The rise of the afghans’ national awakening and the achievement of their independence (1880s-1921)‎

Abstract EN

Of the wars that Britain waged in Central Asia, the Anglo-Afghan wars were the ones which deserve attention.

The latter went through three stages: the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842), the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880) and the Third Anglo-Afghan War (May, August 1919).The British intervened militarily in Afghanistan as part of the Conservatives’ forward policy to pre-empt a potential Russian invasion of India, then a British colony.

Due the asymmetric nature of these wars and the difficulty to unite the Afghan mosaic ethnic groups to fight for a national cause, Afghanistan independence was delayed for years, when all the prerequisites for it were fulfilled notably, the Afghan national consciousness.