Afghanistan has been a land of much contention. First-world and second-world powers have vied for their allegiance and possession because of their strategic placement as a Middle Eastern bulwark between many different conflict zones.
It’s an ancient place fraught with a history of conquest and conquerors, which unfortunately lasts up to this very day.
Recently, the Taliban forces captured the capital city of Kabul and have undertaken the sweeping process of undoing all western-inspired changes and modernizations that American troops helped protect.
This new leadership has compromised schools, universities, monuments, civics centers, and even basic infrastructure and supply lines.
This is not the first time Afghanistan has fallen into the hands of a hostile force.
The history of Afghanistan at war in the modern era reaches back to the 1970s with the first of many bloody coups, and the Taliban began a sharp rise to power in the Soviet-Afghan war.
Before that, however, Afghanistan was a far more peaceful place full of kind people and rich, shared heritage of middle eastern culture that did not oppress its people.
10 /10 The Land Of Horsemen
Afghanistan started, informally, in the late BC eras. It was once conquered by Alexander the Great as part of his massive eastward expansion, then by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century, and by Genghis Khan in the 13th.
At that time, Afghanistan was not a whole, united region. That began in the 1700s when it was viewed from other countries as one impassible land of mountains and strict valleys.
It became a predominantly Islam nation in the 1800s when Arab invaders owned it most of the time.
9 /10 British-Afghan Wars
Britain was the first of many western powers to note Afghanistan’s strategic and resource power, particularly for its proximity between Russia and their trading empire in India.
They committed to three wars in 1838 to 1842, 1878 to 1880, and finally in 1919 to 1921, which they lost, causing Afghanistan to become an independent nation for the first time in modern history.