AHC: Butterfly the nation of Afghanistan

You challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Afghanistan as a country not exist, instead making it apart of Persia or India. What effect would the non-existence have, especially in the After 1900-era.
 
You challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make Afghanistan as a country not exist, instead making it apart of Persia or India. What effect would the non-existence have, especially in the After 1900-era.

No Islam could perhaps accomplish this. Before Islam IRRC Afghanistan was in the middle of the Persian and Indian Cultural spheres. I would also reckon a fair amount of nomadic influence due to the Kushans. Finding a way to get rid of Islam or stop the Islamic conquest of Persia probably results in the area being split between strong Persian and Indian states.

You could also stop the Mongol invasion. With most of Afghanistan's cities not destroyed by the Mongols, Afghanistan would probably be much more culturally Persian then it is today.
 
Easiest way is to get rid of the Afshar dynasty which led to the conquest of Kabul to Iran; that lEaves the Afghans divided.

Divided, there would be no Hotaki rebellion and thus no Abdali conquests.
 
No Islam could perhaps accomplish this. Before Islam IRRC Afghanistan was in the middle of the Persian and Indian Cultural spheres. I would also reckon a fair amount of nomadic influence due to the Kushans. Finding a way to get rid of Islam or stop the Islamic conquest of Persia probably results in the area being split between strong Persian and Indian states.

You could also stop the Mongol invasion. With most of Afghanistan's cities not destroyed by the Mongols, Afghanistan would probably be much more culturally Persian then it is today.

You're going a lot further back than is necessary.

In the year 1700, with the exception of Badakhshan, all of Afghanistan was split between the Mughal Empire and the Safavid Dynasty. Just have the Safavids hold onto their possessions around Herat and the British conquer all of the Mughal lands rather than just OTL India and Pakistan, then you'll end up with no Afghan state.
 
Question: how would things be like from, say, since 1950, if Afghanistan was either completely controlled by Iran and Pakistan, respectively?
 
Question: how would things be like from, say, since 1950, if Afghanistan was either completely controlled by Iran and Pakistan, respectively?

It's hard to say, really. It depends on other factors - are we assuming everything else somehow manages to go the same?
 
What do you mean? What else could a subjugated Afghanistan contribute to history that would change the situation entirely.

Butterflying an entire nation away is bound to have a large impact. For a start, Britain and Russia both had interests in Afghanistan, so if it's subjugated it could lead to one of them taking control of it, perhaps a full scale war between the two. There are endless possibilities, and the further back the POD, the more chance the world will be different.
 
^But with it basically belonging to India at this point, when Britain took over, wouldn't they also be transferred to Britain? So us it likely that Russia would eventually invade from there. Damn, this does have many possibilities... Who would likely win this war, or is it implausible to answer?
 
^But with it basically belonging to India at this point, when Britain took over, wouldn't they also be transferred to Britain? So us it likely that Russia would eventually invade from there. Damn, this does have many possibilities... Who would likely win this war, or is it implausible to answer?
"India" wasn't really a unified state at the time; it's not the like the British came to India and said "okay, all your lands are belong to us." It was a process of nibbling. If Afghanistan developed into several small states within the Indian or Persian "sphere," it's conceivable that some of them might have fallen under Russian influence. OTL the Russians supported Persian efforts to seize Herat, and British fears that Russia might take it to threaten India were the driving force behind the "Great Game."

As to who would win? It would depend on when and how the war took place; neither side could reasonably supply a major army through Afghanistan (the War in Afghanistan has demonstrated that supply lines are terrible even today; imagine what it would be like in the 19th century), which wouldn't necessarily stop them from trying.
 
How about an independent and larger Hazarajat? Or alternatively you could have a Shia Muslim dynasty that takes power in Persia a la Safavids, but coming from among the Pashto-speakers.
 

U.S David

Banned
Have the British take over, and make it part of the British Raj of India. Maybe the Russians take over all of Persia. This could make the British want to protect their Empire.

Come 1947, it becomes part of Pakesthan.
 

U.S David

Banned
I once read a Utopian Timeline, where the Sha of Iran becomes super popular and never falls from power.

Iran becomes the Police an of the Middle East, taking out both Saddam Huessein and later inavding Afghstan and annexed it.
 
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