Background and History of Afghanistan:
Political History

Because of its geographic location, as the crossroad of the Middle East, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East, Afghanistan has always been a target for invasion by other nations, and thus has had a turbulent history. In the early 18th century, Afghanistan had been, at various times, a part of many different empires- Persian, Greek, Mongol, Mughal, Indian, Turkish, and others. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, of the Durrani tribe, constituted the Pashtun tribal confederation and created a Durrani Empire. The convergence of ethnically distinct groups shaped Afghanistan’s early political structure through a process of conciliation between competitive interests and the strengthening of a system of central governance under a Pashtun dynasty. The Pashtun ethnic group has played a dominant role in Afghanistan's political history since the mid 18th century.

Throughout the 19th century, Afghanistan was a battleground for the rivalry between Britain and Russia in their attempts to control Central Asia. Twice (1839, 1878), British armies invaded Afghan territory in a venture to secure the northern border of British India. On both occasions, the British troops had to withdraw, unable to maintain their military presence in Afghanistan. However, the second attempt allowed the British to retain some control over Afghan foreign affairs until 1919, when the Afghans gained their total independence from foreign domination.

King Amanullah (1919-1929), who secured a full national independence for Afghanistan, was the first Afghan ruler who launched a series of secular and liberal constitutional reforms similar to those developed by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk of Turkey. In an effort to modernize Afghanistan, his reforms opened Afghanistan to the outside world and introduced modern schools and education programs. He introduced Afghanistan's first Constitution in 1923 in an attempt to organize Afghan central authority on rational and predictable tenets, and tried to regulate the state Islamic relations. His reform allowed women to unveil, and initiatives were taken to promote women’s education and social participation. The reforms moved too fast and too far, and it resulted in a tribal revolt by Pashtun tribesman. The rebellion caused the collapse of Amanulla’s structure in 1929.

In the mid 1930’s, under King Zahir, the renewed attempts to modernize the country were more modest and urban oriented. Modern education was reintroduced in the cities, and the foundation of Kabul University was laid. In 1964, a new liberal Constitution was introduced, under King Zahir, with a system of elected parliamentary democracy. Political parties emerged and a lively, relatively free political press came into being in Kabul. Contrary to the expectations of its proponents, the Afghan political structure became increasingly polarized under the liberalization process. Communism influenced students as fundamentalist Muslim ideology attracted a number of young intellectuals from the rural areas and junior officers in the Afghan army. Among the nascent political parties were the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which would later rule the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, and the Islamic Association (Jamiat-i-Islami), from which a series of Islamic parties were formed during the resistance movement against the Soviet Union.

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