many major cities in the country. At the northeast is the Amu Darya (Oxus), which forms part of the border with the Soviet Union. At the west is the Hari Rud flowing from the Paropamisus. The regions with the most resources are to the southwest in the valleys of the Helmand and its tributaries and the valley of the Kabul, flowing east to the Indus.

The climate in Afghanistan is extreme. The average temperature is 115°F in the summer to -10°F during the winter in the lower regions. Around the mountain regions the temperatures differ by as much as 50°F in a single day, with the southern mountains temperatures being the most moderate. Winds are strong right through most of the country. The average rainfall ranges from 2 inches per year in the west to 12 inches in the east.

The people

Afghanistan’s location in central Asia has created a diverse population. More than half the population are Pukhtun (also called Pashtun or Pathan) they speak Pushtu, a tribal group related to the Persians and Indians. The Hazara, they speak a mixture of Persian-Turkish dialect, the Turkic-speaking Uzbek and Turkoman, and the Tajik, whose language is Dari, a dialect of Persian.

Most Afghans live in rural villages with an urban population about 15% of the entire population. The biggest cities are Kandahar in the south, Kabul in the east, and Herat in the west.

After the Soviet invasion in 1979, about 3 million Afghans migrated to Pakistan.

Economy

Afghanistan’s economy is primary farming and herding animals. As well as other mineral resources such as copper, coal, oil, gas, iron, salt, gold, and lapis lazuli.

Afghanistan’s most precious farming commodity is the Karakul sheep. These sheep provide a steady supply of meat, milk, and fat for domestic use and their skins are often export. Horses, goats, cattle, donkeys, and camels also are raise. The main crops are corn, wheat, barley and other grains, cotton, sugar beets, and a great variety of fruits and vegetables.

Leather product, textile weaving, and flour milling are the main established manufacturing industries in the country.

To increase the transportation and communications facilities new projects have been started to develop coal and hydroelectric resources as well as improving education and health services.

After the Communist takeover in 1978 and Soviet invasion of in 1979, the western economic support was drying up. The main financial support was the Soviet Union.

Natural gas export is about 35% of all exports. Other exports goods are nuts, fruits nuts, carpets, karakul skins, and cotton. As well as the exporting of food, petroleum products, and other manufactured goods.

The country main trading partners are the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, West Germany, The Netherlands, and United States.

Modernization

Following the war with Britain, there was a new king, Amanullah. Who began to modernize and reconstruct the war torn country. The king suggests improvement, which were look upon as pro western policies, expensive, and unpopular. In1929 he was overtone during an extensive tribal rebellion. Mohammed Nadir came into power after defeating rival contenders and once again, Afghanistan was a neutral country throughout World War II.

Nadir Shah and his son, Mohammed Zahir Shah, the country was modernized and reconstructed very slowly. New democratic reforms and processes were introduced, the modern economy was developed, and that change the traditional society when the new Western ideas were adopted.

In 1964, the Afghans government received a new written constitution for the new democratic reforms in the country. However, in 1973 the constitution was push aside when Zahir Shah was overthrown by a group of army officers.

In 1978, the Communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) came to power brought by a military coup. There were more civil unrest brought by the new government’s unpopular policies. In September of 1979, President Noor Mohammad Taraki was killed during upraise led by Hafizullah Amin, who was the prime minister. In Decemember of 1978, Soviet Union invaded the country with justification of the 1978 Treaty of Friendship.

In the midst of strong international disapproval for the invasion, the Soviets remove Hafizullah Amin from power. In 1986, Babrak Karmal led the new government, and later was Najibullah, who was very unpopular by the Afghans. Support and supplied by the Western and Middle Eastern countries, a new guerrilla movement forced the Soviets to keep heavy military occupying Afghanistan.

In 1989, the Soviets withdrew their military and the fight between the Najibullah government and a coalition of nine guerrilla movements escalated. In 1992, Najibullah resigned and the new government was to establish a republic and plan for elections, but the plan and the country began to divide.