The Violence Never Ends

The British invaded Afghanistan again in December 1878, launching the Second Afghan War. The British emerged victorious, although the revolts against the British did not end. As a result, the British eventually relinquished Afghanistan to Emir Abdur Rahman in 1880, but continued to manage Afghanistan's foreign affairs (A).

The British managed Afghanistan's foreign affairs until 1919. While the British army was engaged in a skirmish over the Durand Line, Amanullah Khan, Abdur Rahman's grandson, launched a surprise attack on them, launching the Third Afghan War (A). This war benefited the Afghans much more than it did the Brits. On August 8, 1919, the Treaty of Rawalpindi was signed, giving Afghanistan control over their own foreign affairs, ending their payment of subsidy, and forbidding Afghanistan to import weapons (E).

Although Amanullah Khan opposed Western control in Afghanistan, he encouraged many Western ideas. He attempted to modernize Afghanistan by abolishing the purdah, or the mandatory face-covering veil for women, opening coed schools, introducing Western dress, and starting a program to educate the nomads (A).

Amanullah's ideas caused the resentment against modernization to grow among conservative families and the mullah, or Muslim clerics. In 1928, the Afghans revolted. They abdicated Amanullah the following year (A).

Nine months of civil war followed the end of Amanullah Khan’s rule, until an assembly of chiefs pronounced Mohammad Nadir Khan shah. Nadir Shah also encouraged modernization, but he executed his reforms at a more slower pace than Amanullah. He based his government on orthodox Islamic law and set up the Loya Jirga, or Great Council. He put an end to Amanullah’s reforms that angered the conservative families, and returned women to the purdah. He was assassinated in 1933, and his son, Zahir Shah, was placed on the throne (A).