Mainly because of what it is and where it is.
You have often heard that no one has been able to conquer Afghanistan and it has been a graveyard of empires. Whoever attacked him perished etc. Let's take a dip in history and find out what the truth is.
The first great empire in human history was that of Cyrus the Great of Iran. Two and a half thousand years ago, he was the first king to take the title of emperor, the king of kings. See a map of his kingdom. Hopefully in the Achaemenid Empire you will see on the right all the present Afghanistan which was a province of the Achaemenid Empire of Cyrus. That is, the present Afghan territory was the conquered slave of the Iranian Empire.
Then we look at the kingdom of Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Here, too, you will have no difficulty in finding Afghanistan. Alexander and his later successors, the Seleucids and other Greek kings, enslaved Afghanistan for a long time.
This is followed by a map of the kingdom of Chandra Gupta Moriah and his successors. You will see again that present day Afghanistan was an open territory of the Maurya kings of Taxila (Punjab) and Patlipatra.
Let's look at the next great empire a few hundred years later. The Sassanid kings also appear to have occupied Afghanistan.
Islam appears. Khurasan was conquered during the reign of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. But i show this map of the Umayyad Caliphate. Afghanistan is also an open territory.
The Umayyads fell. Abbasi also lost power. The Samanid kings of Samarkand and Bukhara now occupy Afghanistan. This is again an open area.
The Samanid Empire is in decline. Its Turkish governor, Alpatin, is currently ruling Ghazni province. He declares independence. The Ghaznavid Empire is established. Alpatgin's successor and son-in-law Sabkatgin started a war with the Hindu Shahi Rajas of Lahore(Punjab) who own the areas of Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. All of these areas are part of the Ghazni Empire. Mahmud Ghaznavi spread a series of conquests on all sides and extended his empire to Ray in Iran, Trans-Canal in Central Asia and Lahore in India. This Turkish government occupies many areas beyond present-day Afghanistan. But then the Seljuk Turks of Central Asia defeated him and drove him out of Afghanistan. Now their center is Lahore.
Meanwhile, for a short period of fifty years, the Ghauri Empire emerged from the remote Afghan region of Ghor, which rose to prominence after Sultan Ghias-ud-Din Ghauri became king in 1163 and occupied the rest of the Ghaznavid Empire. But in 1215 it came to an end. They were of Tajik descent and belonged to Iran.
Now a Tatar named Amir Timur rose from the cities of Sabz and Samarkand, and Afghanistan became a province of his empire. Uzbek Sultan Sheibani Khan also occupied it.
Then the area of Kabul was conquered by Zaheer-ud-Din Babar, the ruler of Fergana and thus it became a part of the Mughal Empire. From Babar to Aurangzeb the Mughals ruled over it.
When the Mughals weakened, the Iranian king Nadir Shah Afshar took control of Afghanistan.
After the assassination of Nadir Shah Afshar, a country called Afghanistan came into being for the first time when Ahmad Shah Abdali the servant of Nadir Shah Afshar claimed to rule the Afghan territories in 1747. Earlier, Kabul and Kandahar were generally part of the Indian throne, Herat and other Iranian empires, and Mazar-e-Sharif, etc., were provinces of the Central Asian empires. Ahmad Shah Abdali's empire included the Iranian city of Nishapur, present-day Afghanistan, present-day Pakistan, and parts of Rajasthan.
In the Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered Lahore in 1799 and took the title of Maharaja in 1801 and ascended the Lahore court. Ranjit Singh expelled the Abdalis from the Punjab with successive defeats. In 1813, Maharaja Ranjit Singh defeated the Abdalis and captured Attock. Conquered Multan in 1818. In the same year, Kashmir was taken over by the Abdalians. In 1819, Dost Muhammad Khan, the Abdali governor of Peshawar, agreed to become part of his empire by paying an annual tribute to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but soon revolted. After the battle of Nowshera in 1823, the area from Peshawar to the Khyber Pass became part of the empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Maharaja Ranjit Singh's intentions to capture Jalalabad and Kabul were thwarted when Hari Singh, a prominent general with a small army, was killed defending the fort of Nalwa Jamrud. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Punjab Empire fell into disarray and in 1849 came under British rule.
Britain also took large swathes of territory from Afghanistan. In the First Anglo-Afghan War, the British garrison in Kabul signed a peace treaty. He was attacked on his return. Initially, it was thought that only one soldier, Dr. William Bryden, survived out of 15,000. Lady Butler made a famous painting on it. After this war, the misconception that Afghanistan was a graveyard of empires spread.
Afghanistan was defeated in the Second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878 to 1880. The whole of Afghanistan was occupied by Britain. In deciding the future of Afghanistan, it was also thought that its parts should be divided and a separate ruler should be appointed for each part. But then Amir Abdul Rehman was made the ruler. Under the agreement, many areas including Quetta, Kurram and Pishin valleys, Sibi, Khyber Pass were ceded to the British Raj. Afghanistan's foreign affairs were also handed over to Britain. In return, Britain took on the responsibility of assisting Afghanistan in the event of a foreign invasion. Only one thing saved Afghanistan. And that was that the British wanted to have a buffer state between their Indian Empire and the Russian Empire.
So this was the shortest history of foreign occupation of Afghanistan. I have not yet mentioned the many empires that have occupied the area, such as the White Huns, the Kushans, the Mongols, and so on.
Now if you hear someone claiming that Afghanistan is a graveyard of empires and no one has been able to occupy it, remind them that whatever great power wants to occupy it and establish their own government, they Has been successful in doing so. It should also be noted that neither the Russians intended to make Afghanistan part of the Soviet Union, nor did the United States want to make it their state, nor did the British want to make it part of their Indian rule.
Afghanistan is a remote, sparsely inhabited, mountaneous and impovrished. The human capital is essentially zero. Agricultural potential is minimal. There may be untapped mineral wealth, but getting it out of the ground will require years and decades of investments, before any noteworthy operations can begin.
Throughout this time you’ll need to fight off local savages and their strange take on religion. Don’t bother with local allies, they’re not worthy of trust. Bring your own men from elsewhere and pay them well.
There is little to no economic incentive to hold Afghanistan, that’s why various empires only entered the country at their zenith, when they were running out of places to conquer. This was true for Alexander, it was true for Russian empire, it was true for British empire, it was true for the Soviets and, to some extent, the USA. You don’t bother with Afghanistan unless there is nothing more worthwhile for you to conquer.
Naturally once the emprie begins to weaken it will leave Afghanistan first, because it’s the least worthwhile posession by far. Since empires tend to retreat once they start weakening, this will make it seem as if Aghanistan was instrumental in the defeat. In reality it might have helped a little (it did for the USSR), but it was barely a brick in the wall, sometimes not even that.
Alexander’s empire did not fall for the costs of maintaining garrisons in Afghanistan, it fell apart because Alexander did not have a worthy heir. The British empire did not fall because of Afghanistan, it dissolved because Britain was no longer able or willing to keep up with the expense of maintaining a colonial empire, following two devastating wars against Germany. The USSR collapsed due to epic economic mismanagement and corruption. Afghanistan played a small role for USSR, but because Afghanistan was the last place they conquered and the first place they left it makes it seem as if Afghanistan was somehow important in the grand scheme of things.
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