The challenge here is to create a situation in which Afghanistan, rather than being seen as a high-water mark for massive empires (Macedonian, Soviet, etc.) is better known as a base for starting such conquests.
EDIT: Also the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Saffarids, Samanids, and to a lesser extent, the Tahirids.
They had a good thing going IRL with Durrani Empire.
The challenge here is to create a situation in which Afghanistan, rather than being seen as a high-water mark for massive empires (Macedonian, Soviet, etc.) is better known as a base for starting such conquests.
This. Have a PoD that has people having a better knowledge of history, or a less sensationalist media, and you have a reputation for Afghanistan being a cradle of empires. But that would be ASB, especially the media bit.Well, it was the base for several large empires in OTL, such as the aforementioned Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Indo-Scythian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, and the Mughal Empire (though the Mughals later lost their Afghan territories).
EDIT: Also the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Saffarids, Samanids, and to a lesser extent, the Tahirids.
The problem is it seems Afghanistan was a poor country since ages, and so, the dynasties end up moving into better lands like Persia or India...
Afghanistan has fairly fertile lands in the east and the north which can be easily converted into agricultural land with the use of Qanats.
Yes, but it is not Persia or India.
Well, you see, the problem is that a polity based in Afghanistan will look towards the rather delicious and politically unstable lands of India-perfect for conquest. Once they conquer it, India's culture generally overwhelms the conqueror and they gradually become more Indian, moving their power center towards India.
Well, you see, the problem is that a polity based in Afghanistan will look towards the rather delicious and politically unstable lands of India-perfect for conquest. Once they conquer it, India's culture generally overwhelms the conqueror and they gradually become more Indian, moving their power center towards India.
I have to wonder if that would have happened to Alexander's empire if he kept on conquering.
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In 1709 Mir Wais Hotak no longer recognized Safavid sovereignty, thus establishing the Hotaki Dynasty which ruled over parts of modern Afghanistan with the capital Kandahar. In the following years, Safavid Persia launched campaign after campaign against Kandahar, but failed to take it.
In 1722 Mir Mahmud Shah, successor of Mir Wais Hotak, launched a counterattack, which succeeded in taking the Safavid capital of Isfahan, inj effect ending the Safavid Dynasty. The Hotaki Dynasty held on to Persia until 1729, to Afghanistan until 1738, when they were ousted and the country conquered by Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid Dynasty.
Historical Atlas : Iran Page, Western Central Asia Page, Western Asia Page
List of Wars : Iran
Students' Papers : Kim, Sun Hoo, History of Food and Nutrition in West Asia (2009)
....And the POD maybe suppose AFSHARIDS don't make it....The result maybe a OTTOMAN Persia (or at least a Persia recognizing Ottoman Caliph SUZERAINITY)!