 Afghanistan in 1919 | |
| Type | Bilateral Treaty |
|---|---|
| Signed | 8 August 1919 |
| Location | Rawalpindi, Punjab, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Original signatories | |
The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, [1] [2] also known as the Treaty of Rawalpindi, was a treaty which brought the Third Anglo-Afghan War to an end. [3]
The war had begun on 3rd May 1919 when the new Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan invaded British India. Despite some initial success, the Afghan invasion was however repelled by the British. The Afghans were then driven back across the border and further Afghan incursions and tribal uprisings attacks were contained. The Royal Air Force were also used in bombing and strafing attacks on the frontier tribes as well as targets within Afghanistan, including Kabul and Jalalabad. With British and Indian troops potentially invading Afghanistan Amanullah requested for an armistice, which was sent to the British Indian government on 31 May. The armistice went into effect on 3 June and the fighting ended. [4]
The peace conference assembled at Rawalpindi on 27 July amid much acrimony between the two parties. The British delegation led by Sir Hamilton Grant conceded recognition that Afghan foreign policy was a matter for the Afghans, but that they must reaffirm the Durrand line as being the political boundary.
The Afghans were not conciliatory, they demanded the restoration of the Amir's subsidy, the payment of a war indemnity and recognition of Afghanistan's sovereignty over the whole of the Tribal Territory. [5] As a result, the talks foundered several times and Grant sent a final ultimatum on 1 August, or hostilities would resume. [6]
The Afghans reluctantly agreed; the treaty was signed on 8 August 1919 in Rawalpindi, Punjab, by the United Kingdom and the Emirate of Afghanistan. Britain recognised Afghanistan's independence (as per Article 5 of the treaty), agreed that British India would not extend past the Khyber Pass and stopped British subsidies to Afghanistan. Afghanistan also accepted all previously agreed border arrangements with British India as per Article 5. [3] [7] [8] [9] [10] Thus, Afghanistan as an independent country agreed to recognise the Durand Line as international border between the two countries. [7] [8] [10] [11]
Abdur Rahman Khan also known by his epithets, The Iron Amir, was Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for perpetrating the Hazara Genocide, but also uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Agreement with British India.
European influence in Afghanistan has been present in the country since the Victorian era, when the competing imperial powers of Britain and Russia contested for control over Afghanistan as part of the Great Game.
The Afghan Civil War was fought from 14 November 1928 to 13 October 1929. Rebelling, and subsequently governing Saqqawist (Saqāwīhā) forces under Habibullāh Kalakāni fought against various opposing tribes and rival monarchs in the Kingdom of Afghanistan, among whom Mohammed Nādir Khān eventually achieved a preponderant role. Despite early successes, such as the capture of Kabul and defeat of Amanullah Khan on 17 January 1929 or the capture of Kandahar on 3 June, the Saqqawists were eventually deposed by anti-Saqqawist forces led by Nadir on 13 October 1929, leading to Nadir's ascension as King of Afghanistan, who ruled until his assassination on 3 November 1933.
The Durand Line, also known as the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, is a 2,640-kilometre (1,640 mi) international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to the border with China.
The following events happened during 1921 in Afghanistan.
The Third Anglo-Afghan War began on 3 May 1919 when the new Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan invaded British India hoping to take advantage of the unrest in India.
The Second Anglo-Afghan War was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty, the son of former Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. The war was part of the Great Game between the British and Russian empires.
Ghazi Amanullah Khan was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, Afghanistan was able to relinquish its protected state status to proclaim independence and pursue an independent foreign policy free from the influence of the United Kingdom.
The North-West Frontier was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.
Nasrullah Khan, (1874–1920), sometimes spelt as Nasr Ullah Khan, was shahzada of Afghanistan and second son of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. He held the throne of Afghanistan as Emir for one week, from 21 to 28 February 1919.
Habibullah Kalakani, derided by the Pashtuns as "Bacha-ye Saqao", was the ruler of Afghanistan from 17 January to 13 October 1929, as well as a leader of the Saqqawists. During the Afghan Civil War (1928–1929), he captured vast swathes of Afghanistan and ruled Kabul during what is known in Afghan historiography as the "Saqqawist period". He was an ethnic Tajik. No country recognized Kalakani as ruler of Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1919 in Afghanistan.
The Emirate of Afghanistan, known as the Emirate of Kabul until 1855, was an emirate in Central Asia and South Asia that encompassed present-day Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan. The emirate emerged from the Durrani Empire, when Dost Mohammad Khan, the founder of the Barakzai dynasty in Kabul, prevailed.
Relations between Afghanistan and Germany date back to the late 19th century and have historically been strong. 100 years of "friendship" were celebrated in 2016, with the Afghan President calling it a "historical relationship".
Mohammad Nadir Shah was King of Afghanistan from 15 October 1929 until his assassination in November 1933. Previously, he served as Minister of War, Afghan Ambassador to France, and as a general in the Royal Afghan Army. He and his son Mohammad Zahir Shah, who succeeded him, are part of the Musahiban.
The Khost rebellion, also known as the 1924 Mangal uprising, the Khost revolt or the Mangal Revolt was an uprising against the Westernization and modernizing reforms of Afghanistan’s king, Amanullah Khan. The uprising was launched in Southern Province, Afghanistan, and lasted from March 1924 to January 1925. It was fought by the Mangal Pashtun tribe, later joined by the Sulaiman Khel, Ali Khel, Jaji, Jadran and Ahmadzai tribes. After causing the death of over 14,000 Afghans, the revolt was finally quelled in January 1925.
Bārakzai is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, "In the detailed Pashtun genealogies there are no fewer than seven instances of the ethnic name Bārakzī, at very different levels of tribal segmentation. Six of them designate simple lineages within six different tribes located in the Solaymān mountains or adjacent lands... The seventh instance, on the other hand, designates one of the most important Pashtun tribes in numbers and historic role, part of the Zīrak branch of the Dorrānay confederation.
Bilateral relations of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland span a long and eventful history, dating back to the United Kingdom's Company rule in India, the British-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, and the border between modern Afghanistan and British India. There has been an Afghan embassy in London since 1922 though there was no accredited Afghan ambassador from 1981 to 2001.
Amir Ali Ahmad Khan, Shaghasi was an Afghan king from the Shaghasi family of the Barakzai tribe who was declared king of Afghanistan twice in 1929. He was first declared amir of Afghanistan by an influential cleric, Naqib Sahib on 20 January 1929, in eastern Afghanistan, but was defeated by Kalakani at Jagdalak on 19 February 1929. He was also declared as the amir of Afghanistan for the second time on 23 June 1929 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, by another highly influential Mufti Abd. Wasi Kandahari, but was defeated and captured by Kalakani on 3 July 1929.
Sardar Abdul Wahab Khan belonged to the Mohammadzai tribe of Kandahar. He was the son of Sardar Mir Afzal Khan and great-grandson of Sardar Painda Khan. He is also a second cousin of Amir Sher Ali Khan. When Abdur Rahman Khan was invited by the British to become the new Amir after the defeat of Ayub Khan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Abdul Wahab Khan lived in exile for many years in Persia then in British India before returning to Kabul with his son, Sardar Abdul Habib Khan in 1903.
