karimamarika456
Do³±czy³: 11 Mar 2024
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 Wys³any: Pon Mar 11, 2024 04:54 Temat postu: Unassailable Afghanistan. History of a battlefield |
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The “ Great Game ” of Afghanistan (see Desperta Ferro Historia Moderna no. 11, The Great Game ) took place throughout the 19th century, but if one looks back two hundred years one will find a similar situation, in this case between Mughals and Persians, acting as early avatars of the British and Russians. This “Great Game” clearly reflects one of the basic conditions of Afghan history: its location in the heart of Asia. This land is, in the words of historian Arnold Toynbee, “a crossroads of empires.” The British diplomat William Fraser-Tytler was also correct when he wrote that Afghanistan was “at the meeting point of three great empires”, since this region had always been a buffer state between three great centers of imperial power: India to the southeast, Persia to the west and Central Asia on its northern border, the latter populated throughout history by peoples such as the Scythians, initially, and then the Turks, the Mongols, the Uzbeks and, finally, the Russians.
The geographical condition Over the centuries, all those who have attempted to subjugate Afghanistan have encountered the traps that awaited those who aspired to conquer these almost impenetrable lands . First, the geographical features that form the country's natural defenses: the Hindu Kush, which B2B Email List stretches from northeast to southwest, and the Oxo River, on its northern border. Both represent a formidable logistical problem for any invading army, especially the mountains, which between November and March are covered in snow, which when it melts becomes roaring torrents that cause flooding in a very short time, a circumstance that the Alexander the Great himself . But it's not just about carrying troops and equipment through icy passes or formidable riverbeds; The real challenge is keeping supply lines open , a task that requires fortifying and defending settlements surrounded by a hostile environment. Once an army had managed to cross these barriers, it then had to face one of the most savage warlike peoples in history, the Afghans, who could not afford to be driven from their habitat for the simple reason that they had nowhere else to go. .
His lack of social mobility and his rigid tribal structures tied him to his immediate environment, because if it was already impossible for the Afghans to be accepted by other clans of their own ethnicity, much less would other tribal groups accept them, since they live in a territory that is too poor enough to admit refugees. Furthermore, the men, who were and largely still are primarily farmers and shepherds, could not find wives outside their closed communities. In other words, Afghans have never fought to defend a nation-state, or at least a tribal grouping, and the same is true today, with most Taliban fighters fighting just a few kilometers from their villages. origin. The Afghan tribes have perfected their warrior skills, fighting among themselves for the little that their territory can offer them, since the beginning of Antiquity. This struggle for survival has taken the form of tribal wars between the Uzbeks, Tajiks and Turkmens of the northern Hindu Kush, the Hazaras in the central mountains and, in conflict with all the rest, the all-powerful Pashtuns, established in their imposing strongholds in the south. and east, and whose domain extended to what is today known as the tribal belt of northwestern Pakistan.
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