History of Afghanistan

This article relates to the Histoire of the Afghanistan .

Pre-Islamic period

The North-West of Afghanistan, the Bactriane was occupied as of the Bronze Age. It was a famous area during the Antiquité thanks to its mineral resources and with its fertile grounds. This explains why many conquerors wanted to seize some.

Several archeological sites dating for oldest from the Neolithic attest seniority of the sedentary settlement and Domestication in Afghanistan: Aq Köprük (Neolithic) in the area of Balkh, Mundigak (Chalcolithique, Bronze Age), Shortugaï (Bronze Age, Bactriane), certain sites of the archaeological Complex bactro-margien. It is by Afghanistan which pass the Indo-Aryan populations which will settle in the valley of the Indus about the middle of the 2nd millenium before J. - C.

Into the thousand-year-old 1st, part of Afghanistan is perhaps integrated into the kingdom of the Mèdes. This area is in any case integrated into the Empire of the Perses Achéménides at the 6th-5th centuries, between the reigns of Cyrus II and Darius Ier.

Statues, coins and inscriptions testify to the passage d'  Alexandre Large the towards 323 av. J.C Although its empire hardly lasted, certain Greek kingdoms as the Royaume gréco-bactrien of Bactriane in the North-East succeeded approximately two hundred years to him and was at the origin of the culture known as gréco-Buddhist.

Islamic period

Until the arrival of the Arabs in 637, the Bouddhisme was present everywhere in Afghanistan with the Zoroastrisme, as were made of them to the echo the Chinese travellers, like Xuanzang, who visited this zone at the time of their stay in India. Both Bouddhas of Bâmiyân destroyed by the Talibans in 2001 (and seen by Xuanzang) went back to this period, also marked by the establishment of the Silk route connecting the Roman Empire to the China and the India.

Little before the year 1000 was founded by Subuktigîn, son-in-law of a Turkish slave, an empire having for capital Ghaznî. His/her son Mahmûd was at the origin of a true expansion of Islam and all the area, of Afghanistan with Bénarès and Panjâb with the Goujerat, was converted by the weapons and was plundered during seventeen campaigns.

Mahmûd de Ghaznî ambitionnait to join together at its court the great minds of the time and sponsored the poet Firdawsi, writer of the Shâh Nâmâ, the mythological epopee Persian, and the large scientist encyclopedist Al-Biruni, but the " prince of the médecins" Avicenne refused to enter to its service and flees in the current Iran.

Then came the brief but devastator passage from Gengis Khan. A delegation of Gengis Khan sent to Ghaznî to obtain allegiance was returned after having had the burned beard. Humiliated, Gengis Khan gave the order to destroy all that lived, men, animals and trees.

Tamerlan included the Afghanistan in its empire, whose capital was Samarkand. Under its successors, the Timourides, Hérat was, with Samarkand, one of the headlights of the cultural and artistic period brilliant, which covers the 15th century, called Renaissance timouride.

Hérat was the capital of Shah Rukh, more young person wire of Tamerlan and father of Oulough Beg, the prince Astronome of Samarkand, then of Husayn Bayqara, large patron who made work the poet and Persan mystic Djami, the poet and Turkish minister Mir Alisher Navoï and the miniaturist Behzad, father of the Miniature indo-Persian.

Birth of the Durrani dynasty

The following centuries were dominated by the Moghols and Persians, combatant the ones the others for the control of Afghanistan. The end of this period was marked by Persian, Nadir Shah, in the middle of the 18th century, which invades Delhi and plundered the treasures of Moghols, in particular famous diamond Koh-I Nor , the mountain of light.

The Afghan tribes, in particular the Ghilzai and the Abdali , in spite of perpetual wars, found a good reason with a Persian invader to be combined but it were defeats and were subjected to Nadir Shah. But when finally this last was killed, they were released from the Persian, Indian or ouzbèque domination. In 1747, they found as an Ahmad Khan, a young commander of Nadir Shah, the leader which they needed and who took the name of Ahmad Shah.

Ahmad Shah, a warrior poet, ideal Afghan character, passed his life to fight the other tribes and subgroups and extended his empire of Persian Khorasan until Lahore. After its death, the country plunged in chaos for more than 150 years, chaos punctuated by the anglo-Afghan Guerres.

Contemporary period

April 27th, 78 - December 24th, 79: Communist government

See also: Communist government of Afghanistan

December 27th, 79 - February 15th, 89: Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

See also: First war of Afghanistan

1989-1992 - After the departure of Soviet

See also: History of Afghanistan of 1989 to 1992

1992-1996: government of the moudjahidin

See also: History of Afghanistan: Government of the moudjahidins

1996 - 2001: the capacity Taliban

The September 27th 1996, the Taliban S take the control of Kabul. As from this moment, they have an almost total control of the country. The groups armed Moudjahidins decide to be linked to form the Alliance of North, to fight the Talibans.

2001: second war of Afghanistan

See also: War of Afghanistan (2001)

The civil war between the Alliance of north and the Talibans took really fine only in 2001 after the collapse of the mode Taliban, and the setting with the capacity of Hamid Karzai, by the coalition carried out by the the United States.

Since 2001: government of Hamid Karzai

The new capacity in place, chaired by Hamid Karzai, tries to restore the order with the military support of the troops of the coalition carried out by the the United States.

The April 18th 2002, the former king d' Afghanistan Mohammed Zaher Chah returns from his exile to Rome, in Italy. Following the pressures étasuniennes which want to make of Afghanistan a Démocratie, it gives up reigning again.

The June 13rd, the Loya Jirga (“Large assembly” in French) elects officially Hamid Karzai chief of the Executive power for a two years mandate. After, national elections will have to be organized so that the people can elect to him even his president.

The August 11th 2003, under mandate of UNO until in 2005, NATO takes officially the command of the International Security Assistance Forcel (ISAF), whose mandate is renewed by UNO until in 2005.

In October 2004, the Kabul capital is the only place of the country where the government of Hamid Karzai is more or less effective.

In the remainder of the country, the war leaders, resulting from the old Alliance of North, make very to preserve their capacity. Several of them were integrated into the provisional government. But from semi-2004, Hamid Karzai and its close relations dismiss the war leaders of the government gradually.

Their side, the few Talibans groups remaining, try to destroy the government of Hamid Karzai by making attacks.

The October 9th 2004, the Afghans (men and women) are called with the ballot boxes to elect their president. Hamid Karzai is officially elected the November 3rd, as of the first turn, with 55,4% of the voices. Its principal rival, Younous Qanouni, is beaten with 16,3% of the voices. The election was sullied with some problems , but according to the international observers, these problems were not enough important to distort the end result.

The December 23rd, Hamid Karzai presents her new government, which counts 27 ministers on the whole. Its will to draw aside from the capacity the various Afghan war leaders now entered the facts. The only war leader still present in the government is Ismail Khan, as a Minister for energy.

Violence is not extinct in certain areas: six police officers were decapitated and four others were killed on July 9th, 2005 in the south of the country by rebels Talibans.

The September 18th 2005, 12,5 million Afghan and Afghan take part in the legislative elections. Emma Bonino, it responsible for the mission of observation of the European Union (EU), expressed doubts on the true impact on the Afghan political life: " These elections will not lead to a viable democracy because of the imperfections of the electoral system, of the influence of the lords of the war, the setting to the variation of the political parties by Karzai and the continuation of the civil war in certain parts of the country, which prevented the observers from going in the polling stations of 5 of the 34 provinces. ". However, the enthusiasm of Afghan for these elections perhaps regarded as exceptional. Some did not hesitate to traverse with feet several kilometers to go to their polling station and that in spite of the threats of the Talibans. These elections are also the first where women can sit at the Parliament, on the 5.800 candidates for the 249 seats of the Parliament and the 420 stations of the provincial councils, there were 565 women. And whatever the results, normally available to October, 25% of the seats of the Parliament and 30% of those of the municipal councils theirs are reserved according to the Constitution. According to the special correspondent of the British newspaper The Independent , they could have a significant impact on the political life, because " it is largely allowed among the Afghan population that the women less corruptible and are detached from the tribal bonds. They do not have blood on the hands and were not implied in the atrocities which marked the country. This last point is an asset which could even push the men to be voted for them. "

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