Hello, friends! America has spent around $2 Trillion on the Afghan wars. For 20 years, the US Army was stationed in Afghanistan. Now, since the US Army is leaving Afghanistan, Taliban is gaining a strong foothold over the country. By now, the situation has deteriorated so much that less than 50% of the area in Afghanistan is actually under the control of the Afghan Government. It may happen very soon that the Afghan government is overthrown by the Taliban. It is a huge crisis whose effects are felt even in India. Because India is not very far from Afghanistan. But to understand this complex geopolitical crisis properly, we'll need to delve into the history. Come, let's find out in today's video. First, a few words for Danish Siddiqui. An award-winning India photojournalist. Who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was a true journalist. He presented the truth to us by literally putting his life on the line. In a way that hardly any other journalist dares to nowadays. Be it the farmers' protest, corona crisis or the migrant crisis. His photos were always so thought-provoking. But when do fanatics like the truth? Some extremists killed him. And some celebrated his death. I hope that his work has inspired many youngsters. In taking journalism for the right reasons. To properly understand the situation in Afghanistan, friends, we need to start the story at the beginning. Do you know that Afghanistan is known as the Graveyard of Empires? Because many superpower countries enter Afghanistan but return after humiliating themselves. The Britishers came in the 19th century. They had to bear a very humiliating defeat. In the 20th century, the Soviet Union came to Afghanistan. And returned after 9 years with a lot of embarrassment. And in the 21st century, the USA came to Afghanistan. And is now returning in shame. It's not that Afghanistan had never been conquered before. If you look at the history, you'll find several instances of this. Macedonian ruler Alexander had done it. The Arabs did it. Mongol ruler Changez Khan. Mughal rulers Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb had done it. And the Sikh king Raja Ranjit Singh had also done it. But it is believed that the Afghan warriors make it really difficult for any foreign ruler to keep Afghanistan's area occupied. But we don't need to go into ancient history. We'll start from the 1800s. That period is more relevant to today's situation. There was a large Russian empire in the North at the time. And the British empire in the South. India was then occupied by the British. And in the middle, there was a buffer zone that was Afghanistan. Now Russia and Britain were wary of each other. They were afraid of the other country occupying Afghanistan and creating problems for them. There was a very famous political cartoon about it. Where Britain is depicted as the Lion and Russia as the Bear. And Afghanistan is in the middle. Initially, the Western countries didn't know much about Afghanistan. When a Scottish explorer Alexander Burnes went there and safely returned, he became akin to a hero in western countries. The book he wrote on Afghanistan, "Travels Into Bokhara" became a bestseller. In 1838, the British Raj started feeling motivated enough and confident of occupying Afghanistan's territory. They were very confident about their victory. They were sure they would win. Then there was a king in Afghanistan. His name was Emir Dost Mohammad. Of the Barakzai dynasty. The British started the war and overthrew Emir Dost Mohammad from the throne. And placed their puppet Shah Shujah on the throne. There wasn't an army in Afghanistan then. Instead, there were thousands of small, isolated villages. And a chief in each village. The chiefs of the villages led some of the boys from their villages to fight on behalf of the Emir in return for some money. This money had dwindled down under the rule of Emir Shah Shujah. So the tribal chiefs of the small villages united under the leadership of Chief Akbar Khan. And all these villagers started a war against the British. This war lasted for three years. The Britishers had quite advanced fire weapons. But despite that, the British were defeated. Shah Shujah was murdered. And Dost Mohammad was placed on the throne again. This is known as the First Anglo-Afghan War. That was followed by the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878. British attacked Afghanistan again. This time around, the Britishers won the war. And occupied an area of Afghanistan. But they didn't intend to settle in entire Afghanistan. They supported a new Emir named Abdur Rahman. He later came to be known as Iron Emir. The British let internal rule remain in Afghanistan. They merely wanted to have an influence on the buffer zone with the Russian Empire. To establish friendly relations. And so there remained stability in Afghanistan. In 1893, an International Border Line was drawn between Afghanistan and British India. That's known as the Durand Line. In 1907, there was an agreement between the British and Russian empires wherein Russia recognized that Afghanistan lied under the British sphere of influence. And Russia promised to stay away from Afghanistan. Around this time, in 1918, Communist Revolution took place in Russia. And Lenin comes into power. This later has an influence on Afghanistan. I'll tell you how later in the video. After only a year, the Third Anglo-Afghan War took place in 1919. That is known as the War of Independence in Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan fought the British to gain full independence. Till then, Afghanistan had the status of being a "British Protected State". Where the British controlled the foreign Affairs of Afghanistan. Afghanistan gains complete independence from the British after this war. And the British recognize Afghanistan's independence. The ruler of Afghanistan, Emir Amanullah Khan, had won this war against the British. He will later be a very important character in our story. Some people believe that the British intentionally lost this war for strategic reasons. So that the Durand Line becomes a clear border between Afghanistan and British India. Till today, this Durand Line is the actual border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There indeed is a relation, friends. The earlier invasions of Afghanistan by the British and later the invasions by America, and recently that by the Soviet Union, all had similar causes and concerns. These superpowers have given similar excuses for their decision to invade Afghanistan. The basic excuse being given is that that natives living there are barbaric and they being civilized, would go and teach them the correct way to life and governance. All these Superpower countries, even those that were once superpowers had their selfish interest and geopolitical reasons behind invading Afghanistan. Moving on with our story. Amanullah Khan was a liberal and progressive man. In 1926, he made Afghanistan into a constitutional monarchy. He was then known as a King. And Afghanistan became the Kingdom of Afghanistan. Why am I calling him liberal and progressive? Because he broke away from a major tradition of his dynasty. By marrying only one woman. Every ruler before him had married multiple women. He married only the woman he loved. It was a love marriage. His wife was Soraya Tarzi. She was given the title of Queen in 1926. And she ushered in a new revolution for women in Afghanistan. The King and the Queen campaigned against polygamy together. Started schools for girls. Demanded equal rights for women. Gave women the right to initiate divorce. And pushed for secular courts and secular education as well. The strict dress codes for women in Afghanistan were also removed. In fact, while giving a public speech, Soraya tore off her hijab in front of the crowd. Saying that nowhere in Islam is it written that women should cover their entire bodies. So there is no need for any special type of covering. But like I told you in the episode on Raja Ram Mohan Roy, friends, whenever someone tries to bring about a social reform like this all the extremists of the religion take up swords. When Raja Ram Mohan Roy tried to abolish Sati, the self-proclaimed 'guardians of the religion' stood against him. The same happened in Afghanistan. These 'guardians of the religion' claimed that it is an attack against Islam. There was a rebellion against the King in 1923. And another in 1924. Both the rebellions were crushed. But in 1929, finally, a rebellion was successful. The King and his Queen fled to British India. In 1929, India was still under the rule of the British Raj. Their daughter was born in Bombay. They named their daughter India. Princess India is now 92 years old. After India, they went to stay in Rome. Even now, Princess India lives in Rome. Some people believe that the British weren't happy to see Afghanistan prospering. So they secretly circulated the morphed photos of the Queen among the masses to instigate the people against Amanullah and Soraya. But the extremist that replaced Amanullah, was also overthrown within the year. The British helped even. First, Nadir Shah became the new ruler of Afghanistan. And in 1933, his son Zahir Shah became the new king of the country. For the next 40 years. For 40 years, he led amazing modernization in Afghanistan. Established foreign relations with other countries. When India and Pakistan gained independence from the British the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan was made a permanent border. Afghanistan wasn't happy with it. Afghanistan wanted more area from Pakistan. And the reason for it was that the majority of people in Afghanistan, are of the ethnicity Pashtuns. Around 38%. And among the people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district of Pakistan, an equal number of Pashtuns live. For this reason, Afghanistan supported the separatist movement in Pakistan. Especially the Prime Minister of King Zahir Shah, Daoud Khan greatly supported this. Daoud Khan was a cousin of Zahir Shah. Because of this, Pakistan closed its border against Afghanistan. Leading to a cessation of trade between the two. So Zahir Shah made his Prime Minister Daoud Khan resign in 1963. A new Constitution was brought in, in 1964 that introduced Parliamentary elections to elect the Prime Minister in Afghanistan. In 1965 an election was conducted. But the rule stated that the members of the royal family could not hold any political office. The purpose behind it was to prevent Daoud Khan from becoming the Prime Minister again. Even women could vote in these elections. And in fact, could even contest elections. Around this time, two types of ideologies were seen in Afghanistan. Especially at the university level. One was the Communist ideology under the PDPA. And the second was Islamist ideology. You'll see the relevance of the ideologies soon. In 1973, Zahir Shah was on a foreign trip to some country. Daoud Khan, with the support of the Army, his community and leftist friends, carried out a coup. A bloodless coup. He was the new ruler. After taking the control of the entire country with the help of the Army, Daoud Khan did not call himself a King. Instead, he became the President of Afghanistan. And made Afghanistan a Republic Country. At a glance, this seems like a good step. Because the country went from being a Constitutional Monarchy to a Republic. But in reality, Daoud basically disbanded the Parliament and Judiciary. He establishes a Dictatorship. Zahir Shah who wasn't in the country then had no other option than to accept it. He went on an exile in Italy. Despite being a dictator, Daoud Khan brought in some good social and economic reforms in Afghanistan. He nationalised all the banks. And you may find it hard to believe, but in the 1960s and the 1970s Afghanistan looked like this. It was a very peaceful place. In fact, it was a key destination of the Hippie Trail. Hippie Trail was basically an alternative tourism movement that was prominent in western countries. Europeans and Americans came to Iran and Afghanistan and travelled to India following that route. They would travel cheap and for a long period of time like nomads. Without hotel reservations. Living in their hand-built tents and interacting with the local population. And the local Afghanis were also quite friendly towards them. Around this time, Afghanistan was a relatively peaceful and popular tourist destination. It's difficult to believe now but it's the truth. But after this, Afghanistan was again trapped between two superpowers. Earlier it was between Britain and Russia known as the Great Game. After this came the Cold War. A huge ideological war between the USA and the Soviet Union. Where both the countries tried to have their influence on other countries. I talked about it in detail in the USA Superpower video. I'll put the link to it in the description below. If you want to know about the Cold War in detail. There was a virtual wall in the Cold War that's known as the Iron Curtain. I talked about it in the video on Berlin Wall as well. Because the Iron Curtain passed through Berlin as well. So the countries on one side of the Iron Curtain were under America's influence. And the countries on the other side were under the influence of the Soviet Union. But there was a third category as well. That is known as the Non-Aligned Movement. That was started by our Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru. It basically meant that neither will we be under the influence of the USA nor under the Soviet Union's. We will stay independent without being swayed away by them. Yugoslavia and several other countries were also non-aligned. The most important country for our story, Afghanistan, was also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Daoud continued this policy. When Daoud Khan was the Prime Minister under Zahir Shah's rule, he had taken the support of the Soviet Union to modernize Afghanistan. But when the Cold War started they decided that they do not want to depend only on the Soviet Union that they wanted to become an independent country, free from either of these countries. So they took India's lead and resumed relations with the USA. The Soviet Union was not at all pleased with this. The ruler of the Soviet Union then, Leonid Brezhnev said that he was angered with the action. And advised Daoud to "get rid of all the Imperialist advisors in Afghanistan. Daoud replied saying that "the Afghans are the masters of their own house. And that nobody should tell them how to run their own affairs. With time, the Communist party in Afghanistan, PDPA was divided into two factions. The Soviet Union tried to maintain unity in both parties. In 1977, Daoud Khan created his new party. National Revolutionary Party. And they brought in a new constitution. It had three main features. Islam, Nationalism and Socialism. He tried to appease the extremist Islamists. But he sensed danger from the other two factions of the Communist party. So he started killing off the members of that party. The liberals in Afghanistan were displeased with the level of dictatorship in Afghanistan. In his greed to stay in power, Daoud Khan brought in an uproar in the country. What was once a very peaceful country, was now home to many murders. In April 1978, a Communist leader was murdered in Afghanistan, by unidentified people. And this murder became a tipping point against Daoud Khan. A coup is carried out against Daoud Khan. First, he carried out a coup against his cousin Zahir Shah. Later, a coup is carried out against him. He gets killed in the coup with his family after some heavy fighting. This coup is known as the Saur Revolution. After this, Afghanistan becomes a Democratic Republic country. A new communist government comes into power. Lead by the new President, Nur Muhammad Taraki. Under him, some more good reforms take place. The land is redistributed to the farmers. On Afghan Independence Day, he launched the first TV channel in his country. He stops the practice of unfair loans. He stops the practice of bride buying. And he takes away the powers from the Islamist extremists and clerics. Girls are sent to school. And he very famously says, He is so against the religion that the extremists in Afghanistan start taking a more extreme stance. Like I said a while back, there were two main political parties in Afghanistan. Since their Parliamentary election system began. One Islamist, the other Communist. The Islamists were now frustrated by all the measures and became so extreme that they declared a civil war against the Communists. By then the PDPA was already divided into two factions. That was also a reason for their weakening. Because of this war, Nur Muhammad Taraki gets assassinated in 1979. The Soviet Union then gets an excuse to invade Afghanistan. They wanted to protect their communist ideology. They saw that the Communist parties in Afghanistan were in danger. They decide to give their all to protect them. They enter Afghanistan. To start a war against the Mujahideen. On the other hand, America sees this as an attempt by the Soviet Union to establish its influence on Afghanistan. Another country that America could lose to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. So how could America have abstained? It looked for the opposing ideology there. They funded and supported it so that America could establish its own influence over Afghanistan. Then the ideology opposing communism was of the Islamists and Mujahideen. America gives them funding. And supports them. When does the Taliban take root among all these? Where does Osama bin Laden come from? And how does America's involvement in Afghanistan continue growing for the next 20 years? Let's talk about it in the next episode, friends. Because I think there has been so much information for today. I'd like to continue this story from here and focus on the Taliban in the next episode. I hope you found this video informative. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below. Let's meet in the next video. Thank you very much!