Afghanistan. – La Ville de Caboul

Title

Afghanistan. – La Ville de Caboul

Description

General view of the city of Cabul in Afghanistan.

ca. 1850

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

In ancient times, the area of today's Afghanistan, which corresponds to the east of the ancient "Aryānām Xšaθra", belonged to the Persian Empire. Later, a Greek-Bactrian kingdom emerged in Bactria, which was ruled by the descendants of the troops of Alexander the Great. The history of modern Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the national history of the Pashtuns. Countless Pashtun uprisings against the respective rulers (Persian Safavids and Indian Moguls) finally led to the uprising of the Ghilzai tribe (1719) to overthrow the Safavids in Persia (1722). This Pashtun victory did not last long. Only seven years later they were defeated by Nader Shah and pushed back to Kandahar. With the subsequent conquests of Nader Shah (1736–1747), the Persian Empire temporarily regained control of the region that is now called Afghanistan. Pashtune Ahmad Shah Durrani founded an independent Pashtun kingdom in the east of his empire in 1747 after the death of Nader Shah Afshar, which can be seen as the predecessor of the modern state of Afghanistan. He is generally considered the founder of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Russian and British colonial interests (The Great Game) clashed. Since the establishment of the Imperial Russian Navy by Tsar Peter the Great, the goal of Russian expansion policy has been to advance to the Indian Ocean and build an ice-free port there. In order to forestall Russia, Afghanistan should be conquered and annexed to what would later become British India as part of the British Empire. The British were able to occupy the country, but were unable to achieve their goals. As early as October 1842, the British troops withdrew from Kabul and subsequently from Afghanistan. Since 1933, there was a constitutional kingdom headed by Mohammed Zahir Shah (Mohammedzai). Zahir Shah ushered in a democratic turn in Afghanistan.