Parts of Afghanistan were previously part of the ancient Indian kingdom of Gandhara, a region in what is now northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. We first get a clear glimpse into Afghanistan’s history around 500 BCE, when it formed the eastern part of the Achaemenid Persian empire. The Pamir Knot - where the Hindu Kush, Pamir, Tian Shan, Kunlun, and Himalayas all meet is situated in Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan.Ī survey of Afghanistan’s history demonstrates how difficult it is to occupy and govern the country. These include the Hindu Kush, which dominates the country and run through the center and south of the country, as well as the Pamir mountains in the east. Afghanistan is dominated by some of the highest and more jagged mountains in the world. Third, the physical terrain of Afghanistan makes conquest and rule extremely difficult, exacerbating its tribal tendencies.
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Second, because of the frequency of invasion and the prevalence of tribalism in the area, its lawlessness lead to a situation where almost every village or house was built like a fortress, or qalat.First, because Afghanistan is located on the main land route between Iran, Central Asia, and India, it has been invaded many times and settled by a plethora of tribes, many mutually hostile to each other and outsiders.Attempts at anything resembling centralized control, even by native Afghan governments, have largely failed.Īfghanistan is particularly hard to conquer primarily due to the intersection of three factors. They managed to loosely control the area by paying off various tribes, or granting them autonomy. The closest most historical empires have come to controlling Afghanistan was by adopting a light-handed approach, as the Mughals did.
AFGHANISTAN GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES SERIES
If the United States and its allies decide to leave Afghanistan, they would only the latest in a long series of nations to do so.Īs the British learned in their 1839-1842 war in Afghanistan, it is often easier to do business with a local ruler with popular support than to support a leader backed by foreign powers the costs of propping up such a leader eventually add up. Empire after empire, nation after nation have failed to pacify what is today the modern territory of Afghanistan, giving the region the nickname “Graveyard of Empires, ” even if sometimes those empires won some initial battles and made inroads into the region.
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Afghanistan is a notoriously difficult country to govern.