In my personal opinion, it would have been a terrible idea as the country was bordered by the mighty British India, who could have reoccupied country (as they did in 1879) and could have prevented Afghanistan from eventually realising true independence in 1919. Even if the British perhaps would have failed in their objectives of achieving total control over the country, this hypothetical war would have been disastrous for Afghanistan.
The Afghans were smarter than anybody else involved. Everyone who got involved in this damn war thought "well sure, every other nation has lost an entire generations of its young men to grinding, pointless imperialistic warfare but WE'LL be different. WE'LL be home by Christmas!" Yea. No. No one was spared.
They still had to go through a Third Anglo-Afghan war but it was a tiny conflict compared to the amount of casualties in WW1. The British had about 1,700~ casualties and the Afghans had about 1,000~ casualties.
Great content. With regards to Habibullah's death, I should mention that: "Much later, in 1922, it was discovered in Turkey that a man named Mustafa Saghir, a British Spy of Indian origin, was involved in a plot to assassinate Ataturk Mustafa Kamal. This man also confessed his involvement in the murder of Amir Habibullah Khan during the investigations carried out in Turkey. Regrettably, however, this admission reached Amanullah a bit too late who had already put to death Prince Nasrullah, his uncle (Habibullah's brother) on suspicion of killing his father shorter after ascending the throne around 1919. Regardless, Habibullah's death had backfired in that it only fueled the traditionalists' even more anti-imperialist stance, including the camp deemed pro-British historically, which titled the balance in favour of sparking the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war against the Brits, and fulfilling Habibullah's ultimate wish of a free and independent Afghanistan at last. Everything seemed promising until Amanullah Khan was forced to abidate a decade later, the result of tireless efforts by the British to undue Amanullah's anti-imperialist posture, and instead install a pro-British friendly Kabul regime. Although this was difficult at first, thanks to Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence (yes, the same famous Lawrence of Arabia) who undertook extra calendstine operations in the eastern mountain ranges of Afghanistan who were becoming increasingly agitated of Amanullah's encorsions into their tribal way of life (partly because he had gotten out of touch with reality on the ground fueled by his hunger for radical modernization plans that alarmed the traditionalists). So yes, although not widely known, Habibullah was in fact alledly killed by a British spy, Mustafa Saghir, ostensibly for his relantless attempts to enforce the British Raj's promise to relinquish absolute authority over Afghanistan's external affairs in exchange for the Emir's unconditional neutrality. But it backfired anyway, since it only percipitated the arrival of Amanullah Khan, Habibullah's son, who was even less sympathetic to British designs in Asia.
I think I was introduced to your channel through project dictator? I am looking forward to you educating me on an area of the world and it's Rich history that I am unaware of. So far so good two thumbs up
@@kuroazrem5376 Bolsheviks actually gave land and promise of equality to the subjects of the Russian empire and they did until Stalin came to power and corrupted the ideas of Lenin’s revolution.
Just a reminder for many There was a difference between Persia today Iran & Khurasan which was Afghanistan name before Afghanistan. Also Turkey is not leader of Muslim anymore Turkey is secular half Muslim country
When some Indian soldiers help the British Empire to fight against Ottoman Empire because German Empire is fighting against Tsar because some Serbs killed an Austrian prince in the Balkans . WW1 was so confusing.
The idea required quite a few assumptions, logistically Afghanistan couldn't have been much of a threat to British control of the Raj and the amount of respect most of the worlds muslims had for the Caliph appears to have been greatly exaggerated in the minds of planners. The vast majority of those ruled by the British were either indifferent or loyal to their overlords.
Whilst I agree that Afghanistan wouldn't necessarily have been favourites against the British, the Afghans would've likely evoked a major reaction from the British who were keen to protect their treasured Indian colony - thus diverting attention away from other fronts in WWI. It sounds like that's what the Ottomans and Germans hoped for.
@@HikmaHistory There were still sufficient Indian troops in the subcontinent to 'keep order' to defend the northern frontier, the Afghan army wasn't remotely a match for the forces in the Raj in terms of training and equipment. The third assumption that occurred to my mind was that any reaction in favour of the Caliph would be capable of diverting troops in terms of organisation, training or materiel. The British were certainly paranoid about the Jewel in the Imperial Crown, the logistics of a Russian invasion through Afghanistan would have been prohibitive but it was still feared.
Afghanistan always had a close relationship with Germans and Hitler also loved Afghans because he knew that Afghans are the true Aryans. In fact during World War II Afghanistan was the only country that supported Hitler and Hitler also provided military weapons to Afghanistan.
@@tailsprowerfan2729 Yes he did. However he was extremely intelligent and knew that Afghanistan used to be a buddhist country and also opened the first buddhist monastery in Berlin.
Am I the only one who actually enjoyed Valhalla? The Witcher-like RPG system really beefed up the past three entries in the game. Plus, the use of stealth was always there to pursue. Anyways, that's just me.
Ottomans were at odds with Persians for most of their existence. Plus at that point in time, Iran adopted a strategy to play both Russia and British against each other to maintain its minimal sovereignty.
Didn't really have that option, since Persia was largely divided into British and Russian zones of influence. Difficult to even approach them in the first place.
The Ottomans were in an undeclared border war with Persia after 1906 and annexed large parts of Kurdistan, meanwhile the Russians and British also had spheres of influence in the country after 1907, with the Russians occupying most of Persian Azerbaijan and Gilan.
As usual, Muslim leader trusts the British for no reason, bends over backwards for them, and then gets nothing in return. Also, FYI, the word for Caliph is 'Khalifa', not 'Khalif'
This is just my assumption idk how much true is it......I believe Germans wanted India I think after all India was important colony Full of natural resources so I believe they with the help of Ottoman Empire which in turn Took the help of Afghanistan...This is just an assumption....
I think one of the larger failures of the Ottomans, was their failure to better integrate themselves with Islamic India. They did steadfastly fight the Portuguese for Influence over India. But they never achieved much of a foothold to threaten the British who then came out of Bengal in the east. I'm just thinking of all the massive $$$ of money/trade they missed out on, looking at what Britain got out of India.
@@MarkVrem Yeah that true as well as the Mughal Empire did not strengthen their with Ottomans since Safavid Empire was their key ally... Especially against the Khanate of Bukhara as during Akbar rule the Khanate of Bukhara had backed the Roshaniya movement in In Khyber region which had caused unrest in Mughal Kabul , Kandhar Peshawar and Kohat..
I think your assumptions are justified. From what I've looked into, the Germans wanted to use Afghanistan as a way to support an Indian Nationalist resurrection in the tribal belt of India. That's why they supported the Provisional Government of Free India which based itself in Afghanistan, under the leadership of Mahendra Pratap and Barkatullah Bhopali.
That’s wrong, it was actually an Indian prince that brought the Germans to Afghanistan in hopes of Afghans invading india and freeing it from British rule. During this, Afghanistan gained a new ally in Germany.
it would have been interesting if Afghanistan tried to expand into Russian empire or Iran. both collapsed in WW1 and had restive non-Russian or non-Farsi population along remote border with Afghanistan.
After the Abbasid down fall the title of Caliph was not respectful. As the Fatimids and Al andulus leaders declared themselves Caliphs at the same time. So after that the Ottoman sultan's title of Caliph was more of a self-proclaimed one.
After the Abbasids you had Regional caliphs. The Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and even Moroccan Dynastys all considered themselves the Khalifa of the Muslim world but in reality if was restricted too their own realms.
Emir Habibullah Khan Mahmud Tarzi Prince Nasrullah (Traditionalist) Prince Amanullah (Progressive Modernist) Niedermayer-Hentig expedition Wilhelm Wassmuss
So Habibullah refused our Caliphate and was a British puppet…his fate should be a lesson to us Afghans that is to put trust in Gods power not a bloodsucking colonizer. But then again as a Freemason, where Habibullahs loyalty lied was clear. What a snake!
Do you think it would've been a good idea for Afghanistan to join WWI?
Afghan History Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLiPhmAD3I2JwtvkJo3FEzNjREicYlQgm1
In my personal opinion, it would have been a terrible idea as the country was bordered by the mighty British India, who could have reoccupied country (as they did in 1879) and could have prevented Afghanistan from eventually realising true independence in 1919. Even if the British perhaps would have failed in their objectives of achieving total control over the country, this hypothetical war would have been disastrous for Afghanistan.
@abbas abdullah Well, Afghanistan proved Abdul Hamid wrong, twice
@abbas abdullah You meant world war 1?
Probably not, they had little to gain and lots to lose
@@ThusItHappened Good point
Great to have taken part in this collab. Thanks!
The pleasure was all mine!
The Afghans were smarter than anybody else involved. Everyone who got involved in this damn war thought "well sure, every other nation has lost an entire generations of its young men to grinding, pointless imperialistic warfare but WE'LL be different. WE'LL be home by Christmas!"
Yea. No. No one was spared.
They still had to go through a Third Anglo-Afghan war but it was a tiny conflict compared to the amount of casualties in WW1. The British had about 1,700~ casualties and the Afghans had about 1,000~ casualties.
Wow Afghanistan beautiful country
Very interesting! And I always love to see great HistoryTubers collaborating.
Thanks Artur!
I love you’re content about Afghanistan. Keep it up❤️
Thanks, got a bunch of Afghan history content coming up this year!
Love the afghan content bro
I'm glad, a lot more coming in the second half of this year!
Great content. With regards to Habibullah's death, I should mention that: "Much later, in 1922, it was discovered in Turkey that a man named Mustafa Saghir, a British Spy of Indian origin, was involved in a plot to assassinate Ataturk Mustafa Kamal. This man also confessed his involvement in the murder of Amir Habibullah Khan during the investigations carried out in Turkey. Regrettably, however, this admission reached Amanullah a bit too late who had already put to death Prince Nasrullah, his uncle (Habibullah's brother) on suspicion of killing his father shorter after ascending the throne around 1919.
Regardless, Habibullah's death had backfired in that it only fueled the traditionalists' even more anti-imperialist stance, including the camp deemed pro-British historically, which titled the balance in favour of sparking the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war against the Brits, and fulfilling Habibullah's ultimate wish of a free and independent Afghanistan at last. Everything seemed promising until Amanullah Khan was forced to abidate a decade later, the result of tireless efforts by the British to undue Amanullah's anti-imperialist posture, and instead install a pro-British friendly Kabul regime. Although this was difficult at first, thanks to Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence (yes, the same famous Lawrence of Arabia) who undertook extra calendstine operations in the eastern mountain ranges of Afghanistan who were becoming increasingly agitated of Amanullah's encorsions into their tribal way of life (partly because he had gotten out of touch with reality on the ground fueled by his hunger for radical modernization plans that alarmed the traditionalists).
So yes, although not widely known, Habibullah was in fact alledly killed by a British spy, Mustafa Saghir, ostensibly for his relantless attempts to enforce the British Raj's promise to relinquish absolute authority over Afghanistan's external affairs in exchange for the Emir's unconditional neutrality. But it backfired anyway, since it only percipitated the arrival of Amanullah Khan, Habibullah's son, who was even less sympathetic to British designs in Asia.
Great info, thanks a lot
Always learning from your documentaries! Appreciate your collaboration with HH, he has a great channel, too.
Thanks!
I think I was introduced to your channel through project dictator? I am looking forward to you educating me on an area of the world and it's Rich history that I am unaware of. So far so good two thumbs up
Glad to hear it Sheri!
Excellent content. Thank you
Manana Fawad!
Truthfully he backed the winning side with some deft politics.really enjoyed this 👌
I agree Steven and thank you!
Stefan is one of my favorite channels the history hustle! I wish he was my teacher when I was in school!
Thank you very much for a very informative video.
Glad you liked it!
Afghanistan should have joined the war and invaded Russia during its Civil War to annex regions in Central Asia, and then, invaded British India.
Did it have the means to do that tho?
@@HikmaHistory I'm not sure, but with Russia weakened, it would have been easy prey.
@@kuroazrem5376 Bolsheviks actually gave land and promise of equality to the subjects of the Russian empire and they did until Stalin came to power and corrupted the ideas of Lenin’s revolution.
@@justadude9110 that is communist propaganda
Afghanistan has always been under the influence of west or east !
I'm sorry if I missed them, but may I ask what your sources were? I'd be interested in reading further
Caught between a "rock and a hard place" but ultimately double crossed by the British! What's new?
Just a reminder for many There was a difference between Persia today Iran & Khurasan which was Afghanistan name before Afghanistan. Also Turkey is not leader of Muslim anymore Turkey is secular half Muslim country
Good content!
Thanks!
When some Indian soldiers help the British Empire to fight against Ottoman Empire because German Empire is fighting against Tsar because some Serbs killed an Austrian prince in the Balkans . WW1 was so confusing.
The last Khalifa was Abdulhamid II
Almost all muslims rejected the authority of any other successor that came after Abdulhamid II
What about make a video about senussi revolt 1915 or darfur
The idea required quite a few assumptions, logistically Afghanistan couldn't have been much of a threat to British control of the Raj and the amount of respect most of the worlds muslims had for the Caliph appears to have been greatly exaggerated in the minds of planners. The vast majority of those ruled by the British were either indifferent or loyal to their overlords.
Whilst I agree that Afghanistan wouldn't necessarily have been favourites against the British, the Afghans would've likely evoked a major reaction from the British who were keen to protect their treasured Indian colony - thus diverting attention away from other fronts in WWI. It sounds like that's what the Ottomans and Germans hoped for.
@@HikmaHistory There were still sufficient Indian troops in the subcontinent to 'keep order' to defend the northern frontier, the Afghan army wasn't remotely a match for the forces in the Raj in terms of training and equipment. The third assumption that occurred to my mind was that any reaction in favour of the Caliph would be capable of diverting troops in terms of organisation, training or materiel. The British were certainly paranoid about the Jewel in the Imperial Crown, the logistics of a Russian invasion through Afghanistan would have been prohibitive but it was still feared.
@@mrmr446 nobody could ever defeat afghans in battle
@@Lemarocity historically Afghans have been defeated many times
@@mrmr446 never. Afghanistan defeated the british in 3 wars! Afghanistan defeated the Soviet union!
Afghanistan always had a close relationship with Germans and Hitler also loved Afghans because he knew that Afghans are the true Aryans. In fact during World War II Afghanistan was the only country that supported Hitler and Hitler also provided military weapons to Afghanistan.
I think he aslo liked Muslims
Yeah and Iran got jealous and changed it’s name to get close to Germany
Doesn’t mean we Afghans agree or have agreed with his ideas or his doings.
@@ChromeMan04 I don’t know what a hell Afghanistan used to be called Aryana which means the land of brave Aryans.
@@tailsprowerfan2729 Yes he did. However he was extremely intelligent and knew that Afghanistan used to be a buddhist country and also opened the first buddhist monastery in Berlin.
Am I the only one who actually enjoyed Valhalla? The Witcher-like RPG system really beefed up the past three entries in the game. Plus, the use of stealth was always there to pursue. Anyways, that's just me.
Wasn’t Afghanistan back then like how it is now I mean they have the same name now
One shudders at the prospect
I hv a doubt that why didn't Germans approached Qajars of Iran as an ally against the Britis
Ottomans were at odds with Persians for most of their existence. Plus at that point in time, Iran adopted a strategy to play both Russia and British against each other to maintain its minimal sovereignty.
Didn't really have that option, since Persia was largely divided into British and Russian zones of influence. Difficult to even approach them in the first place.
The Ottomans were in an undeclared border war with Persia after 1906 and annexed large parts of Kurdistan, meanwhile the Russians and British also had spheres of influence in the country after 1907, with the Russians occupying most of Persian Azerbaijan and Gilan.
As usual, Muslim leader trusts the British for no reason, bends over backwards for them, and then gets nothing in return.
Also, FYI, the word for Caliph is 'Khalifa', not 'Khalif'
This is just my assumption idk how much true is it......I believe Germans wanted India I think after all India was important colony Full of natural resources so I believe they with the help of Ottoman Empire which in turn Took the help of Afghanistan...This is just an assumption....
I think one of the larger failures of the Ottomans, was their failure to better integrate themselves with Islamic India. They did steadfastly fight the Portuguese for Influence over India. But they never achieved much of a foothold to threaten the British who then came out of Bengal in the east. I'm just thinking of all the massive $$$ of money/trade they missed out on, looking at what Britain got out of India.
@@MarkVrem Yeah that true as well as the Mughal Empire did not strengthen their with Ottomans since Safavid Empire was their key ally... Especially against the Khanate of Bukhara as during Akbar rule the Khanate of Bukhara had backed the Roshaniya movement in In Khyber region which had caused unrest in Mughal Kabul , Kandhar Peshawar and Kohat..
I think your assumptions are justified. From what I've looked into, the Germans wanted to use Afghanistan as a way to support an Indian Nationalist resurrection in the tribal belt of India. That's why they supported the Provisional Government of Free India which based itself in Afghanistan, under the leadership of Mahendra Pratap and Barkatullah Bhopali.
That’s wrong, it was actually an Indian prince that brought the Germans to Afghanistan in hopes of Afghans invading india and freeing it from British rule. During this, Afghanistan gained a new ally in Germany.
At that point for Germany any ally and anybody who could subvert or distract her enemies would do.
Afghanistan pastuns the childeren of Isaac ❤
it would have been interesting if Afghanistan tried to expand into Russian empire or Iran. both collapsed in WW1 and had restive non-Russian or non-Farsi population along remote border with Afghanistan.
Now that's a 'what if' scenario I haven't heard before!
After the Abbasid down fall the title of Caliph was not respectful. As the Fatimids and Al andulus leaders declared themselves Caliphs at the same time. So after that the Ottoman sultan's title of Caliph was more of a self-proclaimed one.
It deffo did have some value in the last decades of the Ottoman empire, nowhere near the same as the Umayyads and early Abbasids but still
This comment sounds like it's from a typical nationalist Arab.
After the Abbasids you had Regional caliphs. The Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and even Moroccan Dynastys all considered themselves the Khalifa of the Muslim world but in reality if was restricted too their own realms.
@@adamheydari that is the problem. Caliph is supposed to br the successor to prophet that means it had to be the leader of all muslims.
they should have went in and taken the tribal areas back
Emir Habibullah Khan
Mahmud Tarzi
Prince Nasrullah (Traditionalist)
Prince Amanullah (Progressive Modernist)
Niedermayer-Hentig expedition
Wilhelm Wassmuss
It's not kabaaal it's kabul.
Khayenin pashton ki bekhatir ghodrat engels russia awordan dakhil afghanistan
Nice pos
So Habibullah refused our Caliphate and was a British puppet…his fate should be a lesson to us Afghans that is to put trust in Gods power not a bloodsucking colonizer. But then again as a Freemason, where Habibullahs loyalty lied was clear. What a snake!
1 murtad son, another muslim, the amir was doing drugs