Brief History:

Afghanistan is an ancient country. Kabul rose to prominence in 1504, when it was made the capital of the Moghul Empire by the conqueror Babur. Delhi replaced it as the imperial capital in 1526, but Kabul remained an important Moghul center until the Persian ruler Nadir Shah captured it in 1738. In 1747 Kabul became part of an independent Afghan state, and in the 1770s it replaced Qandahar as the capital of Afghanistan.

The history of Afghanistan has been closely tied to that of Persia, India and Russia, all of which Afghanistan has regularly been in conflict with. Contact with Britain came about in the early 1800s: the British invaded Afghanistan twice in the following years and were ignominiously chased out both times. Although no country succeeded in pacifying the fractious Afghans, the Russian and British Imperial powers both competed for influence in Central Asia.

It was not until the 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi that Britain recognized Afghanistan's independence. During the 1920s King Amanullah brought about the modernization of industry and trade, education and communications. He also signed treaties with Iran and Turkey that settled their various long-standing differences. However, political stability at home proved elusive and King Amanullah was overthrown in a coup, one of a series that did not come to an end when King Zahir Shah took power in 1933. Under his rule, Afghanistan confirmed its traditional regional policy of non-alignment, endeavoring once again to steer an even course between British-controlled India and Russia.

Afghanistan was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in 1979. The USSR was forced to withdraw 10 years later by anti-communist mujahidin forces supplied and trained by the US, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and others. Fighting subsequently continued among the various mujahidin factions, but the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban movement had been able to seize most of the country.

From the mid-1990s the Taliban provided sanctuary to Usama bin Laden, a Saudi national who had fought with them against the Soviets, and provided a base for his and other terrorist organizations. Bin Laden and al Qaeda are believed to be responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist acts in the United States, among other crimes. Following the Taliban's repeated refusal to expel Bin Laden and his group and end its support for international terrorism, the U.S. and its partners in the anti-terrorist coalition began a campaign on October 7, 2001, targeting terrorist facilities and various Taliban military and political assets within Afghanistan. Under pressure from the U.S. and the anti-terrorist air power and anti-Taliban ground forces, the Taliban disintegrated rapidly and Kabul fell on November 13. The anti terrorist coalition forces upon the collapse of the Taliban set up a Unity Government (composed of the various Tribal factions) headed by Mr. Hamid Karzai On April 18, 2002, the former King Zahir Shah returned to Kabul after an exile of 29 years. The 88-year former monarch will fill a symbolic role of national unity in opening the Loya Jirga a Tribal grand council made up of tribal leaders and other elders. For centuries Afghanistan has convened loya jirgas to choose new kings, adopt constitutions, and decide important political matters and disputes. This quasi-democratic process has been relatively representative of Afghanistan's population. The Loya Jirga elected Hamid Karzai to head the Transitional Government it had been called on to create.