Afghanistan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Coordinates: 3. 3. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and China in the far northeast. Its territory covers 6. Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. Through the ages the land has been home to various peoples and witnessed numerous military campaigns; notably by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviet, and in the modern- era by Western powers. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires. In the late 1. 9th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the . Following the Third Anglo- Afghan War in 1. King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country. It remained peaceful during Zahir Shah's forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1. Afghanistan and continues to this day. Etymology. The name Afgh. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, to land of the Pashtuns. However, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that . An important site of early historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. It has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo- Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages have been found in Afghanistan. Urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3. BCE, and the early city of Mundigak (near Kandahar in the south of the country) may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern- day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. In more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, and toward Europe via the area north of the Caspian Sea. The region at the time was referred to as Ariana. Ancient Eastern Iranian languages may have been spoken in the region around the time of the rise of Zoroastrianism. By the middle of the 6th century BCE, the Achaemenids overthrew the Medes and incorporated Arachosia, Aria, and Bactria within its eastern boundaries. An inscription on the tombstone of Darius I of Persia mentions the Kabul Valley in a list of the 2. Afghanistan Internet usage, broadband and telecommunications reports Internet Usage Statistics: 4,005,414 Internet users; 12.0% of the population, according to IWS. Internet in Afghanistan began in 2002 after the Karzai administration took office in Kabul. It was banned prior to 2002 because the previous Taliban government believed that it broadcast obscene, immoral, and anti-Islamic. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire controlled the region until 3. BCE, when they gave much of it to the Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty. The Mauryans controlled the area south of the Hindu Kush until they were overthrown in about 1. BCE. Their decline began 6. Ashoka's rule ended, leading to the Hellenistic reconquest by the Greco- Bactrians. Much of it soon broke away from them and became part of the Indo- Greek Kingdom. They were defeated and expelled by the Indo- Scythians in the late 2nd century BCE. In the mid- to- late first century CE the vast Kushan Empire, centered in Afghanistan, became great patrons of Buddhist culture, making Buddhism flourish throughout the region. Recognition of Afghanistan, 1921. The United States recognized Afghanistan on July 26, 1921, when President Warren G. Harding received a mission of the Afghan Government at the White House. The Department of State had. An understanding of the link between the shocking murder of a young soldier on a London street and 'remote-control' attacks by western states is essential. In the London bombings of 7 July 2005 (“7/7”), explosions on three. Friends of Afghanistan will honor Mary MacMakin for a Lifetime of Service to Afghanistan at our reunion in Washington D.C. You can read about Mary's work in Afghan Connections. Afghanistan has snow and glaciers in the mountains. Amu Darya is the big water stream, or river. The Kushans were overthrown by the Sassanids in the 3rd century CE, though the Indo- Sassanids continued to rule at least parts of the region. They were followed by the Kidarite who, in turn, were replaced by the Hephthalites. By the 6th century CE, the successors to the Kushans and Hepthalites established a small dynasty called Kabul Shahi. Much of the northeastern and southern areas of the country remained dominated by Buddhist culture. The land was collectively recognized by the Arabs as al- Hind due to its cultural connection with Greater India. Before Islam was introduced, people of the region were mostly Buddhists and Zoroastrians, but there were also Surya and Nana worshipers, Jews, and others. The Zunbils and Kabul Shahi were first conquered in 8. CE by the Saffarid Muslims of Zaranj. Later, the Samanids extended their Islamic influence south of the Hindu Kush. It is reported that Muslims and non- Muslims still lived side by side in Kabul before the Ghaznavids rose to power in the 1. Afghanistan became one of the main centers in the Muslim world during this Islamic Golden Age. The Ghaznavid dynasty was overthrown by the Ghurids, who expanded and advanced the already powerful Islamic empire. In 1. 21. 9 AD, Genghis Khan and his Mongol army overran the region. His troops are said to have annihilated the Khorasanian cities of Herat and Balkh as well as Bamyan. In 1. 52. 6, he invaded Delhi in India to replace the Lodi dynasty with the Mughal Empire. Between the 1. 6th and 1. Khanate of Bukhara, Safavids, and Mughals ruled parts of the territory. Before the 1. 9th century, the northwestern area of Afghanistan was referred to by the regional name Khorasan. Two of the four capitals of Khorasan (Herat and Balkh) are now located in Afghanistan, while the regions of Kandahar, Zabulistan, Ghazni, Kabulistan, and Afghanistan formed the frontier between Khorasan and Hindustan. He defeated Gurgin Khan and made Afghanistan independent. Mahmud led the Afghan army in 1. Persian capital of Isfahan, captured the city after the Battle of Gulnabad and proclaimed himself King of Persia. Soon after the Persian and Afghan forces invaded India. By 1. 74. 7, the Afghans chose Durrani as their head of state. He was succeeded by his son, Timur Shah, who transferred the capital of Afghanistan from Kandahar to Kabul in 1. After Timur's death in 1. Durrani throne passed down to his son Zaman Shah, followed by Mahmud Shah, Shuja Shah and others. Fateh Khan, leader of the Barakzai tribe, had installed 2. After his death, they rebelled and divided up the provinces of the empire between themselves. During this turbulent period, Afghanistan had many temporary rulers until Dost Mohammad Khan declared himself emir in 1. By this time the British were advancing from the east and the first major conflict during the . In 1. 87. 8, the Second Anglo- Afghan War was fought over perceived Russian influence, Abdur Rahman Khan replaced Ayub Khan, and Britain gained controlled Afghanistan's foreign relations as part of the Treaty of Gandamak of 1. In 1. 89. 3, Mortimer Durand made Amir Abdur Rahman Khan sign a controversial agreement in which the ethnic Pashtun and Baloch territories were divided by the Durand Line. This was a standard divide and rule policy of the British and would lead to strained relations, especially with the later new state of Pakistan. Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, who reigned from 1. After the Third Anglo- Afghan War and the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi on 1. August 1. 91. 9, King Amanullah Khan declared Afghanistan a sovereign and fully independent state. He moved to end his country's traditional isolation by establishing diplomatic relations with the international community and, following a 1. A key force behind these reforms was Mahmud Tarzi, an ardent supporter of the education of women. He fought for Article 6. Afghanistan's 1. 92. The institution of slavery was abolished in 1. Faced with overwhelming armed opposition, Amanullah Khan was forced to abdicate in January 1. Kabul fell to rebel forces led by Habibullah Kalakani. Prince Mohammed Nadir Shah, Amanullah's cousin, in turn defeated and killed Kalakani in November 1. King Nadir Shah. He abandoned the reforms of Amanullah Khan in favor of a more gradual approach to modernisation but was assassinated in 1. Abdul Khaliq, a Hazara school student. Mohammed Zahir Shah, Nadir Shah's 1. Until 1. 94. 6, Zahir Shah ruled with the assistance of his uncle, who held the post of Prime Minister and continued the policies of Nadir Shah. Another of Zahir Shah's uncles, Shah Mahmud Khan, became Prime Minister in 1. He was replaced in 1. Mohammed Daoud Khan, the king's cousin and brother- in- law. Daoud Khan sought a closer relationship with the Soviet Union and a more distant one towards Pakistan. Afghanistan remained neutral and was neither a participant in World War II nor aligned with either power bloc in the Cold War. However, it was a beneficiary of the latter rivalry as both the Soviet Union and the United States vied for influence by building Afghanistan's main highways, airports, and other vital infrastructure. On per capita basis, Afghanistan received more Soviet development aid than any other country. In 1. 97. 3, while King Zahir Shah was on an official overseas visit, Daoud Khan launched a bloodless coup and became the first President of Afghanistan. In the meantime, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto got neighboring Pakistan involved in Afghanistan. Some experts suggest that Bhutto paved the way for the April 1. Saur Revolution. Within months, opponents of the communist government launched an uprising in eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a civil war waged by guerrilla mujahideen against government forces countrywide. The Pakistani government provided these rebels with covert training centers, while the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government. Distrusted by the Soviets, Amin was assassinated by Soviet special forces in December 1. A Soviet- organized government, led by Parcham's Babrak Karmal but inclusive of both factions, filled the vacuum.
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