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In the old days

Thousands of years ago, people lived in what is now Afghanistan. They practiced arable farming, mostly moved to the vicinity of oases and even built town-like settlements.
From 500 BC The region belonged to the great empire of the Persians. After Alexander the Great conquered the country, his successors ruled the vast empire. This divided into an eastern, ruled by the Parthians, and a western, ruled by the Sassanids.

Influence of Buddhism

Buddhism spread particularly in the eastern part of Afghanistan. Temples and Buddha images in this region still bear witness to this today. Different rulers and empires took turns until the Arabs brought Islam to the region. But Islam did not gain acceptance in this region as easily as in other areas. Ultimately, however, Sunni Islam spread and an economic boom, which was only ended again by the attack by the Mongols in the 13th century. The Mongols destroyed much in the region. As a result, rulers alternated again and again, with important cities such as Herat or today’s capital Kabuloften under different rulers. Herat was under the Persians and Kabul was part of India. Kandahar was practically in the middle.

Who are the Pashtuns?

The Pashtun tribe played and still plays an important role in the history of Afghanistan. These come from the area of ​​today’s Afghanistan and repeatedly rebelled against foreign rulers in the country. Above all the Persians were fought. A Pashtun named Ahmad Shah Durrani played an important role. In the middle of the 18th century he created an independent kingdom in eastern Persia. The Pashtuns found approval from various tribes such as the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyz and Hazara. Since then one speaks of a “state of Afghanistan”. At that time it was still an independent kingdom in the east of Persia. Yet Durrani is seen as the founder of Afghanistan. The designation “Afghanistan” as the official name of a state was only introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.

Modern Afghanistan is emerging

Another important figure in Afghanistan’s history was Abdur Rahmann Khan. He was emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901. While he was ruling Afghanistan, the border was established, which as head of state he did not establish himself, but which Great Britain and Russia established.

Division of the Pashtun territory

An important date was the year 1893, in which a partition was made between Afghanistan and India, which at that time still belonged to the colonial empire of Great Britain. At the same time, the area in which the Pashtun tribe lived was also divided. One part now belonged to Afghanistan, the other part to later Pakistan (at that time still part of British India). The Pashtuns remained the rulers of Afghanistan almost continuously.

In the 20th century

In 1921, as a country located in Asia according to topb2bwebsites, Afghanistan was recognized as an independent state by Great Britain and Russia and was a constitutional monarchy from 1925. During the 30s of the last century, the German National Socialists gained in importance in Afghanistan, as Wehrmacht officers helped build the army and the police. However, during the Second World War, the Afghan government at the time did not support the German Reich, but acted neutrally.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War, the country was admitted to the United Nations and was initially a constitutional monarchy until the Republic of Afghanistan was proclaimed in 1973 after a coup by Daoud Khan, the former prime minister. He ruled like a dictator and was deposed a few years later. Power now took over members of the Khalq party, which he had fought earlier.

Afghanistan should become a socialist state

They planned to turn Afghanistan into a socialist state. But this was not that easy, because neither the clergy of Islam nor the people whose property was expropriated wanted to submit. There was fierce resistance among the population.

Mujahed

A fighter for Islam is called a mujahed (plural: mujahedin). This can be interpreted in several ways. For example, a mujahid is a believing person who studies, disseminates and teaches their Islamic faith. But also Islamic combat groups who want to violently spread Islam and carry out terrible terrorism call themselves mujahideen. We usually understand the term negatively because we associate it with terrorist groups.