Afghanistan

• 1. Introduction

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  Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires, and that nickname was not chosen lightly. Persians, Macedonians, Mongols, British, Soviets, and Americans have each marched into this landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, and each has eventually marched back out. What is it about this place, 652,864 square kilometers of mostly mountainous terrain, that has drawn the world's mightiest powers and defied them all? Why did Alexander the Great pass through here more than two thousand years ago, and why were NATO troops still fighting in the same valleys in 2021? This documentary traces those questions across time: through ancient trade routes and medieval empires, through the shock of communist revolution and Soviet invasion, through the Taliban's first and second rise, and into a present where more than 17 million people face acute hunger. The answers lie in geography, in the particular stubbornness of the land and its people, and in the relentless interest of every powerful neighbor.

• 2. Heart of Asia

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  The Urdu poet Allama Iqbal described Afghanistan as the heart of Asia's body of water and earth, writing that from its discord comes the discord of Asia, and from its accord comes Asia's accord. That image captures something true about the country's position. Afghanistan shares borders with six countries: Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Its longest border, the Durand Line, runs along Pakistan to the east and south.

  The Hindu Kush mountain range divides the country, a western extension of the Himalayas stretching toward eastern Tibet. Most of the highest points cluster in the east, where fertile mountain valleys sit near the so-called Roof of the World. The highest peak, Noshaq, rises to 7,492 meters above sea level. The lowest point lies along the Amu River in Jowzjan Province at 258 meters.

  This landscape has always shaped how people move, trade, and fight. The Silk Road appeared during the first century BCE, and Afghanistan became a pivot point for goods flowing between China, India, and Persia. Chinese silk, Persian silver, and Roman gold all passed through here. Lapis lazuli was mined chiefly in the Badakhshan region and traded outward. The Ring Road, Highway 1, still threads 2,210 kilometers through five major cities for the same basic reason: the mountains force traffic through predictable corridors.

  The Salang Tunnel, completed in 1964, cuts through the Hindu Kush and remains the only land route connecting Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. Control that tunnel and you control a great deal. Climate adds another layer of complexity. The continental extremes are severe: the January average in the Wakhan Corridor drops below -15 degrees Celsius and can reach -26, while summer temperatures in the Sistan Basin of the southwest top 43 degrees. Nearly two-thirds of the country's water drains away into Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, leaving large areas dry even when the mountains hold heavy snow.

• 3. Crossroads of Faiths

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  Arab Muslims brought Islam to Herat and Zaranj in 642 CE, but the region they entered was already home to a layered mixture of beliefs that had accumulated over centuries. Before Islam, people practiced Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, ancient Iranian religions, Christianity, and Judaism, often in combinations that blurred the lines between them.

  A striking example of that blending: people could be patrons of Buddhism while simultaneously worshipping Iranian gods such as Ahura Mazda, Lady Nana, Anahita, and Mihr, and portraying Greek gods as protectors of the Buddha. The region around Kandahar, ancient Arachosia, was a Zoroastrian heartland and is considered by some scholars to be the second homeland of Zoroastrianism, given its role in transmitting the Avesta to Persia.

  The Kushan Empire, centered in Afghanistan in the mid-to-late first century CE, became major patrons of Buddhist culture. Buddhism flourished across the region under their rule. Even after successive waves of Islamic influence moved eastward from Zaranj, the northeastern and southern parts of the country retained Buddhist culture for generations. The Saffarids were the first Muslim rulers to conquer the Zunbils and Kabul Shahi, doing so in 870 CE. Mahmud of Ghazni, ruling in the 11th century, eventually defeated the remaining Hindu rulers and extended Islam more broadly, though the remote territory of Kafiristan held out.

  Mahmud made Ghazni into a significant cultural city and supported intellectuals including the historian al-Biruni and the poet Ferdowsi. The city of Herat would later serve as the focal point of the Timurid Renaissance under Shah Rukh, whose cultural flowering was compared by contemporaries to Florence during the Italian Renaissance. That depth of layered civilization explains why the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul houses Buddhist, Bactrian Greek, and early Islamic antiquities in the same collection.

• 4. Empire Builders and Breakers

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  In 330 BCE, Alexander the Great arrived in Afghanistan after defeating Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Gaugamela the year before. He did not linger, but the Greco-Bactrian kingdom his successors eventually established was one of several empires that used Afghan territory as a launchpad rather than simply a prize.

  Babur arrived from Ferghana in the early 16th century, captured Kabul from the Arghun dynasty, and then used it as a base to conquer the Afghan Lodi dynasty at the First Battle of Panipat, founding the Mughal Empire. The pattern repeated across centuries: Afghanistan produced or harbored the founders of major powers while remaining difficult to hold itself.

  In 1709, a local Ghilzai tribal leader named Mirwais Hotak rebelled against the Safavids, defeated the Georgian governor of Kandahar, Gurgin Khan, and established his own kingdom. His son Mahmud led the Afghan army to the Persian capital of Isfahan in 1722, captured it after the Battle of Gulnabad, and proclaimed himself King of Persia. The Afghan dynasty was later ousted from Persia by Nader Shah after the 1729 Battle of Damghan.

  Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had served as a 16-year-old commander under Nader Shah during the plunder of Delhi, founded the Durrani Empire in 1747 after Nader Shah was assassinated. Scholars regard him as the founder of modern Afghanistan, though Dost Mohammad Khan is sometimes cited for that role as well. The Durrani lineage would eventually give way to the Barakzai dynasty, whose leader Dost Mohammad Khan ruled the Emirate of Kabul as the most prominent state during Afghanistan's fractured early 19th century.

• 5. The Great Game

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  By the early 19th century, Afghanistan had become a buffer state in what diplomats called the Great Game, the competition for influence between the British Empire and the Russian Empire across Central Asia. The position was not comfortable. Abdur Rahman Khan, who reigned as the Iron Amir, captured the situation in a question that has echoed down through history: how can a small power like Afghanistan, which is like a goat between these lions or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones, stand in the midway without being ground to dust?

  The British attempted to subjugate Afghanistan directly and were repelled in the First Anglo-Afghan War. The Second Anglo-Afghan War went the other way, ending in a British victory. In 1893, Abdur Rahman signed an agreement dividing ethnic Pashtun and Baloch territories with the Durand Line, which still forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Line split communities and created a border dispute that would generate friction for more than a century.

  During World War I, when Afghanistan maintained neutrality, Habibullah Khan was approached by officials of the Central Powers in what became known as the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition. They urged Afghanistan to declare full independence from Britain, join them, and attack British India as part of the Hindu-German Conspiracy. The effort failed, but it deepened public discontent with British influence. Habibullah was assassinated in February 1919, and Amanullah Khan eventually took power.

  Amanullah invaded British India through the Khyber Pass, beginning the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The Treaty of Rawalpindi was signed on the 19th of August 1919, and Amanullah declared the Emirate of Afghanistan fully independent. He proclaimed himself King on the 9th of June 1926, forming the Kingdom of Afghanistan, and introduced reforms including the abolition of slavery in 1923 and compulsory elementary education under Article 68 of the 1923 constitution. His wife, Queen Soraya, was a prominent figure in the fight for women's education. Some of his reforms, including abolishing the traditional burqa and opening co-educational schools, alienated tribal and religious leaders and sparked the Afghan Civil War of 1928-1929. Amanullah abdicated in January 1929.

• 6. Revolution, Invasion, and Collapse

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  In April 1978, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan seized power in a violent coup, killing then-President Mohammed Daoud Khan in what is called the Saur Revolution. The new government's first leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, introduced social and land distribution reforms that provoked fierce opposition. Civil war spread across the country by 1979.

  In October 1979, Taraki was assassinated in an internal coup orchestrated by Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin. The Soviet Union, displeased with Amin's rule, invaded in December 1979, killed Amin, and installed a Soviet-organized government led by Babrak Karmal. The war that followed lasted nine years. Between 562,000 and 2 million Afghans died. About 6 million people fled the country, primarily to Pakistan and Iran. Heavy air bombardment destroyed many rural villages, and millions of landmines were planted across the country.

  The mujahideen, backed covertly by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and supported through it by the United States, fought the Soviets until their withdrawal in 1989. What followed was not peace. Another civil war broke out as mujahideen factions turned on each other. Kabul was heavily bombarded and partially destroyed. Around 400,000 Afghans died in internal conflicts between 1990 and 2001.

  The Taliban emerged in September 1994 as a movement of students from Islamic schools in Pakistan, with military support from Pakistan. They took control of Kandahar that year and drove the government of Rabbani from Kabul in 1996. Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by two Arab suicide attackers on the 9th of September 2001, in Panjshir Valley, two days before the attacks on New York and Washington. In October 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan. By December 2001, the Taliban government had been overthrown. The number of NATO troops in the country peaked at 140,000 in 2011.

• 7. Return and Reckoning

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  The Taliban captured Kabul on the 15th of August 2021, ending two decades of the US-led military presence. According to the Costs of War Project, 176,000 people were killed between 2001 and 2021, including 46,319 civilians. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program puts the total at least at 212,191 dead.

  The United States froze about $9 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank following the takeover. Western nations suspended most humanitarian aid. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund halted payments. More than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people faced acute food shortages in October 2021. The GDP of Afghanistan is estimated to have dropped by 20% following the Taliban's return.

  The Taliban government, led by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and acting prime minister Hasan Akhund, formed an all-male cabinet. The Ministry of Women's Affairs was abolished. Since May 2022, all women have been required by law to wear full-body coverings in public. Suicides among women have become more common since the takeover. In January 2025, the International Criminal Court issued warrants against Akhundzada and Chief judge Abdul Hakim Haqqani for crimes against humanity.

  As of mid-2025, only Russia has recognized the Taliban government as the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan. The 2025-2026 hunger crisis is one of the world's most severe: over 17 million people, one-third of the population, require urgent food assistance. Over 4.9 million children and women need malnutrition treatment. In May 2025, Iran ordered the mass deportation of an estimated 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, compounding a displacement crisis that the Taliban authorities have condemned as an inhuman act. The country possesses mineral deposits that US and Afghan government officials estimated in 2010 to be worth at least $1 trillion, including lithium reserves that a Pentagon memo suggested could rival Bolivia's, the country currently viewed as holding the world's largest lithium deposits. Whether those reserves ever translate into prosperity depends on conditions that do not yet exist.