This List Shows Why Afghanistan Is Called “The Graveyard of Empires”
By: Grant Piper
Tags: Afghanistan, United States, Lists, History, World

Mongol Empire (1206–1335)

The emperors of the Mongol Empire (Public domain)

The Mongol Empire managed to gain control of Afghanistan in the years directly following the death of Genghis Khan but not without great hardship. Genghis Khan failed to fully subdue the unruly territory during his reign which lasted until 1227.

In the year 1221 during the Siege of Bamyan in Afghanistan Genghis Khan’s grandson, Mutukan, was killed by the defenders. This enraged Genghis Khan who enacted swift revenge. After capturing the city, the Mongols slaughtered everyone inside and razed the city to the ground. Despite the Pyrrhic victory, Genghis did not manage to bring the territory under his direct control.

Afghanistan was eventually captured but the gains did not last long. The Mongol Empire began to split into client states beginning in 1256CE. The Ilkhanate was the state that retained control of Afghanistan but it dissolved in 1335.

In the end, the great Mongol Empire only managed to hold onto Afghanistan for roughly a century before it collapsed.

Mughal Empire (1526–1747)

Greatest extent of the Mughal Empire (Public domain)

The Mughal Empire dominated large swaths of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three hundred years. Their name derives from the word for Mongal and they were seen as a successful successor state to the Mongol Empire. The Mughals rose in the 16th century and quickly gained control of much of India. But they never could bring Afghanistan under their direct control and that wasn’t for lack of trying.

After securing their core territories in the 16th century, the Mughal Empire began looking abroad for strategic trade routes in the 17th century. This put them into conflict with the nearby Safavid Empire which was the current ruler of Afghanistan. A series of wars and conflicts broke out in the middle part of the 17th century between the Mughals and the Safavids in Afghanistan. Much of the fighting centered around the important fortress of Kandahar.

Many years of fighting followed and in the end, the Mughals had to give up their hopes of securing Kandahar and their ambitions in Afghanistan. The extent of their conquests stopped in Kashmir and the Mughals never subdued Afghanistan.

British Empire (1839–1919)

British Guides Infantry in Afghanistan (Public domain)

After the Mughal Empire fell in the 19th century, the British moved into the region. They began taking control of the important ports, trade routes and infrastructure in India before seizing control of most of the subcontinent. The British Raj immediately came in contact with Afghanistan and it sucked them into a series of conflicts that spanned nearly a century.

At the time, Afghanistan sat between the growing Russian Empire which had expanded into the mountainous region to the north of Afghanistan and the British Empire to the east. Afghanistan once again became a strategic hot spot and a struggle between the British and the Russians began centering around Afghanistan. This 19th century power struggle became known as the Great Game.

The British Empire fought three wars in Afghanistan from 1839 to 1919. The First Anglo-Afghan War became known as the British Disaster after three years of fighting resulted in a complete withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan.

The British won the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1880 and established a protectorate over the region but it did not last long. A third war was fought in 1919 which granted Afghanistan its sovereignty and freedom from British rule.

Yet another empire spent decades of blood and treasure in Afghanistan only to come away empty handed.

Soviet Union (1979–1989)

Locals man captured artillery in the Soviet-Afghan War (Public domain)

The Russians had coveted Afghanistan for a long time. They lost their power struggle with the British in the 19th century and failed to secure the political and economic inroads in the territory that they always wanted. They saw an opportunity to change that in 1979. After a period of turmoil in the region, a communist government was declared in Afghanistan. The Soviets quickly seized on the opportunity to intervene in the country they long had their eye on.

In 1979, in support of the communist government in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union invaded with the purpose of supporting and absorbing the new communist state. The problem was, there was a large Islamic insurgency growing to oppose the invaders. What followed was a disastrous decade in which the Soviet Union was bogged down in an expensive guerilla war with the rebels. The United States and local Muslim powers were heavily supporting the rebels which gave them enough weaponry and money to continue the fight far longer than the Soviets anticipated.

Equipment, money and resources poured into Afghanistan with diminishing returns. In the end, nearly 15,000 Soviets were killed and over 50,000 wounded in the harsh fighting.

In 1989, the USSR was forced to withdraw completely from the country. The loss was seen as an international embarrassment for the Soviets. Two years later, the entirety of the Soviet Union collapsed ending the Cold War and communist intervention around the world.

The United States of America (2001–2021)

US convoy in Afghanistan (Public domain)

Finally, the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Afghanistan was seen as a lawless region that was harboring and supporting international terrorism. The US went in with the purpose of destroying the terror networks in the country and hunting down Osama Bin Laden.

Over the years, the mission morphed into one of nation building. The United States believed that they could foster and support a democratic government in Afghanistan that would help in the War on Terror and serve as a strategic and political buffer between Iran and Pakistan that was friendly to the United States. The US and its allies set up a democratic government in Kabul and worked hard to subdue the insurgents in the countryside.

But the effort was ultimately futile.

Like the Soviets before them, the United States ran into a tangled network of tribal alliances and a gruesome insurgency that cost thousands of lives over the course of decades. While the US was able to control the large urban centers, they struggled to control the sparsely populated remote tribal lands. In the end, the Taliban managed to unite the Afghan tribes against the invaders once again and a military blitzkrieg emerged from these uncontrolled tribal regions and recaptured the entire country over the course of a month.

Legacy and looking to the future

Afghanistan never manages to stay subdued for long. Once again, it finds itself independent and facing an internal struggle as the eyes of nearby great powers watch closely. It is independent of foreign invaders but how long will that last?

China is keeping a close eye on Afghanistan because of its Belt and Road Initiative as well as fears that Islamic extremism could spread from Afghanistan to the nearby Xinjiang which is controlled by China and has a large ethnic Muslim population.

The United States and its NATO allies will be keeping a close watch on the developments in Afghanistan and surely will use and terrorist activity as another pretense to get involved in their favorite region of the world.

In some cases, losing a conflict in Afghanistan leads to a rapid collapse. The Ilkhanate dissolved less than a century after controlling the territory. The British Empire evaporated just thirty years after their last conflict in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union went belly up two years after they were forced to withdraw. Now, the United States has been kicked out of the region.

Who will be foolish enough to try their hand in Afghanistan next? Some of the world’s most famous empires, greatest militarires and largest armies have attempted to invade and control Afghanistan and they all failed eventually. It seems like every attempt to conquer the region leads to years of conflict, an exhaustion of funds and countless casualties.