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Two Afghanmen take part in prayer in their local mosque.

The unification of the Pashtun tribes in 1747 gave birth to the nation we know today as Afghanistan. For almost a century and a half, the nation acted as a pawn for the British in India to the south and the Russian Empire to the north, as both powerful nations vied for supremacy in Central Asia. It would be Great Britain that finally managed to exert some control over Afghanistan, invading in 1838 in the first of three Anglo-Afghan wars and installing Shah Shujah as king. British and Indian troops retreated in 1842 following Shujah’s assassina- tion, and the fleeing troops suffered a massacre on their way out of Kabul. Britain did not give up, however, and a second war from 1878 to 1880 resulted in a treaty that gave control ofAfghan foreign affairs to the British. The third Anglo-Afghan War began in 1919, when Emir Amanullah Khan declared independence from British influence.The war lasted only a few months, but a 1921 treaty rec- ognized Afghanistan’s independence. Amanullah attempted to introduce social reforms in 1926, but he fled the country three years later when his attempt resulted in civil

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