This is a list of wars that began between 1945 and 1989. Other wars can be found in the historical lists of wars and the list of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity. Major conflicts of this period include the Chinese Civil War in Asia, the Greek Civil War in Europe, the Colombian civil war known as La Violencia in South America, the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia, the Ethiopian Civil War in Africa, and the Guatemalan Civil War in North America.
Abu Sayyaf, officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than five decades, Moro groups had been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make Moro Province independent. The group is considered violent and is responsible for the Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of MV Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people. The name of the group was derived from Arabic abu, and sayyaf. As of April 2023, the group was estimated to have about 20 members, down from 1,250 in 2000. They use mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles.
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.
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 Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is an Afghan political and militant movement with an ideology comprising elements of Pashtun nationalism and the Deobandi movement of Islamic fundamentalism. It ruled approximately 75% of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, before it was overthrown by an American invasion after the September 11th attacks carried out by the Taliban's ally al-Qaeda. The Taliban recaptured Kabul in August 2021 following the departure of coalition forces, after 20 years of Taliban insurgency, and now controls the entire country. The Taliban government is not recognized by any country and has been internationally condemned for restricting human rights, including women's rights to work and have an education.
The Shinwari are an ethnic Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Among the greatest poets of the Pashto language in the 20th century was the late Ameer Hamza Shinwari, also known as "Hamza Baba".
The Mohmand or Momand is a prominent tribe of Pashtun people.
Khošāl Khān Khaṭak (Pashto: خوشال خان خټک; Urdu, Persian: خوشحال خان خٹک; 1613 – 20 February 1689), also known as Khushal Baba, was a 17th-century Pashtun poet, chief, and warrior. Khushal Khan served the Mughal Empire protecting them from Pashtun warriors over most of his lifespan. After being expelled from his tribal chiefdom and replaced with his son by his Mughal superiors, Khushal Khan turned against the Mughals. Afterwards, Khushal preached the union of all Pashtuns, and encouraged revolt against the Mughal Empire, promoting Pashtun nationalism in the last years of his life through poetry. Much of Khushal's poetry is in Pashto but some is also in Persian. Khushal is considered the "father of Pashto literature" and the national poet of Afghanistan.
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.
The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines which involved multiple armed groups. A decades-long peace process has resulted in various peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
The 1989–1992 Afghan Civil War, also known as the FirstAfghan Civil War, took place between the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the Soviet–Afghan War on 15 February 1989 until 27 April 1992, ending the day after the proclamation of the Peshawar Accords proclaiming a new interim Afghan government which was supposed to start serving on 28 April 1992.
The Afghan mujahideen were Islamist resistance groups that fought against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War and the subsequent First Afghan Civil War.
Sāpī is a Pashto and Pashayi-speaking Dardic tribe from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
Pakistan's principal intelligence and covert action agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has historically conducted a number of clandestine operations in its western neighbor, Afghanistan. ISI's covert support to militant jihadist insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the Pashtun-dominated former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Kashmir has earned it a wide reputation as the primary progenitor of many active South Asian jihadist groups.
Slavery in Afghanistan was present in the post-Classical history of Afghanistan, continued during the Middle Ages, and persisted into the 1920s.
The Afghan tribal revolts of 1944–1947 or the Khost disturbances were a series of tribal revolts in the Kingdom of Afghanistan by Zadran, Safi and Mangal tribesmen which lasted from February 1944 to January 1947. The causes of the revolts lay in the worsening conditions of farmers, changes in conscription laws, the elimination of the power of Safi tribal leaders, Amanullah loyalism, trading monopolies, government surveillance, taxation, and poverty. The conflict began when government forces clashed with the forces of a tribal leader named Mazrak, who led the Zadran tribe in revolt. The Zadran uprising was followed by additional uprisings by the Safi and Mangal, the former of which elected their own king, Salemai. Faqir of Ipi, a tribal leader from Waziristan, also fought for the restoration of former king Amanullah Khan alongside other rebels.
Aimal Khan Mohmand, also known as Aimal Shah, was a prominent 17th century Afghan ruler, military commander, and chief, who proclaimed himself king and declared the holy war (Jihad) against the Mughal empire. He was considered a prominent warrior in the Mughal–Afghan Wars. Khan spent most of his life Against Aurangzeb. He was well known for Greatest Afghan Revolt in 1670s in which numerous Mughal Military commanders including Shujaat Khan were killed. Darya Khan Afridi was a close ally of Khan in the military campaign against Aurangzib Alamgir. After this campaign, Aurangzib Alamgir marched towards Peshawar and restored peace with the help of some Afghan chiefs.
New revolts occurred in 1943 and 1945 and were quelled in blood.
1933: Siege of Matun, the capital of the Afghan province of Khost, by the Mohmands. 1937: Uprising of the Mohmands, the Shinwaris and the Sulayman Khel section of the Ghilzais. 1938: Abortive tribal movement under the Shami Pir to oust King Zahir Shah. 1948-49: Rebellion of the Safi tribes. 1955: Abortive tribal movement on Kabul
In addition, tension between the government and the Bānki Millī group and the Ṣāfī Pashtūn tribal revolt (1947– 9) in Nangarhār Province brought Muḥammad Dāʾūd, who brutally suppressed it, to national attention.
The 'peasant' revolt of Harazajat in 1952 has also been attributed to the abuses of the state administration (Davydov 1967: 162). In this case, the revolt was immediate because the population was still well armed following the civil war, but my hypothesis is that elsewhere the 'imperial' system of oppression and exclusion and the patrimonial system of administration were slowly preparing the ground for future explosions, should the opportunity arise.
In the late 1950s Hazaras again organized an armed insurrection in opposition to the imposition of heavy taxes. The state pacified the resistance by repealing taxes levied on the Hazaras and imprisoned the leaders of the rebellion, including Mohammad Ebrahim Beg, known as Bacha-e- Gaw Sawar, Khawja Naeem and Sayed Mohammad Esmail Balkhi. Ebrahim, who compromised his principles, was later released from jail, while Balkhi remained there until 1964.
Yet past efforts to reform, reshape or otherwise revamp Afghan society have only served to unite insular tribal, ethnic and regional-based communities against the imposition of centralised control. Instances of this include the Safi Rebellion (1945–46); the Pashtun revolt in Kandahar against provincial taxes and schools for girls (1959); an Islamist uprising in the Panjshir Valley (1975); and resistance to land reform, education policies and family law in Nuristan and Herat (1978). These rebellions were triggered when Kabul-based modernists attempted to control the social environment of the more conservative rural hinterland.
Cuba also dispatched combat troops to Syria in 1973 during the Yom Kipur War