Afganistans Brief History

Afghanistan has a very long and ancient history, which has long political struggles and may civil wars and in order to understand them better you need to know some of their history, I will explain it briefly 

Afghanistan is a landlocked nation, dominated mostly by mountainous and desert terrain. While the nation’s climate is dry, with cold winters and hot summers.

Afghanistan has had a very turbulent history.  Alexander the Great actually passed through the lands that were later to be known as Afghanistan in 328 BC, which at the time was part of the Persian Empire. In ad 642, the Arabs had retaken the territory, and introduced Islam. This led to Persian leadership before the area was taken over by the Turks in ad 998. In 1219 the country was invaded by Mongolians led by emperor Genghis Khan. After his death in 1227, a succession of chiefs, and subordinate rulers tried to run the country, but none had succeeded. In 1747 an individual by the name of Ahmed Shah Durrani, who was the founder of what is today known as Afghanistan, established his rule. As a Pashtun, Durrani was elected king by a tribal council. In the early 19^th century impact of British colonialism and czarist Russia also had significant influence on how the country is today. British were concerned about the Russian advances in Central Asia which in turn resulted in the British – Afghan wars first being fought in 1839 which resulted in a humiliating and later another war was fought once again in 1878. The British and Russians established the boundaries of what would now be modern day Afghanistan through the signing of the Treaty of the Durand Line. The British remained in control of Afghanistan’s foreign affairs. After fighting yet a third Anglo- Afghan warm, which resulted on an attack in India as well the war weary British decided to give up their control of Afghanistan and withdraw their soldiers, by signing the treaty of Rawalpindi in August 1919. August 19 is celebrated as Afghanistan’s Independence Day. From 1919 to 1978, the Afgan’s although independant continued to see powers struggles, and many coup d’états, from different leaders trying to secure power of themselves. In 1978 the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) a socialist party which had close ties to the Soviet Union, initiated a coup d’état which resulted in the overthrow and murder of  the Afghan leadership. During its power, the PDPA established a Marxists style reform which differed from Afghanistan’s tradition, which also resulted in many religious people being imprisoned. By summer of 1978 a revolt began, which soon resulted in countrywide insurgency occurring towards the government run by PDPA.
In 19178 a treaty was signed with the Soviet Union which marked improved diplomacy and military assistance. The PDPA had to rely on Soviet support and funding to stabilize their government, and prevent any revolts. In 1979 things began to deteriorate when the President and leader of the PDPA, Hafizulla Amin refused to listen to the Soviet’s advice on how to deal with their deteriorating security situation, which was threatened by insurgents who were trying to violently remove the PDPA from power. The Soviets were extremely dissatisfied with Hafizulla Amin’s inability to deal with the situation and feared they would lose their influence in the region. In October 1979, large numbers of Soviet Airborne soldiers were deployed around Kabul the capital of Afghanistan. Once on ground The Soviet’s KGB had found and assassinated President Amin and replaced him with Babrack Karmal. By early 1980, Soviet forces had numbered over 100,000 in Afghanistan. Even  with the large force of soldiers the Soviets could not control all of Afghanistan and in fact as much as 80% of the country side was uncontrolled by the communist forces. The Soviet presence in Afghanistan had actually worsened the situation, as many Afghans whether openly or not opposed soviet occupation and Soviets faced, and the mujahideen(Afghanistan resistance fighters) had made it difficult for soviets to maintain control. Poorly armed at first, but in 1984, the mujahideen began to receive support from the U.S. They had sent in the CIA as advisors to train and arm the fighters. The war had lasted from 1979 and ended in 1989. In 1989 the Soviets had withdrawn due to the high casualties, little progress stabilizing the country, and simply couldn’t take the financial burden of funding the war, especially considering that the Soviet regime was coming to end, and would come to end in 1991. After the Soviets had left a civil war was waged among different groups. In the early 1990’s the Taliban began to rise to power and had plans to take over the government. In 1994 gained enough strength and began to fight, to try and gain power. In 1996 the Taliban had captured the capital Kabul and by 1998 they controlled 90% of Afghanistan. The Taliban wanted to impose extreme interpretation of Islam, and proceeded to rule the country with an iron fist, committing massive human rights violations, especially towards women. They committed massacres to minority groups, and killed or tortured anyone who showed the slightest amount of opposition towards them. The Taliban fell in 2001, when after 9/11 when they refused to cease harbouring Osama Bin Laden, and his Al Qaeda, The USA invaded Afghanistan allying with the Northern Alliance, A  large amount of minority groups who opposed the Taliban. The marked the beginning of the War. Now that Americas has support from the UN and other nations in the world, thir goal has not only been to find Al Qaeda, and get rid of the Taliban, but to restabllize the nation, provide humanitarian aid, and ensure that a democratic leader is chosen to run the nation.

Sources

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad09