Afghanistan is located west of the countries of South Asia (Pakistan, India etc) and east of the countries of the Middle East (Iran, Iraq etc). It is in a region that is sometimes called South-west Asia. The maps highlighted above in the Heinemann Atlas Third Edition and Heinemann eAtlas show Afghanistan's relative location in Eurasia and South Asia. In 2001 the estimated population of Afghanistan was 23.7 million, although a couple of years before this date the estimated population ranged from 22 million to 26.6 million. Its land area is 647,497 square kilometres. Afghanistan has a total land border (it has no ocean border) of 5,529 km that is shared with six countries in the following way:
Some of the other geographic, demographic and social characteristics of this country are:
Figure 1 Afghanistan's location
Figure 2 Afghanistan's borders, provinces and major cities
Historically Afghanistan has occupied a unique location - on the land trade routes between Persia, central Asia, India, China and Japan. The lands of Afghanistan have been fought over for thousands of years - it has a long history marked by numerous bloody battles for power and independence. The Persian King Darius 1 conquered the area 2,500 years ago and Alexander the Great soon followed approximately 200 years later. The Muslim conquests began in the seventh century AD and continued throughout the eighth century AD. The British came to Afghanistan in 1838 when the British Empire was most powerful. They fought three major wars in Afghanistan, often approaching the country from what is now Pakistan, through the narrow and difficult terrain of the Khyber Pass. Afghanistan declared itself an independent nation in 1907 and a period of relative peace existed until 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded.
More details of wars in Afghanistan or civil wars involving Islamic fundamentalists since 1979, are provided below.
1979 - The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and placed Babrak Kamal as their puppet leader.
1980 - USA, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia backed the local mujahideen, including Osama bin Laden, against the Soviet Union.
1988 - The President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew troops from Afghanistan. More than 1 million Afghanis and 50,000 Russians died during the occupation.
1990 - al-Qáida (The Base) mujahideen, headed by Osama bin Laden was formed. He brought together Arabs who fought against the Soviet Union to re-establish a Muslim state.
1992 - Mujahideen, led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, seized the capital, Kabul. Many factions fought to control Afghanistan.
1994 - The Taliban, a militia of Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist students, many of them returning from Pakistan, took over their first cities and towns.
1996 - The Taliban seized control of the capital, Kabul. They declared themselves the legitimate government and imposed strict Islamic law and introduced significant legal and social changes (eg public executions, discrimination against girls and women receiving education)
1998 - Osama bin Laden, operating from bases in Afghanistan masterminded the bombings of the USA embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), killing more than 300 US, Kenyan and Tanzanian citizens. Afghanistan refused to hand over bin Laden. The USA attacked Afghanistan in retaliation - attempted to destroy terrorist training camps. A suicide bomber attacked the ship USS Cole in Aden (Yemen), killing 17 USA sailors. The USA announced that bin Laden was responsible for the attack.
2001 - suicide terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre in New York and The Pentagon in Washington. It was determined that Osama bin Laden, operating from bases in Afghanistan, masterminded the bombings in the USA. The USA and Great Britain attacked Afghanistan in retaliation - they attempted to destroy terrorist training camps and the Taliban regime who sustained bin Laden. Other coalition countries, including Australia, supported this action.
