Climatically, however, five zones, crosscutting the above eleven zones, can be distinguished. These are:

Desert

Amounting to one-fifth of the toal area of the country, the desert zone is mostly situated below three thousand feet, covering the plains in the south, southwest, west, north, and east.

Steppe or desert with vegetation

This steppe encompasses the plains near the foothills. This zone is generally located between three and five thousand feet. It includes regions of warm or hot and humid climate in the eastern, southern, western, and northern regions.

Subhumid climate or cool steppe

This zone encompasses most of the pastureland and grassland of the country. It is found in scattered fashion in the eastern and southern regions but is more concentrated in the northern region.

Humid climate

Coinciding with the forested areas of the country, this zone is found in small concentrations in all regions of the country.

Very cold climate

This zone, which covers all the areas above ten thousand feet, is divided into a lower part fit for polar vegetation and an upper part too cold for any vegetation.

The total area of Afghanistan is 245,00 square miles, of which only about 12 percent is cultivated annually. It is shortage of water, not land, that accounts for the small percentage of the cultivated area. Annual precipitation in most areas is either too little or too irregular to make rainfall agriculture practical. Irrigation, therefore, is the dominant form of agriculture, although rainfall agriculture is an important supplementary activity. Water from springs, wells, underground channels (karez), and rivers, with the latter clearly the most important source, is tapped for irrigation. This dependence on irrigation has, in turn, a determining impact on the pattern and size of settlements, which are characteristically concentrated in regional nodes engulfed by large areas of general dispersion.

Rivers as Dividers and Connector

The location of the rivers, their pattern of flow and discharge, and the technological means available for harnessing the water have, therefore, been important factors in the distribution of the population in this predominantly agricultural country. The Amu Darya (Oxus) in the north, the Hari Rud in the north and northwest, the Helmand-Arghandab in the south and southwest and the Kabul in the east are the four major river systems of the country. All except the Kabul, which joins the Indus, are inland rivers. In addition to the main systems, the Panjshir, Logar, Laghman, and Kunar are major perennial rivers in the east. The Surkhab, Kunduz, Kokcha, and Band-I Amir are perennial tributaries in the north.

None of the river systems connects the northern third of the country with its southern two-thirds, and even when potentially navigable, none of the last three centuries has been important communications link, for transport of goods or people, between different regions. Transport, before the introduction of motor vehicles and paved roads in the twentieth century, was by animals, the camel being the long-distance carrier. The camel was a fairly effective means of transport in the weight-efficient long-distance luxury trade passing through Afghanistan, but the movement of bulk agricultural produce between different regions was still quite difficult. Consequently, until the 1960s, when the trend toward the formation of a national market in agriculture was accelerated, the existence of distinctive regional economies was an important feature of the land.

People

Regional economies greatly enhanced regional identities. Thirty-two languages belonging to four linguistic families are spoken in Afghanistan; thus, language has been a major element in the self-conceptualization of Afghan ethnic groups. The most important of these groups are the Pakhtuns, who speak Paskhtu and who since 1747 have been the dominant political and, probably, numerical element in the country; Tajiks, who speak Persian; Hazaras, who speak a dialect of Persian; and Uzbeks and Turkmens, who speak Turkic languages. Central Afghanistan has been predominantly populated by Hazaras, and the majority of the Turkic groups have lived in the northern region. Until the 1880s, Pakhtuns were largely absent from the northern and central regions. Even during the current century, the majority of Pakhtuns have lived in the eastern, southern, and northwestern areas. Tajiks have formed the major segment of the population in the northeast and northwest, as well as in the capital city of Kabul, its surrounding valleys, and a number of other urban centers.

Afghanistan from 1747 - 1979

Not surprisingly, some regions have been named after the major groups inhabiting them. The central region is still known as Hazarajat, after the Hazaras. Until the 1960s, part of the northern area was known as Turkestan and another part as Katagan, after a major Uzbek clan. The name Afghanistan itself referred at first to a geographically far more restricted are. From the fourteenth century until the founding of the Afghan state in 1747, the name represented the area occupied by the Pakhtuns who inhabited the valleys of the Sulaiman mountain range, or what is presently the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan and eastern and southern Afghanistan. As late as the reign of King Habibullah (1901-1919), the official title of the Afghan monarch was “Ruler of the God-Granted Kingdom of Afghanistan, Turkestan and Their Dependencies.” It was in the reign of King Amanullah (1919-1929) that the term Afghanistan was officially used to refer to the whole country.

For millennia the present territory of Afghanistan has been the arena of major political events, the archaeological and historical details of which still have to be pieced together. Its history from 1747 on can be usefully divided into the following five periods:

1747-1818

In 1747, the Durrani Pakhtuns chose Ahmadshah (r. 1747-1773) as their king in Kandahar. He quickly carved out an empire, but rivalry between Pakhtun monarchs and aristocrats coupled with changed international conditions brought about its breakdown.

1818-1880

The collapse of the empire unleashed a period of clannish warlordism that finally resulted in the unification of the present territory of Afghanistan under a Pakhtun ruler in 1863. Twice (in1939-1842 and 1878-1880) British forces invaded Afghanistan but, failing to defeat popular resistance, were forced to withdraw.

1880-1929

Britain gained control of Afghanistan’s foreign relations and retained it until 1919. Abd al-Rahman (r. 1880-1901), whom they recognized as ruler, sued the respite from foreign conflict to pursue a systematic policy of centralization, subordinating all hitherto autonomous groups to the state. These gains were consolidated during the reign of his son. His grandson, Amanullah, was able to wrest political independence from a war-weary Britain. Amanullah’s internal policies, however, gave rise to popular opposition, and he was ousted by an armed rebellion in 1929.

1929-1978

A new Pakhtun dynasty emerged in the wake of the 1929 civil war. The ruling family, realizing the financial weakness of the state, followed a gradual policy of centralization. It first entered an alliance with the merchant class, allowing it to embark on a coherent economic course. In the 1950s, as substantial foreign aid became available, the royal family did without the merchant class bt failed to evolve a viable political and economic program. Mohammed Daud Beureu’eh, prime minister from 1953 to 1963, overthrew his cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah (r. 1933-1973) in 1973 and declared Afghanistan a republic. In April 1978 Daud was in turn overthrown in a bloody coup by the leftist Khalq party. Thus, the Durrani Pakhtun hegemony established in 1947 came to an end.

Ashraf Ghani for the Encyclopedia of Asian History © Asia Society
From The Encyclopedia of Asian History. Asia Society and Charles Scribner's Sons.

More Resources

For more recent history on Afghanistan, see An Expert's View: Barnett Rubin on Afghanistan.

Building Peace and Civil Society in Afghanistan (PDF format)
A report from the Asia Society and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.

For country data, see AsiaProfiles: Afghanistan