A Brief History of Afghanistan

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September 15, 2001

By Adib Rashad

The struggles of peoples for social, political and conomic advancement has consistently been impaired by external and internal domination. Throughout Afghan history, every attempt to uplift the country and its people out of economic and social underdevelopment, to spread literacy and social reform, and to achieve genuine national independence has met with external and internal opposition. The area that is now Afghanistan has been besieged by foreign conquests and invasions for centuries.

The Indo-Aryans were the first people to have invaded the region around the seventeenth century B. C. They were followed by the Persians, who conquered the region in the sixth century B. C. Two centuries later, Alexander the Great invaded leaving several colonies which were under the control of his Greek soldiers. Their descendants built a semi-Greek culture in Bactria. Shortly afterwards, they were overwhelmed by a series of invaders from the central Asian steppes. Among these, the Kushans left the deepest mark. Their empire which included most northern India and Central Asia lasted close to 400 years.

During this period, cities and trade flourished, and Buddhism was introduced. Also, this period which was largely inspired by Hellenistic cultural themes and techniques produced remarkable paintings, sculpture, and architecture.

Next came the invasion by the Huns in the fourth and fifth centuries A. D. For several centuries thereafter, minor kings and chieftains divided up the region.

Islam was the next consummate incursion. It was brought by Turkish armies from the sultanates of Central Asia. Their most significant contribution--besides Islam--was the creation of the Muslim State of Ghazni in 961. Under the leadership of Mahmud, Ghazni became the capitol of an empire which dominated most of Central and Western Asia and Northern India as well. An elegant court and intellectual life developed with the employment of many of the most eminent Muslim scholars of that period.

After the death of Mahmud in 1030, his empire declined and was subsequently replaced by the Ghurids of Western Afghanistan. However, new waves of Turkish invaders destroyed their Afghan base almost at the same time. The following century was the most disastrous ever experienced in the region. Four generations of Mongols beginning with Ghenghis Khan conquered, plundered, and massacred. They destroyed irrigation systems, sacked and depopulated regions that, in turn, broke the continuity of cultural life which had extended backwards to the Kushan period.

The people of the region that would become Afghanistan had first been unified in 1747, in a tribal confederation led by Ahmed Shah Durrani (1747-1773). This monarchical form of rule in which a king was chosen by Pushtun tribal leaders survived until 1973. The early Afghan State was based on feudal economic and social foundations. Over a period of time, the tribal leaders, or Khans, were transformed into powerful landlords, owning huge estates on which peasants were forced to work under less than favorable conditions. Ironically, Islamic religious figures, who were closely connected to the Khans and who themselves became landlords or petty exploiters, played a distinctive role in the governing of the state.

By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Afghanistan began to arouse the interest of European imperialists, as the British, French, and Russians maneuvered for dominance in Central Asia and the Arab-Persian Gulf. Britain--then the most powerful nation and the colonial master over India--was in the best position to move against Afghanistan. I must point out that the major concern of each was to insure that their territories would not be threatened by hostile control over the Hindu Kush and its system of passes and trade routes.

Eventually, Afghanistan came to serve as a buffer area separating the British and Russian forces from direct contact.

In 1838, a British mission arrived in Kabul and placed a series of demands before Amir Dost Muhammad; these demands were directed at forestalling Russian imperialism and preventing the existence of an independent Afghanistan from undermining Britain's hold over India. Dost Muhammad boldly rejected these demands. As a result, in 1839, Britain launched its first war against Afghanistan. Dost Muhammad was subsequently overthrown and a British puppet by the name of Shah Shuja was put in his place.

This event provoked a massive revolt throughout Afghanistan. Thousands of British troops were annihilated, and Shah Shuja was executed by Afghan insurgents. These factors prompted the British to return Dost Muhammad to the throne.

Several decades later, in 1878, the British again attacked Afghanistan. After years of fierce fighting, the British were successful in imposing their complete dominance on the Afghan people. They annexed about half of the Pushtun territory and incorporated it into India.

This area is now Pakistan's northwest frontier province. They forced the Afghan monarchy to subordinate its foreign policy to the dictates of the British government. To buy the acquiescence of the amirs, the British paid them lucrative subsidies. The British, however, would not sustain this dominance unchallenged. By the beginning of the twentieth century, unabated hostility to British dominance and the examples of the Iranian revolution of 1906, as well as the Young Turk movement in Turkey helped to usher in a revived nationalist spirit among the Afghans--including members of the royal family. This movement was called the Young Afghan movement.

Some historians believe that the workers revolution in Russia enhanced the Afghan's determination to destroy British imperialism. These historians point to the overthrow of the Tsar, and the Brest Litovak treaty recognizing Afghanistan's independence as determining factors. This analysis, of course, is subject to historical debate.

Nevertheless, it was against this background that Amanullah Khan, a member of the Young Turk movement, ascended to the throne in February of 1919. Within weeks of being proclaimed amir, Amanullah declared Afghanistan an independent and sovereign nation.

He embarked on a new foreign policy and initiated an ambitious series of political, social and cultural reforms. Early in his reign Amanullah declared war on the British, who were then preoccupied with the explosion of Indian nationalism at the end of World War I.

After six weeks of fighting, waged mostly by Pushtun tribes, a treaty was established in which Britain recognized Afghanistan's independence. Simultaneously, Amanullah jockeyed for a new and equitable relationship with Soviet Russia. Praising and accepting V. I. Lenin's claim that the Soviets were opposed to all forms of European imperialism, Amanullah did not hesitate to form a temporary alliance with Russia.

Edward Mortimer, in his book "Faith and Power The Politics of Islam," makes a relevant point pertaining to this alliance: He states, "Lenin, needing the support of Muslim and other non-Russian nationalities to secure the yet precarious success of his revolution, was consistent with his own proclaimed principles in seeking to dismantle the colonial empire of the Tsars and promising self-determination to its component peoples. The real contradiction was between this promise and his equally firm determination to hold the former empire together, albeit under a new social system and a new state, as the nucleus of the new world proletarian order."

Interestingly, when the Soviets ran into serious opposition from the Turkish people of Central Asia, Amanullah aligned himself with Enver Pasha and other Turkish leaders who were attempting to keep the Bolsheviks out of the region. when the Turks failed, he shifted back to a policy of friendship with Russia. These foreign policy maneuvers were very significant in that they added greatly to Afghanistan's independence in international and particularly inter-Asian affairs at a time when few Islamic countries were free of European control. Amanullah's policies have been viewed as achieving a new status for Islam.

The British imperialists, meanwhile, had not given up their plans to subjugate Afghanistan. They feared that the example of Afghanistan's war for independence could weaken their hold on India. They were also worried about Amanullah's relationship with anti-colonial Pushtun tribes. The British only feigned to recognize Afghan independence. While in actuality, they acted to undermine it, using opposition to Amanullah's reforms as a beginning. The first opposition to Amanullah began around 1924. It was led by religious and tribal leaders who were against the opening of public schools to women and the liberalization of restrictions on women. What also led to Amanullah's downfall was the manner in which he tried to expedite his reforms, and his insistence that all persons in Kabul must wear Western-style clothes.

There was no doubt that the British were behind this opposition. In fact, in 1928, a more serious revolt began which was led by one Bach-i-Saqao, a peasant rebel. He was widely believed to have had direct British backing. Consequently, in January 1929, Amanullah was forced to abdicate and flee Kabul. Bacha marched into Kabul and proclaimed himself amir. Needless to say, his regime was promptly recognized by the British.

Bacha reversed all of Amanullah's reforms; furthermore, libraries, laboratories, and museums were sacked. Bacha terrorized the urban population--particularly supporters of Amanullah. Despite his direct or indirect complicity with British colonial desires, the British decided to dump him and instead backed Nadir Shah, a member of the old royal family. I should add that Bacha only stayed in power for nine months, and immediately after he was hanged at the gallows.

In October 1929, Nadir Shah seized the throne. The British gave their full approval by dispatching to Kabul an interest free loan of one million dollars and crates of arms and ammunition. Having been brought to power with British imperialist backing, Nadir Shah set about entrenching the monarchy and strengthening the conservative hold on the country, the landlords, the Khans, and the religious leaders. Because of his attempt to restore royal authority, Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1933. His son, Zahir Shah, succeeded him and continued his policies. For four decades, until 1973, Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan as a feudal monarch.

It was not until the end of World War II that changes in Asia swept Afghanistan into a new international era. European imperialism receded with the departure of the British from India and the creation of Pakistan on its eastern border.

More importantly, the war had transformed Soviet Russia from a nation obsessed with defending its revolution into an aggressive socialist-imperialist superpower. The different variables pertaining to this history are too complex for this article; however, I should point out the imperialist role in propping up the monarchy and the rule of landlords was a key element in blocking Afghanistan's social and economic advancement, and contributed to the invasion of Soviet Russia.

This, of course, gave rise to Osama ben Laden and his connection to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In conclusion, monarchical rule, continuous invasions, tribal authority, landlord supremacy, and geopolitical factors must be considered when analyzing the entire situation in Afghanistan--especially the war that was waged by the Mujahiden against Soviet Russian imperialism.

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Adib Rashad (Rash-@aol.com)
* (the commentaries of Adib Rashad are available at:
http://www.themarcusgarveybbs.com/board/1020.html )

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