Afghanistan’s history is marred by the invasions of the Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Hephthalites, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, British, Soviets, and lately by the Americans and allies.
From 330 BC -323BC Afghanistan was under Alexander the Great who took over from the Persians. After 323 BC it became a part of the Seleucid empire followed by the Mayuran dynasty. From 256 BC-130 BC, it was under the Arsacids Empire and Parthian Empire. Many invasions followed after that. From 661AD-750 AD it was under the Arabs. During this period Islam was introduced in Afghanistan. Arabs were replaced by Persians again while they in turn were replaced by the Turkic Ghaznavids. In 1219AD Afghanistan was invaded by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan. In 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founded present-day Afghanistan.
In the nineteenth century after the Anglo-Indian wars, most of the part of Afghanistan went under the rule of the British. Following the accession of King Amanullah Khan to the throne in 1919 Afghanistan attained its full independence.
History of modern Afghanistan consisting of people politics started in the year 1978. In 1978 the communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan took over control of Afghanistan. During this time the Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Friendship with the ruling extremist party of Afghanistan and supported their government with arms and ammunition. The control of the regime in Afghanistan depended on the Soviets. Gradually the regime’s army collapsed. Relations between Afghanistan and the USSR became strained by October 1979 over Hafizullah Amin’s refusal to take advice from the Soviets on how to take care of the falling government.
On 24th December 1979 Soviets invaded Afghanistan killing Hafizullah Amin. In the meantime, as a part of the Cold war strategy, the US government undertook the heinous strategy of secretly employing the Pakistan secret agency (ISI) to train anti-government Mujahideen forces from among the disgruntled Muslims of Afghanistan who was against the communist regime of their invaders. As a result, the Soviets could not establish their authority over there due to the resistance of these Afghan freedom fighters, Mujahideen, or trained terrorists. USA’s strategy reaped success as the Soviets were forced to withdraw in 1989.
Taliban Afghanistan’s history started following the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The country was torn apart by fights among the different Mujahideen factions. This breakdown of government machinery and frequent bloodbaths led to the rising of the Taliban. They were politico-religious forces who captured Kabul in 1996 and by 2000 whole of Afghanistan went under their control. After the 11th September 2001 attack, the USA attacked Afghanistan to erase the Al-Qaeda terrorist network operational in Afghanistan and oust the Taliban Government. Then in the 2004 elections, held for the first time in the political history of Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai was elected as the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Now Taliban announces a new government in Afghanistan with Mohammad Hasan Akhund as the Prime Minister.
