War Number One

If you look back to just one hundred years ago - the late 19th century, early 20th century - you'll see that the world was incredibly different from how it is now. First of all, Russia was part of the Soviet Union. By 1914, the only "free" countries in Africa were Liberia and Eritrea. The rest of the huge continent belonged to European countries. Finally, Britain was a world power, claiming territories in every part of the world. They had control in North America, South America, Africa, India, Australia, China, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. Afghanistan was one of these countries.


Africa 1914.

Britain first became involved with Afghanistan when they invaded the country in 1838, sparking the First Afghan War (A). The British viewed controlling Afghanistan's foreign policy as a necessity: Afghanistan's relationship with foreign powers had become increasingly important. Russia had been interested in developing a direct trading link to India, which required friendly relations with Afghanistan. The British, however, did not want strong Russian influence so close to British India (G).



The war ended in 1842. The outcome did not include Afghanistan becoming a colony of Britain like the territories in Africa. Instead, Britain simply took control of Afghanistan's foreign policy, and placed a puppet monarch, Shah Shoja, on the throne. Shah Shoja, however, was not welcomed. The Afghans rebelled, and the British were massacred. Shah Shoja was assassinated by the Afghans, and Dost Mohammad, the previous Afghan leader, returned to power. The war ended in 1842. Dost Mohammad managed to unify Afghanistan before he died in 1863 and was succeeded by his son, Sher Ali (A). However, the peace in Afghanistan wouldn't last for long.