Afghanistan Crisis | History of Taliban | US Troop Return

America has spent around $2 Trillion on the Afghan wars. For 20 years, the US Army was stationed in Afghanistan. Now, since the US Army is leaving Afghanistan, Taliban is gaining a strong foothold over the country.

By now, the situation has deteriorated so much that less than 50% of the area in Afghanistan is actually under the control of the Afghan Government. It may happen very soon that the Afghan government is overthrown by the Taliban. It is a huge crisis whose effects are felt even in India and Pakistan. Because India is not very far from Afghanistan. But to understand this complex geopolitical crisis properly, we'll need to delve into the history. Come, let's find out in today's article.First, a few words for Danish Siddiqui. An award-winning India photojournalist. Who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan?

He was a true journalist. He presented the truth to us by literally putting his life on the line. In a way that hardly any other journalist dares to nowadays. Be it the farmers' protest, the corona crisis, or the migrant crisis. His photos were always so thought-provoking.

But when do fanatics like the truth? Some extremists killed him.

And some celebrated his death. I hope that his work has inspired many youngsters. In taking journalism for the right reasons. To properly understand the situation in Afghanistan, friends, we need to start the story at the beginning.

Do you know that Afghanistan is known as the Graveyard of Empires? Because many superpower countries enter Afghanistan

but return after humiliating themselves. The Britishers came in the 19th century. They had to bear a very humiliating defeat.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union came to Afghanistan. And returned after 9 years with a lot of embarrassment. And in the 21st century, the USA came to Afghanistan. And is now returning in shame. It's not that Afghanistan had never been conquered before.

If you look at the history, you'll find several instances of this.

Macedonian ruler Alexander had done it. The Arabs did it.

Mongol ruler Changez Khan. Mughal rulers Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb had done it. And the Sikh king Raja Ranjit Singh had also done it.

But it is believed that the Afghan warriors make it really difficult for any foreign ruler to keep Afghanistan's area occupied.

But we don't need to go into ancient history. We'll start from the 1800s.

That period is more relevant to today's situation.

There was a large Russian empire in the North at the time. And the British empire in the South. India was then occupied by the British.

And in the middle, there was a buffer zone that was Afghanistan.

Now Russia and Britain were wary of each other.

They were afraid of the other country occupying Afghanistan and creating problems for them. There was a very famous political cartoon about it.

Where Britain is depicted as the Lion and Russia as the Bear. And Afghanistan is in the middle. Initially, the Western countries didn't know much about Afghanistan.

When a Scottish explorer Alexander Burnes went there and safely returned,

he became akin to a heroin western country. The book he wrote on Afghanistan, "Travels Into Bokhara" became a bestseller.

In 1838, the British Raj started feeling motivated enough and confident of occupying Afghanistan's territory.

They were very confident about their victory. They were sure they would win.

Then there was a king in Afghanistan. His name was Emir Dost Mohammad.

Of the Barakzai dynasty. The British started the war and overthrew Emir Dost Mohammad from the throne. And placed their puppet Shah Shujah on the throne. There wasn't an army in Afghanistan then.

Instead, there were thousands of small, isolated villages.

And a chief in each village. The chiefs of the villages led some of the boys from their villages to fight on behalf of the Emir in return for some money.

This money had dwindled down under the rule of Emir Shah Shujah. So the tribal chiefs of the small villages united under the leadership of Chief Akbar Khan. And all these villagers started a war against the British.

This war lasted for three years. The Britishers had quite advanced fire weapons. But despite that, the British were defeated.

Shah Shujah was murdered. And Dost Mohammad was placed on the throne again. This is known as the First Anglo-Afghan War.

That was followed by the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878. British attacked Afghanistan again.

This time around, the Britishers won the war. And occupied an area of Afghanistan. But they didn't intend to settle in entire Afghanistan.

They supported a new Emir named Abdur Rahman. He later came to be known as Iron Emir. The British let internal rule remain in Afghanistan.

They merely wanted to have an influence on the buffer zone with the Russian Empire. To establish friendly relations. And so there remained stability in Afghanistan.

In 1893, an International Border Line was drawn between Afghanistan and British India. That's known as the Durand Line. In 1907, there was an agreement between the British and Russian empires