Partition

[RAENORTH]

The end of the Second World War had not only left Afghanistan in a weakened state, with its development and modernisation stalled, there were new events to intensify the pressure on the country, most of all the partitioning of India, its independence and the creation of Pakistan. Obviously traumatic for the two nations involved, they had a profound effect on Afghanistan as well. The year before partition, in May 1946, had seen Hasem Khan resign from his post as prime minister, to be replaced by his younger brother Shah Mahmud Khan, in whose hands the management of the nation resided until 1953. It was he who had to deal with what became known as the "Pathanistan Affair" which became a long-running dispute with his new neighbour, Pakistan.

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[Pericles]

Richard,

Your reports at DOTR have facilitated my relatively poor understanding of the Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan

The links are manifold and it's no wonder that current western politicians can have but little knowledge & understanding of the complexities inherent on the NW Frontier. There are hours and hours of reading, but I'd bet even British politicians have no idea of the useful information contained therein. Examples----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_i ... fghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranjit_Singh

[BigD]

Richard

Given that you are trailing a future blog on the US post-war involvement in Afghanistan, particularly Helmand, I take it that you have already seen the material on the Adam Curtis Blog on the bbc site, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... art_3.html , about this, plus work by the US historian, Nick Cullather, including his article "Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State".

[RAENORTH]

Richard

Given that you are trailing a future blog on the US post-war involvement in Afghanistan, particularly Helmand, I take it that you have already seen the material on the Adam Curtis Blog on the bbc site, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... art_3.html , about this, plus work by the US historian, Nick Cullather, including his article "Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State".

Yup! Curtis has based his piece almost entirely on Cullather. I have Cullather's paper and that is going to be the basis of the next piece. I was stunned when I read it.

[therewaslight]

Purple patch of some of your best work - keep it up!

Look forward to the next one. This from the Curtis link

But more problems emerged. Everything became waterlogged which led to weeds. Salt kept on suddenly appearing. And the reservoirs and the canals made the water cooler which meant that there couldn't be any vineyards and orchards any longer. In future they could only grow grain.

But again all the doubts and worries were overwhelmed because the American technocrats and politicians had become fascinated by a new idea. It was called "Modernization Theory". It said that there was a way of using science and technology not just to stop countries like Afghanistan going communist, but to actually transform them into democratic capitalist societies like America.

... analogies with Iran and Egypt, of course.

And then there is the bit about nomads.

Lashkar Gah is interesting to look at in google maps.

[permanentexpat]

I have been busy following the links here and must confess to being astonished at the amount of recent history that has, it being inconvenient, been swept under the table...and so much I didn't know...and so much more to take in for someone whose capacity to learn is being challenged daily by a devastating & hopeless ennui.
But fascinating...& I now have a new understanding of the phrase 'the devil is in the detail'...indeed!

[RAENORTH]

Richard

Given that you are trailing a future blog on the US post-war involvement in Afghanistan, particularly Helmand, I take it that you have already seen the material on the Adam Curtis Blog on the bbc site, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2 ... art_3.html , about this, plus work by the US historian, Nick Cullather, including his article "Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State".

Yup! Curtis has based his piece almost entirely on Cullather. I have Cullather's paper and that is going to be the basis of the next piece. I was stunned when I read it.

I have now read Cullather several times. Much of his earlier narrative did not ring true, so I have been hunting around, looking up original material, finding amongst others, original engineering reports. My instinct was correct, and there is a much more complex and interesting tale to tell.

[BigD]

Richard

Have you seen the 1959 study of 'the Kabul, Kunduz & Helmand Valleys & the National Economy of Afghanistan' (full view on Google Books: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yk0r ... q=&f=false ), which gives an interesting snapshot of the agricultural & development potential & problems of Afghanistan from right in the middle of the US period of 'economic occupation'.

[RAENORTH]

Richard

Have you seen the 1959 study of 'the Kabul, Kunduz & Helmand Valleys & the National Economy of Afghanistan' (full view on Google Books: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yk0r ... q=&f=false ), which gives an interesting snapshot of the agricultural & development potential & problems of Afghanistan from right in the middle of the US period of 'economic occupation'.

Funny you should say that ... yes. Its great value is that it is a contemporary source. It is much more detailed than Cullather and on some details contradict him. However, it is incredibly densely written, so it is taking a lot of time wading through. Little nuggets are fascinating, like there was a migration of 10,000 Tajiks and other into the area in the 1930s.