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28 Assad, 1298-
August 19, 1919
| Afghanistan declares its independence from Great Britain. After a brief conflict, Amanullah Khan gains control of Afghanistan and begins instituting modernizing reforms. Amanollah launched the inconclusive Third Anglo-Afghan War in May 1919. The month-long war gained the Afghans the conduct of their own foreign affairs.
Sensing post-World War I British fatigue, the frailty of British positions along the Afghan border, unrest in British India, and confidence in the consolidation of his power at home, Amanullah, the new ruler of Afghanistan, suddenly attacked the British in May 1919 in two thrusts. Although, Amanullah had written the British viceroy, rejecting British control of his foreign policy and declaring Afghanistan fully independent, the British were taken by surprise. Afghan forces achieved some success in the early days of the war as Pashtun tribesmen from both sides of the border joined forces with them. The military skirmishes soon ended in stalemate as the British recovered from their initial surprise. Although there was a shortage of artillery and machine guns, a division from Peshawar defeated a superior Afghan force in the Khyber Pass and forced them back towards Jellalabad. The main Afghan attack took place in the Tochi-Kurram valley area where the Waziristan Militia deserted to the enemy. Two battalions of Sikhs and Gurkhas and a squadron of cavalry were besieged in Thal by a large Afghan force. In Baluchistan the British stormed the Afghan fortress of Spin Baldak on 27 May. Spin Baldak guarded the road to Kandahar and its capture reduced the chance of an Afghan invasion by that route. The war did not last long, however, because both sides were soon ready to sue for peace; the Afghans were unwilling to sustain continued British air attacks on Kabul and Jalalabad, and the British were unwilling to take on an Afghan land war so soon after the bloodletting of World War I. What the Afghans did not gain in battle they gained ultimately at the negotiating table
By the Treaty of Rawalpindi (8 Aug. 1919, amended 22 Nov. 1921) Britain recognised Afghan independence, assured that British Indian empire would never extend beyond Khyber Pass, and ceased British subsidies to Afghanistan. Afghanistan'a Population during the War 11,000,000 Total Afghan forces 125,000 Total Afghan Dead 1000 Total British/Indain Forces 750,000
British and colonial deaths 1136-2000
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