Tag: Afghanistan

Between 1885 and 1895, the borders with Russia and British India were demarcated. Abdoer Rahman (1901) started modernization; he created a paid army and civil service and succeeded in bringing centripetal tribes into line. The British had maintained Afghanistan’s independence largely because they expected it to act as a buffer between British India and Russia. In 1907, an Anglo-Russian treaty was concluded, in which Petersburg resigned itself to British influence over Afghanistan. In 1919 Emir Habibullah demanded complete independence. Then he was murdered. After a short civil war, his son Amanoellah came to the throne. British-Afghan War. In Aug. 1919, the Rawalpindi armistice was concluded, with London granting complete sovereignty to Afghanistan, which was ratified in the peace treaty (1921). Amanoellah was on friendly terms with the USSR. His impetuous drive for reform, based on the example of the Turkish statesman Kemal Pasha, proved fatal for him. In 1929 he was deposed and went into exile. His successor Nadir Khan was assassinated in 1933, after which his 19-year-old son Mohammed Zahir Shah came to the throne. During the first three decades of his 40-year reign, governments were always led by members of the royal family. Zahir’s cousin Daud was Prime Minister from 1953 to 1963. He strove for more vigorous modernization of the country. Daud took a sharper turn against Pakistan, which refused to allow its Pakistani minority self-determination. Shortly after the creation of Pakistan (1947), the Afghan government had unsuccessfully pushed for a popular vote among the Pakistani Pathans. Due to this conflict, Daud was inclined to make overtures to the USSR and India. See top-medical-schools for Afghanistan Travel Guide.