History of Afghanistan

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today's national flag of Afghanistan

The history of Afghanistan encompasses developments in the area of ​​the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from prehistory to the present. The name Afghanistan was officially mentioned for the first time in 1801 in the Anglo-Persian peace treaty. The state of Afghanistan, which has been independent since 1919, goes back to a great empire founded by Ahmad Shah Durranis in 1747. Before the Pashtun empires were founded, the area of ​​present-day Afghanistan is seen as a transit country for nomads and conquerors.

From antiquity to modern times

The Achaemenid Persian Empire around 500 BC Chr.
Diodotos I, founder of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

In the north of Afghanistan flourished in the third and second millennium BC. The so-called oasis culture . The people lived from agriculture and sometimes lived in places that already had an urban character. Individual fortified buildings indicate princely seats and a clearly socially structured society. Bronze and gold were processed. This culture went around 1700 BC. Under. There are comparable finds from the south of the country, which are referred to in more recent literature as the Helmand culture . An important place is especially Mundigak , where a temple and a palace have been excavated. Said Qala Tepe (in present-day Iran ) further south brought comparable finds to light.

The area of ​​today's Afghanistan is from about 2000 BC. First mentioned historically. In the first millennium BC Afghanistan became part of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus II (559 to 529 BC) . Six satrapies were on the territory of Afghanistan. Haraiva (around Herat ), Bactria (in the north), Zranka in the south, Harahuvati around Kandahar , Satagush around Kabul and Gandhara in the far northeast. The provincial capital of Harahuvati was probably Kandahar, where some texts in the Elamite language were also found.

Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire and with it the satrapies in the east of the empire. After his death, Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire . Numerous Greeks came to the region. Ai Khanoum was a largely Greek city that is well known from excavations. The presence of Greeks is attested in other places as well. Corinthian capitals were found in Bactra . As early as 305 BC Chr. The south of the country passed under Chandragupta Maurya to the Maurya empire . One of the Ashoka edicts was found near Kandahar , which is bilingual: Greek and Aramaic .

256 BC The Greek-Bactrian Kingdom was founded by Diodotos I in Bactria . The history of this kingdom is largely in the dark. Wars and dynastic conflicts that historians have reconstructed over the past 100 years are to be largely rejected. The rulers are best known for their coinage. But there are also occasional mentions by classical authors. Menandros (ruled around 165 BC to 130 BC) is also mentioned in Buddhist sources. He conquered parts of India and was also known to western historians as a powerful conqueror. Between 141 and 129 BC The Yuezhi , an equestrian people, conquered and destroyed the Greek-Bactrian kingdom. The story of the following years is unclear. Parts of Afghanistan seem to have come under Parthian rule, while there were probably also various small kingdoms (in the Hindu Kush and Pakistan) whose rulers had Greek names and minted coins in the Greek style. In the first century BC The Indo-Scythian dynasty also ruled parts of the country a little later, in the first century AD, the Indo-Parthian kingdom .

At a certain point in time, the Kushana took control of the region. Under the rule of the Kushana dynasty, Buddhism gradually established itself in the Hindu Kush area . Between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, a number of Buddhist sites - stupas , temples and monasteries - arose along the trade routes at that time , both south and north of the Hindu Kush Mountains. In Begram it is probably the ancient Kapisa, one of the summer residences of the Kushan.

In late antiquity , the so-called Iranian Huns settled in Bactria , some of which represented a serious threat to the Sassanid Empire. The Chionite attacks began around 350, followed by several waves from other tribal groups. The last rulership of the "Iranian Huns", the Hephthalite Empire, was destroyed by the Sassanids and Gök Turks around 560 . After the fall of the Sassanid Empire (the last great king was assassinated in 651) and the invasion of the Muslim Arabs ( Islamic expansion ), Persian local dynasties, which were subordinate to the Muslim caliphate, dominated until the Middle Ages . Nevertheless, Islam established itself relatively slowly in this region, not least because of the strong resistance of the Buddhist Turk Shahi and the Hindu Hindu Shahi . According to an Islamic chronicle, it was not until the end of the 10th century, i.e. after the great migration of the Turks into the Iranian highlands , that most of the inhabitants in the Ghur area (between Herat and Kabul) were Muslims. At that time (983) there was still a Hindu kingdom under King Jaipal in Ohind (i.e. in Gandhara) , so that this can be doubted. Ultimately, however, Islam, especially in its Sunni form, rose to become the predominant religion. The Samanids , Ghaznavids and Ghurids saw a political, economic and cultural heyday in the region.

This flourishing urban culture was badly damaged by the Mongol attack in the 13th century. As a result, the Kartids briefly maintained a certain independence of the region before Timur Lenk founded the Turkish-Persian Timurid Empire, temporarily with Herat as its capital.

From the 16th century, Herat and Ghur belonged to the Safavid Empire , while Kabul was under the Mughal Empire . Kandahar belonged alternately to Persia and India until some Pashtun tribes rose up against the Persians and Mughals in the 18th century.

The Pashtuns

Settlement area of ​​the Pashtuns

The history of modern Afghanistan is inextricably linked with the national history of the Pashtuns . Countless Pashtun uprisings against the respective rulers (Persian Safavids and Indian Moguls) finally led to the overthrow of the Safavids in Persia (1722) with the uprising of the Ghilzai tribe (1722) (see also: Hotaki dynasty ). This Pashtun victory did not last long. Only seven years later they were defeated by Nadir Shah and forced back to Kandahar . With the subsequent conquests of Nadir Shah (1736–1747), the Persian Empire temporarily regained control of the region that is now called Afghanistan . After his murder, the Durrani tribe , who were allied with Nadir Shah against the Ghilzai and fought under his command, took power independently. Their leader, the Pashtun Ahmad Shah Durrani , founded an independent kingdom in eastern Persia in 1747, known as the Durrani Empire . He is generally considered to be the founder of Afghanistan, because his kingdom served as the forerunner and pioneer of the modern state. With two minor exceptions, the Pashtuns have ruled the country consistently since it was founded.

19th and early 20th centuries

Central Asia at the end of the 19th century
Soldiers from Herat during the Anglo-Afghan Wars , 1879

The name Afghanistan literally means land of Afghans . Already in the tschagataischsprachigen memoirs Babur from the 16th century, the word is mentioned in a regionally limited sense. The common name of today's area was Khorasan . Afghanistan became the official name of the kingdom in the early 20th century. Because of internal tribal disputes, the country was divided and there was significant interference from outside in the early 19th century, especially by the English and Russians.

In the 19th century the conflict between the colonial powers Russia and Great Britain ( The Great Game ) led to the intervention of the British in a war of heir to the throne in Afghanistan. Several Anglo-Afghan wars followed , the first from 1839 to 1842. The British attempt to occupy Afghanistan and annex India failed. The second Afghan-Afghan War 1878–1881 did not change the status quo.

The English decided to put Abdur Rahman Khan (* 1844, † October 1, 1901), a grandson of Dost Mohammed, on the throne. Abdur Rahman is widely regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan. Under his rule, the British and Russians established what is now Afghanistan's borders. In 1893, the Durand Line created a demarcation line between Afghanistan and British India, which established responsibility for the respective areas. But it also cut through the settlement area of ​​the largest people in this region, the Pashtuns. In 1898 Afghanistan was awarded the southern part of the Bukhara Khanate ( southern Turkestan ) and thus its northern border, which is still valid today.

During the First World War , the German and the Ottoman Empire tried to pull Afghanistan into war on the side of the Central Powers (→ Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition ).

The Peace of Rawalpindi ended the third Afghan-British War in 1919, brought sovereignty to the country and led to the Treaty of Kabul (1921) with the recognition of the full independence of Afghanistan by Great Britain and Russia. A constitutional kingdom had existed since 1925. After the assassination of the Shah Mohammed Nadir on November 8, 1933, his brother and Prince Sardar Mohammed Haschim Khan ascended the throne. Together with other brothers, he was elected as prime minister regent for the 19-year-old heir to the throne, Mohammed Sahir Shah.

In the second half of the 1930s, the German Reich signed several state treaties with Afghanistan in the military, economic and cultural fields. In terms of security policy, Afghanistan united in the Treaty of Saadabad of July 8, 1937 with Iraq , Iran and Turkey on a mutual non-aggression basis against the Soviet Union .

Officers of the Wehrmacht modernized Afghanistan army, police and secret services were reorganized by Germans. Germany was in charge of the entire agricultural and industrial planning as well as the expansion of Afghanistan's roads. The National Socialists also intervened in the entire education and training system. Despite close trade relations with Germany, Italy and Japan, Sahir Shah declared the country's neutrality at the beginning of the Second World War .

Cold War period (after 1945)

King Mohammed Nadir Shah

After the recommendation that the country be admitted to the United Nations by Resolution 8 of the UN Security Council , it joined the United Nations on November 19, 1946.

It was not until 1964 that a new constitution was passed by the Loya Jirga (Grand Council) and the constitutional monarchy was introduced.

The first free elections took place in September 1965. For the first time a ministry, the Ministry of Health, was given to a woman (MP K. Noorzai). Again and again there were serious disputes between the people and crises due to food shortages. On July 17, 1973, in the absence of King Mohammed Sahir Shah , who was on a spa stay in Italy, a coup led by his cousin, the former Prime Minister General Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan , which resulted in relatively few victims. Daoud Khan proclaimed the Republic of Afghanistan and immediately took over all politically important offices: he became president, head of government, defense and foreign ministers in personal union. On August 24, 1973, the overthrown King Mohammed Sahir abdicated the Shah at Daoud Khan's request. In terms of foreign policy, Daoud Khan sought to maintain Afghanistan's status as a buffer state between the Soviet Union and the West. Daoud's government developed into a brutal dictatorship and was fought from the outset by both the left opposition, which was particularly organized in the Khalq Party (German People's Party), and by Islamic groups from illegality and exile in Pakistan. The leaders of the Khalq party saw infiltration of the Afghan military and the implementation of a coup d'état as a necessary means of seizing power.

The fight against Daoud Khan culminated in the Saur Revolution in April 1978, in which the Afghan dictator was deposed and executed by the military after a bloody siege of his residence. The new rulers in the state renamed the “ Democratic Republic of Afghanistan ” were the leaders of the previously illegal Khalq party, Nur Muhammad Taraki , Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal . They made a radical attempt to develop the underdeveloped country into a modern socialist state through land reform and other measures. Their dependence on Soviet aid increased when the large landowners expropriated during the land reform, together with the local Muslim clergy, called for armed resistance against the new regime, with support from the Chinese and, a little later, from the American side. In addition, the Khalq party began to radicalize itself and to expel, arrest or murder members opposing Taraki from its ranks. One of Taraki's most dangerous opponents was Hafizullah Amin, who succeeded in killing Taraki, who was friendly to the Soviet Union in October 1979.

When the government became more and more defensive against the conservative-Islamic forces, the then Soviet government marched into Afghanistan on December 25, 1979 and installed Karmal as president. Amin was murdered by Soviet special forces during the invasion. Afghanistan became the scene of a " proxy war " in the conflict between the power blocs dominated by the Soviet Union and the USA. However, the Soviets did not succeed in breaking the resistance of the various Islamic groups ( mujahideen ), although they were superior in terms of weapons technology. The last Soviet troops left the country on February 15, 1989. The Afghan resistance fighters finally won the conflict with the help of the same guerrilla tactics (avoidance of open field battles) as in the Afghan-British wars; they could also count on support from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA, which for example bought and delivered Chinese weapons for the mujahideen. Mercenaries were recruited, especially in orthodox Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia , who settled in the fragmented country after the end of the war.

Islamic State of Afghanistan

After the then government of the Soviet Union had completely withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan in February 1989, the fighting between the government supported by the Soviet Union and the mujahideen continued. With the support of the Soviet Union, the government of Mohammed Najibullah was able to survive. In 1991 the Soviet Union disintegrated . Najibullah could no longer hold out and on April 18, 1992, the troops of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Raschid Dostum captured Kabul.

In April 1992 the Islamic State of Afghanistan was founded by the Peshawar Accords. With the support of Pakistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyār began a year-long war in Kabul against the Islamic State, which destroyed large parts of Kabul. In addition, there was a cruel war between other warring militias. Southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of the central government nor under the control of externally controlled militias like the Hekmatyārs. Local militia or tribal leaders ruled the south. In 1994 the Taliban first appeared in the southern city of Kandahar. The Taliban movement originally came from religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, which were mostly run by the Pakistani political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam . During 1994 the Taliban took power in various southern and western provinces of Afghanistan.

At the end of 1994 the Afghan Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud succeeded in militarily defeating Hekmatyār and the various militias in Kabul. The bombing of the capital was stopped. Massoud initiated a nationwide political process aimed at national consolidation and democratic elections. Three conferences were held with representatives from many parts of Afghanistan. Massoud invited the Taliban to join this process and help create stability. The Taliban refused. Instead of a democracy, they wanted to establish a dictatorial emirate.

In early 1995, the Taliban launched large-scale bombing campaigns against Kabul. Amnesty International wrote:

"This is the first time in a few months that the civilians of Kabul have been the target of bombing attacks on residential areas in the city."

The Taliban suffered a crushing defeat against Massoud's forces.

Taliban emirate versus United Front

Territorial control of Afghanistan in winter 1996: Massoud (blue), Taliban (green), Dostum (pink), Hezb-i Wahdat (yellow)

In September 1996, the Taliban reformed with military support from Pakistan and financial aid from Saudi Arabia. They were planning another major offensive against Kabul. On September 26, 1996, Massoud ordered a strategic withdrawal of his troops to northern Afghanistan. On September 27, 1996 the Taliban invaded Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which was only recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, to which Defense Minister Massoud belonged, remained the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan (with its seat at the United Nations).

Former opponents Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Raschid Dostum originally founded the United Front in response to massive Taliban offensives against the areas under Massoud's control on the one hand and the areas under Dostum's control on the other. However, the United Front soon developed into a national political resistance movement against the Taliban. With their help, Ahmad Shah Massoud pursued the goal of establishing a democratic form of government in Afghanistan. The Hazara ethnic group, persecuted by the Taliban, joined the United Front, as did the Pashtun leaders Abdul Qadir and Hamid Karzai , who later became the president of Afghanistan from the south. Qadir came from an influential family who enjoyed great influence in the Pashtun east of Afghanistan around Jalalabad .

Ahmad Shah Massoud remained the only commander who was able to successfully defend his territories against the Taliban from 1998 onwards. Pakistan intervened militarily on the side of the Taliban, but could not bring about a defeat for Massoud. The Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf - then u. a. as chief of staff of the military - dispatched tens of thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Al-Qaeda against the forces of Massoud. A total of 28,000 Pakistani citizens are estimated to have fought within Afghanistan. Another 3,000 soldiers on the Taliban's side were militiamen from Arab countries or Central Asia. Out of an estimated 45,000 soldiers who fought against the United Front within Afghanistan, only about 14,000 were Afghans.

The Taliban imposed their political and legal interpretation of Islam on the areas under their control. Half of the population, the women, lived under house arrest. According to a United Nations report, the Taliban systematically massacred civilians while trying to consolidate control in western and northern Afghanistan. The United Nations named 15 massacres in the years 1996 to 2001. These were "highly systematic and all attributable to the Ministry of Defense [the Taliban] or Mullah Omar personally." The so-called 055 Al-Qaeda Brigade was also involved in atrocities against the Afghan civilian population involved. The United Nations report cites testimonies that describe Arab militia officers carrying long knives with which they cut throats and skinned people.

In early 2001, the United Front adopted a new strategy of local military pressure and a global political agenda. Resentment and resistance to the Taliban, based on the roots of Afghan society, grew stronger. This also affected the Pashtun areas. In total, an estimated one million people fled the Taliban. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled to the areas of Ahmad Shah Massoud. The National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban" concludes:

"The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud."

In spring 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels and asked the international community for humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda had introduced a "very wrong interpretation of Islam" and that if the Taliban did not have the support of Pakistan, they would not be able to continue their military campaigns for one year. During his visit to Europe, during which the President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine called him the “Pole of Freedom in Afghanistan”, Massoud warned that his secret service had information that a large-scale attack on American soil was imminent.

After September 11, 2001

After the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 the United States began on October 7 with the Operation Enduring Freedom , the overthrow in 1996 in Afghanistan ruling Taliban system and operating there after US data terrorist organization Al-Qaeda with their leader Osama bin Laden by massive Smash attacks from the air. While there was consensus among the NATO states that the military strike was justified, demonstrations against the war took place in Islamic countries, for example in neighboring Pakistan. The capital Kabul fell on November 13, 2001. A few weeks after the first attacks, the Northern Alliance , which until then controlled about ten percent of the country, managed to take almost the entire country. After the first international Afghanistan conference in Bonn , Hamid Karzai was installed as transitional president in 2002 and an international protection force was set up under the ISAF command.

See also

List of heads of state of Afghanistan

literature

Web links

Commons : History of Afghanistan  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Andreas Wilde: Afghanistan - History, Politics, Society. Federal Agency for Civic Education , October 15, 2018, accessed on July 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Viktor Sarianidi The Art of Ancient Afghanistan. Architecture, ceramics, seals, works of art made of stone and metal. VCH, Acta Humaniora, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-527-17561-X (good summary, but no longer up to date with the latest research).
  3. ^ History of Afghanistan - Chronicle from the Beginnings to December 2002. (PDF) Retrieved November 21, 2017 .
  4. ↑ S. Glenn: Heliocles and Laodice of Bactria: a Reconsideration , in: The Numismatic Chronicle 174 (2014), pp. 45-59
  5. ↑ Kosaku Maeda: The Mural Paintings of the Buddhas of Bamiyan: Description and Conservation Operations. In: Juliette van Krieken-Pieters (Ed.): Art and Archeology of Afghanistan. Its fall and survival. A multi-disciplinary Approach (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section 8: Handbook of Uralic Studies. Vol. 14). Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden et al. a. 2006, ISBN 90-04-15182-6 , pp. 127–144, here p. 129.
  6. ^ Baburnama in the translation by Annette S. Beveridge.
  7. ↑ a b Afghanistan expert Christian Sigrist in an interview ( memento from February 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at Q History , 7/2010.
  8. ^ Gerhard Schreiber : The political and military development in the Mediterranean area 1939/40. In: Gerhard Schreiber, Bernd Stegemann, Detlef Vogel: The Mediterranean and Southeast Europe. From the “non belligeranza” of Italy to the entry into the war of the United States (= The German Reich and the Second World War. Vol. 3). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-421-06097-5 , pp. 4-271, pp. 145 ff.
  9. ^ Stephan Massing: Afghanistan. History since 1747.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mohammed S. Agwani: The Saur Revolution and After. In: Kashi P. Misra (ed.): Afghanistan in Crisis. Advent Books, New York NY 1981, ISBN 0-89891-003-X , pp. 1-18.
  11. ↑ In 1977, according to MS Agwani, 90% of all Afghan men and 98% of all Afghan women were illiterate.
  12. ↑ Kamal Matinuddin: The Taliban Phenomenon. Afghanistan. 1994-1997. Oxford University Press, Karachi et al. a. 1999, ISBN 0-19-577903-7 , pp. 25-26.
  13. ^ A b c Amnesty International: Document - Afghanistan: Further Information on Fear for Safety and new Concern: deliberate and arbitrary Killings: Civilians in Kabul. ( Memento of July 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) November 16, 1995. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  14. ↑ Afghanistan escalation of indiscriminate shelling in Kabul . International Committee of the Red Cross. 1995. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  15. ↑ a b c d e Marcela Grad: Massoud. An intimate Portrait of the legendary Afghan Leader. Webster University Press, St. Louis MO 2009, ISBN 978-0-9821615-0-0 .
  16. ↑ see video
  17. ↑ Steve Coll : Ghost Wars. The secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Penguin Books, London 2005, ISBN 0-14-102080-6 , p. 14.
  18. ^ Documents Detail Years of Pakistani Support for Taliban, Extremists . George Washington University . 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  19. ↑ a b c Inside the Taliban . National Geographic . 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  20. ^ History Commons . History Commons. 2010. Archived from the original on January 25, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  21. ↑ a b c Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast . Ahmed Rashid in the Telegraph. 2001. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  22. ^ The Taliban's War on Women. A Health and Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan . Physicians for Human Rights. 1998. Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  23. ↑ a b c d Newsday: Taliban massacres outlined for UN . Chicago Tribune. October 2001. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  24. ↑ a b c d Newsday: Confidential UN report details mass killings of civilian villagers . newsday.org. 2001. Archived from the original on November 18, 2002. Retrieved October 12, 2001.
  25. ↑ a b Steve Coll: Ghost Wars. The secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Penguin Books, New York NY 2004, ISBN 1-59420-007-6 .
  26. ↑ a b c Massoud in the European Parliament 2001 . EU media. 2001. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  27. ↑ Inside the Taliban . National Geographic . 2007. Archived from the original on August 13, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  28. ^ Defense Intelligence Agency (2001) report