Afghan Light Horse

==In game==
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Afghan Light Horse/Ultima Ratio|Ultima Ratio
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=== See also ===
* Cossack Lancers; Chernomoria Cossacks
==History==
For most of the Early Modern Era, Afghanistan would be annexed to this or that empire in the vicinity, owing to its strategic location in South Central Asia. Forming a buffer in the Hindu Kush and being one of two different routes from the Iranian Middle East into India (the other being through the treacherous Gedrosian Desert in what is now Balochistan), Afghanistan would see itself fought over, first between the Persians and the Mughal Indians, then becoming a pawn between the Russians and British colonial India, with only the earliest decades of the short-lived indigenous Durrani dynasty (1747-1842CE) witnessing any significant period of significant independence and statehood. It was not until the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1918-19 that Afghanistan would finally be independent by taking advantage of British fatigue from the First World War and repeatedly raiding British India.
Nevertheless, just as in previous centuries long before guns were a thing, the Afghans nevertheless still could have a say in the state of affairs of South Asia — it was after all a horde of Afghan rebels under the Hotaki flag that laid low the once-mighty Safavid Empire with the siege of Esfahan in 1722CE. The Safavids, Mughals (and much later Afsharids, British and Russians) all courted different tribes throughout the harsh mountains in an effort to spread their influence (and stabilise the lucrative east-west trade routes whilst blocking their competitors from occupying Afghanistan itself). The Mughals, Safavids and Afsharis (as well as the many post-Afsharid principalities of Persia and Afghanistan) all recruited mercenaries from the Afghan tribes, both for military operations in Afghanistan proper and/or elsewhere closer to home.
Category:Light cavalry