Chapter 2 Continues...

This period in Afghan history according to him, was a period of anarchy characterised by the absence of any central authority with continuous power struggle between various clans and families of the Pashtun Durrani tribe. Tribal rebellion regularly threatened to destabilise the government in Kabul and created trouble for the British North–West Frontier of India (now Pakistan). Goodson regards the period of anarchy in the nineteenth century, which developed the growth of ethnic consciousness in Afghanistan led to foundations for ethnic relationships in Afghanistan today. However, he feels that these social pressures did not occur in a vacuum for there were tremendous political pressures from external sources as well. In Afghanistan it was apparent by the late 1990s that ethnic arguments were increasingly deployed in political agitations and there was a visible tendency towards ethnicisation of the conflict.
Afghanistan is often dubbed as the “Crossroad of Empires.” Stephen Tanner22 notes that Afghanistan has always found itself at the hinge of imperial ambitions since the beginning of recorded history, from the world’s first trans-continental superpower, the Persian Empire (see Map on “The Persian Empire in 490 B.C.), to the latest, the United States. Regarded as the coveted prize of empires and a source of indigenous warrior kingdoms, Afghanistan had evolved through the modern era to the status of a buffer state, to a Cold War battlefield, and finally to a mere hideout of the so-called Islamic terrorist outfits. There is also a common concept that in between enduring or resisting invasions, Afghans have sharpened their marital skills by fighting amongst themselves in a terrain that facilitates division of power and resists the concept of centralized control. Afghans have thus faced continuous conflict for centuries. The passes of Afghanistan have borne witness to the armies of the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Huns, Mongols, Mughals, British, Soviets, and the Americans passing through them.
Its political importance however began to decline during the medieval period. Once the sea routes were discovered, the importance of Afghanistan declined from an essential passage between civilizations to a land-locked country with no maritime border.

To be continued...