| Afghanistan is about the size of Texas and has a long history of strife. The country has been the subject of military conquest since Alexander the Great. The Arabs brought Islam to Afghanistan during the eight and ninth centuries, after the nation had been ruled by various Persian, Greek, Sassanian and Central Asian empires. Gengis Khan and the Mongols invaded in the 1200s, and remained in control of the country until the 1500s.
The modern nation of Afghanistan was formed by Ahmad Shah Durrani, who unified the various tribal factions in 1747 to fight Persia and India. Durrani established a monarchy which lasted until 1973. In the 1800s, Afghanistan became the focus of a struggle between the British Empire and Czarist Russia, and after three Anglo-Afghan wars, Afghanistan became a
British protectorate until 1919.
Afghans eventually regained sovereignty over their nation in 1921. Mohammad Nadir became king in 1929, but was assassinated in 1933. He was succeeded by his son Mohammad Zahir Shah, who ruled during the longest period of stability in Afghan history, 1933-1973. In July of 1973, however, Zahir's cousin Daoud Khan ousted him in a coup, abolished the monarchy, and declared himself president. In 1978, the communist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, supported by the Russians, killed Daoud and his family in another coup. We'll cover Afghanistan's more recent history in the days ahead.
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