Kingdom of Afghanistan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1926–1973 | |||||||||
| Anthem: شاهي سلام Shahi Salami "Royal Salute" (1926–1943) لوی سلام Loya Salami "Grand Salute" (1943–1973) | |||||||||
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| Capital | Kabul 33°N65°E / 33°N 65°E /33; 65 | ||||||||
| Official languages | Persian Pashto after 1936 | ||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Afghan | ||||||||
| Government | Unitaryabsolute monarchy (1926–1964) Unitaryparliamentaryconstitutional monarchy (1964–1973) | ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 1926–1929 | Amanullah Khan | ||||||||
• 1929–1933 | Mohammad Nadir Shah | ||||||||
• 1933–1973 | Mohammad Zahir Shah | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1929–1946(first) | Mohammad Hashim Khan | ||||||||
• 1972–1973(last) | Mohammad Shafiq | ||||||||
| Legislature | Loya Jirga (1926–1931) National Assembly (1931–1973) | ||||||||
| House of Elders (1931–1973) | |||||||||
| House of the People (1931–1973) | |||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar Period · World War II · Cold War | ||||||||
• Succeeds Afghan emirate | 9 June 1926 | ||||||||
| 1928–1929 | |||||||||
| 1 October 1964 | |||||||||
| 17 July 1973 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1973 | 652,864 km2 (252,072 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1973 | 12,108,963[1] | ||||||||
| Currency | Afghan afghani | ||||||||
| Calling code | 93 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Afghanistan | ||||||||
TheKingdom of Afghanistan (Pashto:د افغانستان شاهي دولت,romanized: Dǝ Afġānistān Šahi Dawlat;Persian:پادشاهی افغانستان,romanized: Pādešāhī-ye Afġānistān) was amonarchy in SouthernCentral Asia that was established in 1926 as a successor state to theEmirate of Afghanistan. It was proclaimed by its firstking,Amanullah Khan, seven years after he acceded to the throne. The monarchy ended in the1973 Afghan coup d'état.
Emir Amanullah Khan was keen on modernizing Afghanistan, provoking several uprisings led by his conservative opponents. One such rebellion broke out while he was visiting Europe in 1927. He abdicated in favour of his brotherInayatullah Khan, who only ruled for three days before the leader of the rebellionHabibullāh Kalakāni took power andreinstated the Emirate.[2]
After ten months, Amanullah Khan's Minister of War, Mohammad Nadir, returned from exile in India. His armies ousted theSaqqawist government and sacked Kabul. Afterwards, Nadir's forces apprehended and subsequently executed Kalakāni. Mohammed Nadir reinstated the kingdom, was proclaimedKing of Afghanistan asMohammad Nadir Shah in October 1929, and went on to revert the reformist path of the last king, Amanullah Khan. He was succeeded by his son,Mohammad Zahir Shah, whose rule started in 1933 and lasted for 39 years. Zahir Shah, the last King of Afghanistan, was eventually overthrown by his own cousinMohammad Daoud Khan who successfullyended the centuries-old monarchy and established arepublic. It was under the leadership of Zahir Shah that theAfghan government sought relationships with the outside world, most notably with theSoviet Union, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.[3]
Under Zahir Shah, the government initiated numerous concerted efforts to bring education toDarai Nur, majority of the valley being inhabited by thePashayi people. Because villagers were suspicious of the literacy campaign, wealthier inhabitants in the valley bribed officials and theRoyal Afghan Army to keep their sons out of school. Poorer villagers, on the other hand were far more likely to attend, encouarging the view that the school program was not 'un-Islamic' or anti-Islamic, leading more villagers to send their sons to school.[4]
On 27 September 1934, during the reign of Zahir Shah, the Kingdom of Afghanistan joined theLeague of Nations. DuringWorld War II, Afghanistan remained neutral and pursued a diplomatic policy of non-alignment. Though being neutral in World War II, Afghanistan had relations withNazi Germany, but that was severed after theAnglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.[5]
Afghanistan was admitted into theUnited Nations on 29 August 1946.[6] In 1947, Afghanistan was the only United Nations member to vote against admittingPakistan into the United Nations.[5] This was mostly done because of the Kingdom's call forPashtunistan.[clarification needed]Nikita Khrushchev visited the capital of Kabul and endorsed the Afghan claims toPashtunistan in 1955.[5] Five years earlier, in 1950, Afghanistan signed friendship contracts withIndia andLebanon, established political contacts withSyria and recognised thePeople's Republic of China. Efforts were additionally made to settleAfghan-Iranian disputes over theHelmand River, which are still ongoing between the regimes of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan and theIslamic Republic of Iran.[7][8] Afghanistan also became a member of theNon-Aligned Movement in 1961. Daoud Khan,Prime Minister of Afghanistan at the time, worked hard for the development ofmodern industries, andeducation in the country. In July 1973, Daoud Khan staged a bloodlesscoup d'état while Zahir Shah was abroad convalescing from medical treatment. The next month, Zahir Shah abdicated, hoping to avoid a civil war, which officially marked the end of the Kingdom of Afghanistan and the beginning of the Republic.
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The Kingdom of Afghanistan borderedIran on the west, theSoviet Union in the north,China on the east, andPakistan andIndia on the south. The mountainous and mostly dry country was 652,200 square kilometres (251,830 sq mi). The strange shape and borders of the country, most notably theWakhan Corridor, were a result of its former role as a buffer state betweenRussia and theUnited Kingdom. Snow was common in most areas during winter and rainfall was small.[9]
The country was made up of various ethnic groups such as thePashtuns,Hazaras, and many others.
The majority of Afghans wereMuslim, approximate 99% of the population. Around 90% of the Muslim population wereSunni, the rest wereShia.
Dari andPashto were the official languages, and many Afghans were bilingual.[10]
Like the past and present-dayAfghanistan, the economy relied greatly on agriculture and mining.
The United States and the Soviet Union both invested in neutral Afghanistan's economy to try to gain influence during theCold War. This included the Four Point Program in 1951, when Afghanistan and the United States signed an agreement in Kabul to help assist the economic development in the economy, and the construction of a 100 km pipeline fromTermez toMazar-i-Sharif that was built by Soviet technicians and began in 1954. Afghanistan received $18,500,000 from theExport–Import Bank of the United States to help them purchase U.S. material, equipment, and services for theHelmand River valley developmental project.
In August 1961, Pakistan closed the border with Afghanistan, due to Prime Minister Daoud Khan's strong stance onPashtunistan, but it re-opened in May after Khan's resignation.[11]
The country had deposits of talc, mica, silver, lead, beryl, chromite, copper, lapis lazuli, and iron ore.
King Zahir Shah's cousin, Daoud Khan, signed a $3 million arms deal with theCzechoslovak Socialist Republic and a 32.5 million arms deal with theSoviet Union in 1956. The deal gave the Afghan military importedT-34 tanks andMiG-17 jet fighters. A quarter to third of all Afghan officers had trained in the Soviet Union by 1973.[5] It was also under the Kingdom of Afghanistan where theAfghan Commando Forces were formed as theAfghan Army’s first special formations, notably the 242nd Parachute Battalion in 1965 and later, the 444th and the 455th Battalion in 1966 and 1973. All these battalions had airborne capabilities.[12]
For these new commando formations, Captain Habibullah led the 242nd after returning fromFort Benning in the US to Afghanistan, additionally receiving training from the BritishSpecial Air Service.[13] MajorRahmatullah Safi would become the Chief of Staff for the 444th, although he would become a commander a year later. Major Safi would prove to be a suitable leader, as he had undergone training in the BritishRoyal Military Academy Sandhurst and in the SovietRyazan Higher Airborne Command School. In the years 1962 and 1963, before the establishment of theAfghan Commando Forces, Safi worked alongside the "NationalMujahideen ofPashtunistan" against the Pakistani government, after the unsuccessfulBajaur campaign of 1960-1961.
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