Afghanistan

//Afghanistan: The Friendliest Country in the World, Possibly the Universe."//
 * This is __// VICTORIA LYNN'S ﻿ //__ wiki page and no one is allowed to edit this page without MY permission (unless you're Mrs. Wheeler . If you DO edit this, I will tell Mrs. Wheeler, and I will find you PERSONALLY myself and deal with you then. Thank you and have a nice day :) (P.S. I am sorry for any misspelled words or table malfunctions. Like North Korea, I hate tables too. :) ) **


 * **English Translation** ||
 * **This land is Afghanistan - It is the pride of every Afghan**
 * The land of peace, the land of the sword - Its sons are all brave**
 * This is the country of every tribe - Land of Baluch, and Uzbeks**
 * Pashtoons, and Hazaras - Turkman and Tajiks with them,**
 * Arabs and Gojars, Pamirian, Nooristanis**
 * Barahawi, and Qizilbash - Also Aimaq, and Pashaye**
 * This Land will shine for ever - Like the sun in the blue sky**
 * In the chest of Asia - It will remain as the heart for ever**
 * We will follow the one God - We all say, Allah is great, we all say, Allah is great** ||


 * = History Summary

History summary is listed below. ||= History Timeline

For the full timeline, click there. Yeah. The link RIGHT under this. Click it. It won't BITE you. Go ahead. CLICK IT.

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> 3000 BC - 2000 BC Bronze Age

> 2000 BC - 1500 BC Aryan Tribes in Aryana Emperor Yama (Ancient Afghanistan) >> ... >> ... >> ... >>
 * It has been indicated the Bronze have been invented in ancient Afghanistan around this time.
 * Urbanization and trade grows, making it an important point between Mesopotamian and other civilizations to emerge as the present day’s “Crossroads of Asia”.
 * First true urban centers rise in two main sites in Afghanistan--Mundigak, and Deh Morasi Ghundai.
 * Mundigak (near modern day Kandahar)--had an economic base of wheat, barley, sheep and goats. Also, evidence indicates that Mudigak could have been a provincial capital of the Indus valley civilization.
 * Ancient Afghanistan--crossroads between Mesopotamia, and other Civilizations.
 * The City of Kabul is thought to have been established during this time.
 * Rig Veda may have been created in Afghanistan around this time.
 * Evidence of early nomadic iron age in Aq Kapruk IV.

 329 BC - 326 BC Hellenistic period

> 323 BC - After Alexander's death the region at first was part of the Seleucid empire. In the north, Bactria became independent, and the south was acquired by the Maurya dynasty. > Buddhism was introduced from the east by the Yüechi, who founded the Kushan dynasty (early 2d cent. B.C.). Their capital was Peshawar. > > ... > ... > ...
 * Alexander the Great conquering Persia, Afghanistan. 330BC - 323BC
 * Alexander conquers Afghanistan, but fails to really subdue its people, but unrest and bloody revolts become the regime’s hallmarks.

 120 Kushan Empire


 * Graeco-Buddhist Gandharan culture reach its height.
 * Under the Kushan King, Kanishka, Buddha was first given a human face and the world's largest Buddhas (175 feet and 120 feet tall) were carved into the cliff at Bamiyan. But many gods and goddesses from Greek, Persian, Central Asian and Hindu cultures were also worshipped.

> 400 Invasion of the White Huns. They destroy the Buddhist culture, and leave most of the country in ruins > 425 - 550 Independent Yaftalee rule in Afghanistan .Yaftalee Dynasty -Established in northern Hindu Kush region of Takhar, this dynasty gains control over the majority of present day Afghanistan by 425. > > 530 Persians reassert control over all of what is now Afghanistan. > ... > ... > > 652 Arabs introduce Islam that was to influence the course of Afghanistan’s history


 * Mahmud, 970 - 1030 The Islamic era begins with Mohammed Ghazni and Afghanistan becomes the centre of Islamic power and civilisation. Several short-lived Muslim dynasties were founded, the most powerful of them having its capital at Ghazna (see Ghazni). Mahmud of Ghazna, who conquered the lands from Khorasanin Iran to the Punjab in India early in the 11th cent., was the greatest of Afghanistan's rulers.

...

...

>> 1273 Marco Polo crosses Afghanistan on his voyage from Italy to China to discover the “Silk Route”. Revolts and battles between smaller kingdoms mark the next two centuries. >> >> ... > ... > > ... > > ... > > ... > > 1708 Mir Wais Neka (forerunner of Afghan independence) makes Kandahar independent of Safavid Persia that had ruled it since 1622. Mir Wais, considered by some to be the father of Afghan independence, takes over Kandahar. His son, Mir Mahmud, invades Persia and liberates Herat. > > * 1722-- Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud, invades Persia and occupies Isfahan. At the same time, the Durranis revolt, and terminate the Persian occupation of Herat. The Durranis revolt to throw out Persians from Herat.
 * 1725 (April 25)--Mir Mahmud is mysteriously killed after going mad. Afghans start to lose control of Persia.


 *  Relocated the capital of Afghanistan from Kandahar to Kabul.

> 1793 - 1800 Zaman Shah > ...
 * He began to remove prominent Muhammadzai leaders from positions of power and replacing them with men of his own lineage, the Sadozai. This upset the delicate balance of Durrani tribal politics that Ahmad Shah had established and may have prompted Painda Khan and other Durrani chiefs to plot against the shah. Painda Khan and the chiefs of the Nurzai and the Alizai Durrani clans were executed, as was the chief of the Qizilbash clan. Painda Khan's son fled to Iran and pledged the substantial support of his Muhammadzai followers to a rival claimant to the throne, Zeman's older brother, Mahmood Shah. The clans who's chiefs Zeman had executed joined forces with the rebels, and they took Kandahar without bloodshed.

> 1803 - 1810 Shah Shujah > ...
 * King of Afghanistan (1803 -10; second time 1839 - 42) whose alliance with the British led to his death.

1826 - 1839 Dost Mohammad Khan takes Kabul, and establishes control. During his rule the status of Afghanistan became an international problem, as Britain and Russia contested for influence in central Asia. Aiming to control access to the northern approaches to India, the British tried to replace Dost Muhammad with a former emir, subordinate to them. This policy caused the first Afghan War (1838–42) between the British and the Afghans. Dost Muhammad was at first deposed but, after an Afghan revolt in Kabul, was restored. In 1857, Dost Muhammad signed an alliance with the British. He died in 1863 and was succeeded, after family fighting, by his third son, Sher Ali.

...
 * 1834-- (May) Afghans lose Peshawar to the Sikhs; later they crushed the Sikhs under the leadership of Akbar Khan who defeated the Sikhs near Jamrud, and killed the great Sikh general Hari Singh. However, they failed to retake Peshawar due to disunity and bad judgment on the part of Dost Mohammad Khan.
 * 1836 Dost Mohammad Khan is proclaimed as Amir al-mu' minin (commander of the faithful). He was well on the road toward reunifying the whole of Afghanistan when the British, in collaboration with an ex-king (Shah Shuja), invade Afghanistan to curtail the growing Russian and Persian influence.


 * First Anglo-Afghan War
 * After some resistance, Amir Dost Mohammad Khan surrenders to the British and is deported to India. (1839-1842)
 * April 1842--Shah Shuja killed by Afghans.


 * 1842-1844 Akbar Khan (Afghan hero) is victorious against the British. The ferocity was such that the 16,500- B British garrison with 12,000 support staff and dependents were wiped out. Only one survived, of mixed British-Indian garrison, reaches the fort in Jalalabad, on a stumbling pony.


 * Mohammad Akbar Khan was a major player in the defeat of the British army in the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). He outsmarted and killed Sir William MacNaughten, a top British official who highly advocated the invasion and subjugation of Afghanistan by the British army. Mohammad Akbar was very ambitous and wanted to regain all the land that was lost by the Afghans, and rebuild another great empire, similar to Ahmad Shah Abdali's. However, his father, Dost Mohammad Khan, who wanted to work with the British, feared his son's rise to power. Many believed that Amir Dost Mohammad poisoned his own son at the age of 29. Mohammad Akbar Khan is highly revered by Afghans today, and is seen as a major historical hero. A residential area of Kabul is named after him.
 * By 1843 the nation declares independence, Dost Khan returns to occupy the throne.

1843 - 1863 Dost Mohammad Khan comes back and occupies the royal throne. After the annihilation of British troops, Afghanistan once again becomes independent.


 * 1859-- British take Baluchistan, and Afghanistan becomes completely landlocked.

...

(1865)--Russia takes Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samerkand.

... ... 1868 - 1879 Sher Ali reasserts control


 * 1873 Russia establishes a fixed boundary with Afghanistan and promises to respect its territorial integrity.
 * 1878-British launch their second war. For the second time, the Afghans’ spirited resistance forces them to withdraw. Sher Ali dies. Mohammad Yaqub Khan takes over but concedes to the British such key territories as Khyber and Pischin. The Afghans will never get back these regions.

1879 - Amir Muhammad Yaqub Khan takes over until October 1879.


 * Amir Muhammad Yaqub Khan gives up the following Afghan territories to the British: Kurram, Khyber, Michni, Pishin, and Sibi. Afghans lose these territories permanently.


 * Kabul occupied by British forces

...

July 1880, Afghan woman named Malalai carries the Afghan flag forward after the soldiers carrying the flag were killed by the British. She becomes a hero for her show of courage and valour.
 * Battle of Maiwand


 * The British, shortly after the accession of the new Amir, withdraw from Afghanistan, although they retain the right to handle Afghanistan's foreign relations.
 * Abdur Rahman establishes fixed borders and he loses a lot of Afghan land.
 * Nuristan converted to Islam.
 * 1885- Russian forces seize the Panjdeh Oasis, a piece of Afghan territory north of the Oxus River. Afghans tried to retake it, but was finally forced to allow the Russians to keep Panjdeh, and the Russians promised to honor Afghan territorial integrity in the future.
 * 1893- The [|Durand line] fixes borders of Afghanistan with British India, splitting Afghan tribal areas, leaving half of Afghans in what is now Pakistan.


 * 1895 Afghanistan's northern border is fixed and guaranteed by Russia

1907- 1919 Habibullah Khan’s regime.Russia and Great Britain sign the convention of St. Petersburg, Agreement reached between British and Russian governments over the territorial integrity of Afghanistan

1919 - 1929 Amanullah Khan (The reform King)

1929 - 1930 Habibullah Kalakani (Bachae Saqaw)
 * 1921--Third Anglo-Afghan war.

> 1930 - 1933 Nadir Khan takes the throne; his tribal army loots government buildings and houses of wealthy citizens because the treasury was empty. Habibullah Kalakani, along with his supporters, and a few supporters of Amanullah Khan are killed by Nadir Khan. Now Nadir Khan establishes full control.
 * 1933-- Nadir Khan was assassinated by a High School student whos father served Amanullah Khan and was killed by Nadir Khan.


 * Zahir Shaw, at the age of 19 inherits the throne, even though he did not want to take the throne. He rules until 1973. Zahir Shah's uncles serve as prime ministers and advisors until 1953.


 * Mahmud Tarzi dies in Turkey at the age of 68 with a heart full of sorrow and despair toward his country.

1940 - 1973 Zahir Shah proclaims Afghanistan as neutral during WW2


 * 1949-- Afghanistan's Parliament denounces the Durand Treaty and refuses to recognize the [|Durand line] as a legal boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pashtuns in Pashtunistan (Occupied Afghan Land) proclaim an independent Pashtunistan, but their proclamation goes unacknowledged by the world community.

1973 - 1978 Daoud Khan abolishes the monarchy, declares himself President. The Republic of Afghanistan is established.
 * 1973-- July 17th: Zahir Shah is in Europe, when his government is overthrown in a military coup headed by Daoud Khan his cousin.


 * 1978-- Bloody Communist coup: Daoud is killed

1979 - Hafizullah Amin takes the Presidency.

1979 - 1986 Babrak Karmal replaceing Amin
 * Mass killings of Afghans
 * US ambassador killed
 * 1979 --Amin is executed
 * 1979 Soviet Union (Russia) invade in December.

1986 - 1992 Dr. Najibullah replaceing Karmal
 * Babrak Karmal is replaced by Dr. Najibullah.


 * 1987-- Najibullah proposes ceasefire, but the Mujahideen refuse to deal with a "puppet government".
 * 1988--1989 Peace accords signed in Geneva . Soviet Union defeated by Afghanistan, total withdrawal by the Soviets occurred on Feb. 15, 1989.

1992 April 15 The Mujahideen take Kabul and liberate Afghanistan, Najibullah is protected by UN.


 * The Mujahideen form an Islamic State--Islamic Jihad Council--elections.
 * Through 1993, Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami forces, allied with the Shi'a Hezb-i-Wahdat militia, clashed intermittently with Rabbani and Masood's Jamiat forces. Dostam switched sides, precipitating largescale fighting in Kabul and in northern provinces.
 * 1994-The Talibanmilitia are born, and advance rapidly against the Islamic government. Dostum and Hekmatyar continued to clash against Rabbani and Masood's government, and as a result Kabul is reduced to rubble.

1996 - 2001 Mullah Omar Taliban militia force President Rabbani and his government out of Kabul. After the capture of Kabul, the Taliban executed Najibullah. ||= Historical Enemies

Soviet Union has been enemies with Afghanistan for a long time. They led an invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Enemies also include the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia. Afghanistan is not enemies with it's neighbors. If it was enemies with it's neighbors because then they wouldn't have anybody to back them up in cases of need.









 || Afghanistan has a history that goes back 5000 years, and rich cultural traditions. It has produced beautiful buildings, decorative tiles and mosaics, skillfully woven rugs and carpets, and has a long tradition of poetry and song. Its capital Kabul (now largely in ruins) was once greatly admired for its architecture. But the most important thing to know about it is that its position on trade routes between the Far East and Asia and the Middle East and Europe, and its location between the competing British and Russian Empires, has meant that for centuries many different countries tried to gain power and influence here. In December 1979, 100,000 soldiers from what was then the Soviet Union entered the country to support an unpopular national government. Conservative rural tribesmen (//mujahadeen//), supported by the USA and Pakistan, fought against them. The Soviet troops could not defeat the //mujahadeen// and left Afghanistan in 1989, but fighting continued between different Afghan groups. In 1996 the [|**Taliban**], who wanted to form a strict Islamic government, managed to take control of most of the country. The terrorist attacks in America on 11 September 2001 shocked the world. The governments of the USA, the UK, and some other countries think that Osama bin Laden and his al-Q'aida network were responsible. They also believed that Bin Laden was supported by what was then the ruling Taliban government in Afghanistan. For some time the USA, backed by the UK and other countries, bombed what they thought to be Bin Laden's bases, training camps and hideouts inside Afghanistan. This enabled anti-Taliban forces to take control of the country. The Taliban have been replaced by an interim government in Kabul which has brought some change to people's lives. Following difficult and prolonged negotiations between Afghan leaders a moderate candidate from the majority Pashtun ethnic group emerged as interim Head of State. However for many ordinary Afghans, all over the country, the future is still insecure and uncertain.
 * = Afghanistan's History summary: ||  ||

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 * = Flag and its significance:

The black signifies the past, red means the blood spilled for independence, and green stands for either hope for the future, agricultural prosperity, or Islam. ||= Map of the world with your country highlighted



Geography Map of Country on its Continent highlighted

Afghanistan (also probably one of the hardest spellings to remember) is located in Southern Asia, north and also west of Pakistan, and east of Iran. It is slightly smaller than Texas. It is a landlocked country, meaning it is not touching any large bodies of water. Afghanistan is touching China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. the climate is arid to semiarid, and there are cold winters and hot summers. In Afghan, there are mostly rugged mountains; plains in the north and southwest regions. Natural resources found in Afghan are natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones. Sadly, for this country, damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains, and there is flooding, and droughts. there is limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation; desertification; air and water pollution.The Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the country The highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor).

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 * = Culture/Traditions

Afghanistan's culture and traditions are listed once you click on the picture of the depressed looking little boy wearing the sock hat.

||= Traditional Clothing ||= Traditional Foods



Qabli Pulao: It is the most popular dish of Afghanistan. It is steamed rice with chops of raisins and carrot. It is often served with lamb. Other variants of pulao are also available in Afghanistan. People eat it with meat, vegetables orbeans.

Kababs: Lamb kabab is a favorite of the Afghans. Afghan kabab is mostly served with naan, and rarely rice. Lamb chops, ribs, kofta (ground beef) and chicken kababs are served in good Kabul restaurants.

Qorma: Qormas are veru popular among Afghan people. Onions are fried and meats, fruits, spices or vegetables are added to them.

Mantu: Mantu are steamed dumplings fattened with minced onion beef.

Shorma: Soups made of variety of items are very popular in Afghanistans. These soups are locally known as shorma.

Variety of Breads: Usually, Afghans consume three types of bread. These breads are locally called Naan, Obi Naan and Lavash. Naan is made of wheat and is thin, long and oval shaped. Obi Naan is shaped like a disk and is thicker than naan. Lavash is very thin bread and used as plating for meats and stews.

Rice Dishes: Afghans put in plenty of time and effor to prepare their rice dishes. One popular rice dish is. Chalow is fluffy white rice with each grain separated. The Afghans love to eat chalow with Qormas.

Khameerbob: Khameerbob (pasta) is a popular native dish. It is prepared for special occasions at home. Mantu is a Uzbek dish while Ashak is a Kabul dish.

Fruits & Nuts: Fresh and dried fruits are inseparable part of Afghan food. Afghanistan produces high quality fruits particularly grapes, apricots, pomegrenates, melons, plums and berries. Exceptional varieties of oranges also grow in Afghanistan. Melons of Mazar-e-Sharif, oranges of Jalalabad, grapes and pomegranates of Kandahar are famous. Walnuts, almonds, pistachios and pine nuts are also very popular in the country.

Dairy Products: The Afghans like dairy products like yogurt and whey.

Drinks: Common drink in Afghanistan is tea (chai).

Popular Dishes Some popular dishes in Afghanistan cuisine menu are Afghan Kofta (meatballs), Nan-i-Afghan (Afghan bread), Quroot (dried yogurt), Osh Pyozee (stuffed onions), Sher Berinj (rice pudding), Qabli Pulao (traditional rice dish), Mantu (meat dumplings), Dampukht (steamed rice) and Kababs (skewed mean chops).

Habits of Eating Afghan people are fond of non-vegetarian dishes. Usually they don't use cutlery. Food is gulped with righ hand, using nan (a kind of bread) as scoop. The Afghans treat their guests with great respect and try to serve their guests with as good food as they can provide. ||