History of Afghanistan
The history of Afghanistan covers the development of Afghanistan from ancient times to the establishment of the Emirate of Afghanistan in 1822 and Afghanistan in modern times. This history is largely shared with that of Central Asia, Middle East, and northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the early Middle Paleolithic era, and the country's strategic location along the historic Silk Road has led it to being described, picturesquely, as the ‘roundabout of the ancient world’. The land has historically been home to various different peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Maurya Empire, Arab Muslims, the Mongols, The Mughal Empire, the British, the Soviet Union, and most recently by a US-led coalition. The various conquests and periods in the Iranian cultural spheres made the area a center for Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and a small community of Hinduism, and later Islam throughout history.
The Durrani Empire, established in 1747, is considered to be the foundational polity of the modern nation state of Afghanistan, with Ahmad Shah Durrani being credited as its Father of the Nation. Following the Durrani Empire's decline and the death of Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah, it was divided into multiple smaller independent kingdoms, including but not limited to Herat, Kandahar and Kabul. Afghanistan would be reunited in the 19th century after seven decades of civil war from 1793 to 1863, with wars of unification led by Dost Mohammad Khan from 1823 to 1863, where he conquered the independent principalities of Afghanistan under the Emirate of Kabul. Dost Mohammad Khan is sometimes considered to be the founder of the first modern Afghan state. Dost Mohammad died in 1863, days after his last campaign to unite Afghanistan, and Afghanistan was consequently thrown back into civil war with fighting amongst his successors. During this time, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the Great Game between the British Raj in South Asia and the Russian Empire. The British Raj attempted to subjugate Afghanistan but was repelled in the First Anglo-Afghan War. However, the Second Anglo-Afghan War saw a British victory and the successful establishment of British political influence over Afghanistan. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, Afghanistan became free of foreign political hegemony, and emerged as the independent Kingdom of Afghanistan in June 1926 under Amanullah Khan. This monarchy lasted almost half a century, until Zahir Shah was overthrown in 1973, following which the Republic of Afghanistan was established.
Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan's history has been dominated by extensive warfare, including coups, invasions, insurgencies, and civil wars. The conflict began in 1978 when a communist revolution established a socialist state, and subsequent infighting prompted the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan in 1979. Mujahideen fought against the Soviets in the Soviet–Afghan War and continued fighting amongst themselves following the Soviets' withdrawal in 1989. The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban controlled most of the country by 1996, but their Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan received little international recognition before its overthrow in the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after capturing Kabul and overthrowing the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, thus bringing an end to the 2001–2021 war. Although initially claiming it would form an inclusive government for the country, in September 2021 the Taliban re-established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with an interim government made up entirely of Taliban members. The Taliban government remains internationally unrecognized.
Prehistory
Excavations of prehistoric sites by Louis Dupree and others at Darra-e Kur in 1966 where 800 stone implements were recovered along with a fragment of Neanderthal right temporal bone, suggest that early humans were living in what is now Afghanistan at least 52,000 years ago. A cave called Kara Kamar contained Upper Paleolithic blades Carbon-14 dated at 34,000 years old. Farming communities in Afghanistan were among the earliest in the world. Artifacts indicate that the indigenous people were small farmers and herdsmen, very probably grouped into tribes, with small local kingdoms rising and falling through the ages. Urbanization may have begun as early as 2000 BCE. Gandhara is the name of an ancient kingdom from the Vedic period and its capital city located between the Hindu Kush and Sulaiman Mountains, although Kandahar in modern times and the ancient Gandhara are not geographically identical.Early inhabitants, around 3000 BCE were likely to have been connected through culture and trade to neighboring civilizations like Jiroft and Tappeh Sialk and the Indus Valley Civilisation. Urban civilization may have begun as early as 3000 BCE and it is possible that the early city of Mundigak was a part of the ancient Helmand culture. The first known people were the Indo-Iranians, but their date of arrival in the region has been estimated widely from as early as about 3000 BCE to 1500 BCE.
Indus Valley Civilisation (c. 3300 to 1300 BCE)
The Indus Valley Civilisation spanned from parts of Afghanistan to modern-day Pakistan and north-western India. An Indus valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in Afghanistan, which is the northernmost site of the Indus Valley Civilisation.Bactria–Margiana (c. 2200 – 1700 BCE)
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, also known as the Oxus civilisation, became prominent between about 2200 and 1700 BCE. The city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan was founded around this time.Ancient and Classical period (c. 1500 – 255 BCE)
Gandhara Kingdom (c. 1500 – 535 BCE)
The Gandhara region centered around the Peshawar Valley and Swat river valley, though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus river to the Taxila region in Pothohar Plateau and westwards into the Kabul and Bamyan valleys in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range.During the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra was an important imperial power in north-west South Asia, with the valley of Kaśmīra being part of the kingdom, while the other states of the Punjab region, such as the Kekayas, Madrakas, Uśīnaras, and Shivis being under Gāndhārī suzerainty. The Gāndhārī king Pukkusāti, who reigned around 550 BCE, engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with the king Pradyota of the rising power of Avanti. Pukkusāti was successful in this struggle with Pradyota.
By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus, soon after his conquests of Media, Lydia, and Babylonia, marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire. The scholar Kaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Pukkusāti remained a powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab.
Kamboja Kingdom (c. 700 – 200 BCE)
The Kambojas were an ancient southeastern Iranian peoples who lived in the southern region of modern Afghanistan. They were mentioned by a number of Indo-Aryan inscriptions and literature, being first attested during the later part of the Vedic period. The ancient Indian emperor Ashoka mentioned the Kambojas between 268 and 232 BCE in his Major Rock Edicts. The people known in Classical sources as Aspasioi, Aśvaka and Assakenoi, were likely tribes of the Kamboja people. The region south of the Hindu Kush that was inhabited by the Kambojas went under the rule of many different groups over the centuries, starting with the Achaemenid Persians.The descendants of the Kambojas have mostly been assimilated into various newer groups. However, some tribes possibly remain today that still retain the names of their ancestors. There are some theories and speculation about the possible descendants of the Kamboja people. The Yusufzai Pashtuns are said to be related to the Aspasioi or Aśvaka people from the Kamboja age. The Kom/Kamoz people of Nuristan retain their Kamboj name. The Ashkun of Nuristan also retain the name of Aśvakas. The Yashkun Shina dards are another group that retain the name of the Kamboja Aśvakans. The Kamboj of Punjab are another group that still retain the name however have integrated into new identity. The country of Cambodia derives its name from the Kamboja.
Achaemenid Empire
The area of modern Afghanistan fell to the Achaemenid Persians after it was conquered by Darius I of Persia. The land was divided into several provinces called satrapies, which were each ruled by a governor, or satrap. These ancient satrapies included: Aria: The region of Aria was separated by mountain ranges from the Paropamisadae in the east, Parthia in the west and Margiana and Hyrcania in the north, while a desert separated it from Carmania and Drangiana in the south. It is described in a very detailed manner by Ptolemy and Strabo and corresponds, according to that, almost to the Herat Province of today's Afghanistan; Arachosia, corresponds to the modern-day Kandahar, Lashkargah, and Quetta. Arachosia bordered Drangiana to the west, Paropamisadae to the north and to the east, and Gedrosia to the south. The inhabitants of Arachosia were Iranian peoples, referred to as Arachosians or Arachoti. It is assumed that they were called Pactyans by ethnicity, and that name may have been in reference to the ethnic Paṣtun tribes.Bactria was the area north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Tian Shan, with the Amu Darya flowing west through the center ; Sattagydia was the easternmost regions of the Achaemenid Empire, part of its Seventh tax district according to Herodotus, along with Gandārae, Dadicae and Aparytae. It is believed to have been situated east of the Sulaiman Mountains up to the Indus River in the basin around Bannu. ; and Gandhara which corresponds to modern day Kabul, Jalalabad, and Peshawar.