United Kingdom In The Soviet–Afghan War
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United Kingdom In The Soviet–Afghan War
Though not officially a belligerent during the Soviet–Afghan War, the United Kingdom was heavily involved, playing a key covert role in the conflict. Also known as the Second Great Game, the British provided both indirect and direct support for the Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union, including secretly arming, funding and supplying various factions. Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) primarily supported the Mujahideen group Jamiat-e Islami, commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud who, having received little support from the US and Pakistan, became Britain's key ally in the conflict. Panjshir offensives (Soviet–Afghan War), Fighting in the Panjshir valley, Massoud and his fighters with British support and intelligence, overcame nine Soviet offensives and held out up to the Soviet withdrawal from the vital valley in 1986. Massoud became the most successful and feared out of any of the Mujahideen commanders. The British also played a vital role in support ...
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Applecross
Applecross ( , 'The Sanctuary', historically anglicized as 'Combrich') is a peninsula in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands. It is bounded by Loch Kishorn to the south, Loch Torridon to the north, and Glen Shieldaig to the east. On its western side is Applecross Bay and the Inner Sound, Scotland, Inner Sound. The peninsula is mountainous, sparsely populated, and has only two small roads joining the mainland. One of these roads traverses the famous Bealach na Bà. The former Celtic Christian monastery of Applecross was founded in the 7th century by Saint Máel Ruba, a missionary from Bangor Abbey in Gaelic Ireland; a Sculptured stones, sculptured stone is all that remains. Geography Extremely isolated, Applecross was accessible only by boat until the early 19th century, and for many years after that the only road access was over one of Scotland's most notoriously treacherous roads, the ('Pass of the Cattle'), which crosses the peninsula and reaches a maximum height of , be ...
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British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods: *Between 1612 and 1757, the East India Company set up "factories" (trading posts) in several locations, mostly in coastal India, with the consent of the Mughal emperors, Maratha Empire or local rulers. Its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France. By the mid-18th century three ''Presidency towns'': Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, had grown in size. *During the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called "Presidencies". However, it also increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereig ...
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Mohammed Daoud Khan
Mohammad Daoud Khan (Dari/) also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan; 18July 190928April 1978) was an Afghan head of state, military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup d'état which overthrew the monarchy, served as the first president of Afghanistan from 1973 until he himself was deposed in a coup and killed in the Saur Revolution. Born into the Afghan royal family and addressed by the prefix "Sardar", Khan started as a provincial governor and later a military officer before being appointed as prime minister by his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, serving for a decade. Having failed to persuade the King to implement a one-party system, Khan overthrew the monarchy in a virtually bloodless coup with the backing of Afghan Army officers, and proclaimed himself the first president of the Republic of Afghanistan, establishing an autocratic one-party system under his National Revoluti ...
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People's Democratic Party Of Afghanistan
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), known as the Homeland Party ( Dari: , ) from June 1990, was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election, reduced to two seats in 1969, albeit both before the party was fully legal. For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline '' Khalq'' and moderate '' Parcham'' factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA. The party adhered to Marxist–Leninist ideology and toed a staunch pro-Soviet political line. The PDPA's secret constitution, which was adopted by the party during its founding congress in January 1965 but never publicly released to party cadres, described itself as "the vanguard of the working class and all laborers in Afghanistan" and defined its party ideology as "the practical experience of Marxism–Leninism". While PDPA's internal documents incorporated explicit ...
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Partition Of India
The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The Partition (politics), partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and the Punjab Province (British India), Punjab, based on district-wise Hindu or Muslim majorities. It also involved the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the History of rail transport in India, railways, and the central treasury, between the two new dominions. The partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, or Crown rule in India. The two self-governing countries of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at midnight on 14–15 August 1947. The partiti ...
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Soviet Empire
The term "Soviet empire" collectively refers to the world's territories that the Soviet Union dominated politically, economically, and militarily. This phenomenon, particularly in the context of the Cold War, is used by Sovietologists to describe the extent of the Soviet Union's hegemony over the Second World. In a wider sense, the term refers to Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War, which has been characterized as imperialist: the nations which were part of the "Soviet empire" were nominally independent countries with separate governments that set their own policies, but those policies had to stay within certain limits decided by the Soviet Union. These limits were enforced by the threat of intervention by Soviet forces, and later the Warsaw Pact. Major military interventions took place in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Poland in 1980–81 and Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. Countries in the Eastern Bloc were Soviet satellite states. ...
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Third Anglo-Afghan War
The Third Anglo-Afghan War was a short war which began on 3 May and ended on 8 August 1919. The new Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan declared a Jihad against the British in the hope to proclaim full independence, as well as to strengthen his own legitimacy. Amanullah's forces invaded British India on three fronts taking advantage of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, unrest in India, in an effort to seize the old Afghan provinces west of the River Indus. Initial victories saw the Afghans invade across the border, defeating the British and occupying Battle of Bagh, Bagh. The British retaliated, leading a counterattack that routed the Afghans. Conflict continued in Kurram District, Kurram, which saw the British overwhelmed. Taking their own initiative, the British seized Spin Boldak in the south, while an Afghan offensive in Thal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Thal was contained, with the British occupying Dacca in turn by the end of May. The Royal Air Force were also used i ...
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Durand Line
The Durand Line (; ; ), also known as the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, is a international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to the border with China. The Durand Line was established in 1893 as the international border between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the British Indian Empire by Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat of the Indian Civil Service, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the List of monarchs of Afghanistan, Emir of Afghanistan, to fix the limit of their respective Sphere of influence, spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade. Britain considered Afghanistan to be an independent state at the time, although they controlled its Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Afghanistan), foreign affairs and Foreign relations of Afghanistan, diplomatic relations. The single-page Agreement, dated 12 November 1893, contains seven short articles, including a commitment not to exercise Intervent ...
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Puppet State
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal Sovereign state, sovereignty, except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through economic or military support. By leaving a local government in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralysing the local government they tolerate. Puppet states differ from Alliance, allies, who choose their actions of their own initiative or in accordance with Treaty, treaties they have voluntarily entered. Puppet states are forced into Rubber stamp (politics), legally endorsing actions already taken by a foreign power. Characteristics Puppet states are "endowed with the outward symbols of authority", such as a name, National flag, flag, anthem, cons ...
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Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan (Pashto: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) also known by his epithet, The Iron Amir, was Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for perpetrating the Hazara genocide, but also uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Agreement with British India. Abdur Rahman Khan was the only son of Mohammad Afzal Khan, and grandson of Dost Mohammad Khan, founder of the Barakzai dynasty. Abdur Rahman Khan re-established the writ of the Afghan government after the disarray that followed the second Anglo-Afghan war. He became known as ''The Iron Amir'' because of his government's military despotism. This despotism rested upon a well-appointed army and was administered through officials subservient to an inflexible will and controlled by a widespread system of espionage. The nickname, ''The Iron Amir'', is also associated due to his victory over a number of rebellions by various tribes who ...
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Second Anglo-Afghan War
The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty, the son of former Emir Dost Mohammad Khan (Emir of Afghanistan), Dost Mohammad Khan. The war was part of the Great Game between the British Empire, British and Russian empire, Russian empires. The war was split into two campaigns – the first began in November 1878 with the British Raj, British invasion of Afghanistan from British Raj, India. The British were quickly victorious and forced the Amir – Sher Ali Khan to flee. Ali's successor Mohammad Yaqub Khan immediately sued for peace and the Treaty of Gandamak was then signed on 26 May 1879. The British sent an envoy and mission led by Louis Cavagnari, Sir Louis Cavagnari to Kabul, but on 3 September this mission was massacred and the conflict was reignited by Mohammad Ayub Khan ...
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