History of Afghanistan

The history of Afghanistan as a state began in 1823 as the Emirate of Afghanistan after the exile of the
Sadozai monarchy to Herat. The Sadozai monarchy ruled the Afghan Durrani Empire, considered the
founding state of modern Afghanistan.[1] The written recorded history of the land presently constituting
Afghanistan can be traced back to around 500 BCE when the area was under the Achaemenid Empire,[2]
although evidence indicates that an advanced degree of urbanized culture has existed in the land since
between 3000 and 2000 BCE.[3][4][5] Bactria dates back to 2500 BCE.[6] The Indus Valley civilisation
stretched up to large parts of Afghanistan in the north.[7] Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army
arrived at what is now Afghanistan in 330 BCE after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire during the Battle
of Gaugamela.[8] Since then, many empires have established capitals in Afghanistan, including the
Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Indo-Sassanids, Kabul Shahi, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids,
Kartids, Timurids, Hotakis and Durranis.[9]

Present-day location of Afghanistan in Asia

Afghanistan (meaning "land of the Afghans" or "Afghan land") has been a strategically important
location throughout history.[10] The land served as " a center of the ancient Silk Road in central Asia, a
gateway to Indian subcontinent, connecting China to western Asia and Europe, which carried trade from
the Mediterranean to China".[11] Sitting on many trade and migration routes, Afghanistan may be called
the 'Central Asian roundabout'[12] since routes converge from the Middle East, from the Indus Valley
through the passes over the Hindu Kush, from the Far East via the Tarim Basin, and from the adjacent
Eurasian Steppe.

The Iranian languages were developed by one branch of these people; the Pashto language spoken
today in Afghanistan by the ethnic Pashtuns, is one of the Eastern Iranian languages. Elena E. Kuz'mina
argues that the tents of Iranic-speaking nomads of Afghanistan developed from the light surface houses
of the Eurasian steppe belt in the Bronze Age.[13]

Mirwais Hotak, followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani unified Afghanistan's tribes such as Pashtuns, Tajiks,
Hazaras, and Uzbeks and Turkmens under one banner and founded the last Afghan Empire in the early
18th century. Afghanistan is inhabited by many and diverse peoples: the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras,
Uzbeks, Turkmen, Qizilbash, Aimak, Pashayi, Baloch, Pamiris, Nuristanis, and others.