Flag of Afghanistan under the Taliban
Old Flag of Afghanistan
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South-Central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.
Afghanistan (meaning land of the Afghans) has a very long history, it has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and migration. It is an important geostrategic location, connecting East and West Asia or the Middle East. The land has been a target of various invaders, as well as a source from which local powers invaded neighboring regions to form their own empires. Ahmad Shah Durrani created the Durrani Empire in 1747, which is considered the beginning of modern Afghanistan. Its capital was shifted later from Kandahar to Kabul and most of its territories ceded to neighboring empires. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in "The Great Game" played between the British Indian Empire and Russian Empire. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.
Since the late 1970s Afghanistan has experienced a continuous state of civil war punctuated by foreign occupations in the forms of the 1979 Soviet invasion and the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government. In late 2001 the United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) composed of NATO troops. The country is being rebuilt by international support, while dealing with a strong insurgency. In 2021 the Taliban took over the country again forming the current nation known as Afghanistan.
Alternate versions of Afghanistan have been discovered in the multiverse:
- Afghan Democratic Republic (Twilight of a New Era)
- Afghan SSR (1861: Historical Failing)
- Afghanistan (1983: Doomsday)
- Afghanistan (Austria and others)
- Afghanistan (Concert of Europe)
- Afghanistan (A Confederate Victory)
- Afghanistan (Double Collapse)
- Afghanistan (French Trafalgar, British Waterloo)
- Afghanistan (Hitler's Win)
- Afghanistan (How many Sixes does Adolf Nazi have to Roll?)
- Afghanistan (Mere Men)
- Afghanistan (New Union)
- Afghanistan (President McCain)
- Afghanistan (A Shadow in the Blue Sky)
- Afghanistan (Sino-Roman)
- Afghanistan (The Kalmar Union)
- Afghanistan (Union of Nations)
- Arachosia (L'Uniona Homanus)
- Bactria (L'Uniona Homanus)
- Bactria (Revolution 1)
- Bactria (Vegetarian World)
- Badakhshan (Deluge)
- Balochistan (1983: Doomsday)
- Confederation of Afghanistan (An Independent in 2000)
- Democratic Afghanistan
- Islamic Autocracy of Afghans (Forested Bosworth)
- Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Federation of Nations)
- Kingdom of Afghanistan (PS-1)
- Pashtunistan (New Union)
Alternate versions of Afghanistan have also been discovered to belong to different nations: