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Afghanistan’s had a permanent settlement for about 4000 years and some kind of farming communities already 50′000 years ago (yup, fifty thousand).

At around 2000 BCE, the area was populated by Aryans from Central Asia. Little is known what happened for the next 1000 years, but around 600 BCE, Persians invaded and and at 330 BCE, Alexander the Great took over. Alexander reigned until he died, which is to say for the next seven years, after which shit really started to hit the fan. For the next 1000 years, several kings and kingdoms fought to inherit the area, introducing first buddhism, then hinduism and finally islam. This comparatively hobbyist activity was effectively wiped out by the arrival of Genghis Khan in 1220 CE, who true to his habit didn’t leave stone on stone after a job well done.

In the 14th to 15th century, the area flourished with architecture and art. Good times continued until 1504, when the Mughal empire was established and consequently fought over for the next two hundred years.

Through bloodshed and politics, the Afghan empire was finally established in 1747. Politics and bloodshed continued with local players for 100 years until the Russians took interest in Afghanistan. This made the Brittish, who had invaded neighbouring India, nervous and started a war to kick the Russians out. While this succeeded, the Brits were later forced to retreat and ambushed while doing so. The Russians attempted a return thirty years later, again upsetting the Brittish (still in India), who then invaded Afghanistan. Afghanistan finally gained indepencende on the 19th of August 1919, incidentally 90 years ago today.

King Amanullah of independent Afghanistan decided to modernize his country. However, his rules to induce women to give up the burkha and to make men wear western clothing upset the religious leaders and he had to flee from the revolts. Order was restored in 1930 when decendants of the king regained power and kept in power for the next four decades…. which would have been good hadn’t it been for their prime minister Daud who in the mid 1950’s started to rebuild the country with Soviet military and ecomic aid. This went on until 1973 when Daud overthrew the king, declared Afghanistan a republic and himself the president. His dictatorial government was unpopular and five years later, Daud was overthrown, largely by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. The PDPA leader Taraki became president, suggested a revolutionary renewal program for land ownership, emancipation of women and battling illiteracy. This didn’t go too well (see a pattern here?) and very soon, islamic traditionalists and ethnic leaders rebelled. Seeing a situations, the Soviets invaded.

The Soviets weren’t universally popular either, so local mujahideen fighters began to organize, sponsored by the United States. Soon the whole country was at a devastating and utterly crippling war. The Soviets withdrew in 1989. I remember this, and i then thought this was the start of something good.

However, with the USSR presence gone and aid fading, the US also lost interest in Afghanistan, leaving the country once more in chaos and devoid from leadership. This void was filled in 1994 by a faction of the mujahideen called the Taliban, who started taking over the country from the various fighting groups with the aim to introduce orthodox islamic rule. So yes, the US “made” the talibans. In 2001 we have the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and finally the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. This severly pissed off the USA, who carpet bombed the crap of whatever was left of Afghanistan and invaded.

With the taliban largely wiped out, an interim government was created in december 2001, under negotiations sponsored by the UN. Curry this with ongoing unrest and you’ve got the situation as it is today, with presidential and government elections going down tomorrow.

While Afghanistan is geographically a harsh country, it has rich — and untapped — resources of gold, silver, copper, zinc, iron ore, precious and semi-precious stones, petroleum, natural gas, uranium, coal and a few others to go. Their largest export is opium and death. What really bothers me is that in a civilized Afghan society, their natural resources could change everything for the country. What bothers me even more is that the natural resources may probably be the reason the US and the countries supporting the UN operation are still there.
But my concern is this: with four thousand years of history, the vast majority of it being under some kind of armed conflict, can eight years of relative peace and an election really make a difference?

OK, that was a bit over two minutes. And it was a huge oversimplification. But it was way more than i knew just two weeks ago. Information herein was just as accurate as information on the Internet is. Take it with a barrel of salt.