Habibullah Khan, the leader of
Afghanistan who struggled to keep his country neutral in World War I in the face of
strong internal support for Turkey and the Central Powers, is shot and killed
while on a hunting trip on this day in 1919.
Habibullah had succeeded his
father, Abd-ar-Rahman, as amir in 1901 and immediately began to bring much-needed
reforms and modernization to his country, including electricity, automobiles and medicine.
Located between British-held India and Russia, Afghanistan had in the past
clashed repeatedly with its neighbors, including two Afghan Wars against
Anglo-Indian forces in 1838—42 and 1878-79. Many within Afghanistan saw these
conflicts as part of the fundamental and necessary defense of Muslims against
the encroachments of Christians. Though the British and Russian governments
signed a convention in 1907 pledging respect for the territorial integrity of
Afghanistan, many Afghans—including Habibullah—felt insecure between such
powerful neighbors and resented the lack of Afghan representation at the
creation of the convention and the effective control Britain still exercised
over the country's foreign affairs due to its active involvement in the region.
Convinced, however, that the
continued improvement and modernization of Afghanistan depended on economic
assistance from powerful Western countries like Britain, Habibullah maintained
his country's neutrality after the outbreak of World War I, despite pressure
from Turkish and other Islamic leaders urging Afghanistan to enter the war
against the Allies. By maintaining his country's neutrality and Afghanistan's
anti-war policy, Habibullah enraged many of his young anti-British countrymen
who viewed World War I as a holy war. Many Afghans felt particularly strongly
that Habibullah failed to capitalize on the weakness of Russia, which was
overtaken by the Bolsheviks in November 1917, by uniting the Muslim peoples of
Central Asia and liberating them from non-Muslim rule.
Barely a year after Turkey's
defeat at the hands of the Allies and the end of the war in November 1918,
Habibullah's opponents, angry at what they saw as his betrayal of Muslim
interests in favor of pandering to Britain, plotted and carried out his
assassination.
Habibullah had not declared a
successor and after his death, his brother, Nasrullah Khan, held the throne for
six days before being deposed by the Afghan nobility in favor of Habibullah's
third son, Amanullah Khan. Determined to extract Afghanistan completely from
Britain's influence, Amanullah declared war on Great Britain in May 1919,
beginning what became known as the Third Afghan War. The British, preoccupied
by India's burgeoning independence movement, negotiated a peace treaty with
Afghanistan the following August at Rawalpindi, recognizing Afghanistan's
status as a sovereign and independent state.
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/amir-of-afghanistan-is-assassinated
[20.02.2015]
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